Talk about shock and awe.

The heads of a number of woke Washington generals and former generals are exploding.

Not only because Donald Trump will become president and commander in chief again.

But also because he has nominated a mere army major to replace a four-star general as secretary of defense.

As everybody should know by now Trump has chosen Pete Hegseth, 44, a Fox News regular host and a combat veteran, author and veteran advocate to succeed Gen. Lloyd Austin as head of the Pentagon.

Hegseth, among other things, will oversee Trump’s promise to rebuild the military, weed out wokeism and woke officers, eliminate DEI, curtail women in combat and increase the number of military volunteers.

Trump said, “Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice. Our military will be great again and America will never back down.”

Hegseth will also see to it that generals stick to what they are supposed to do, and that is to protect the homeland and not play progressive politics and become Washington politicians.

It also gives Trump the opportunity to show up several generals who turned on him after he hired and then fired them during his first term as president.

These would include, among others, Marine Corps Gen. John Kelly, who served as Trump’s chief of staff, Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, Trump’s first secretary of defense, and Army Gen. Mark Milley, Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Mattis, the first to leave, later said Trump was a danger to the country. Kelly, who was next to leave, called Trump a “fascist.” And Milley, not to be outdone, followed by saying that Trump was “a fascist to the core.”

They and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Democrats even compared Trump to Hitler.

Trump in turn called them all dumb.

So, it was rather odd to see Trump as Hitler welcomed at the White House by President Joe Biden a week ago.

One would have thought that if Trump were indeed Hitler one of these soldiers would have done something to stop him and save America.

Hegseth, a Princeton graduate, is an articulate communicator, who served at Guantanamo Bay, and in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan where he also worked as a senior counterinsurgency instructor in Kabul.

He was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge as well as two Bronze Stars.

Outside of the military Hegseth has not held any government positions but was an early America First advocate and a Trump supporter.

He also served as executive director of advocacy groups Concerned Veterans of America and Vets for Freedom.

Unlike the other military leaders, Hegseth is not expected to create policy but to execute the policy of the commander-in-chief. In other words, he will not be calling military intelligence contacts in China behind the president’s back the way Milley used to do.

In addition to the Hegseth nomination Trump, to rein in generals, is considering setting up a “warrior board” that would review three- and four-star military officers with the power to recommend fast-track removal of those deemed unfit for leadership.

Trump previously has called for a purge of generals involved in Biden’s botched, deadly, and humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan, if they have not already retired.

Trump is not the first president to get in a brawl with generals. President Harry Truman did that a long time ago when in 1951 he fired controversial Gen. Douglas MacArthur, a World War II hero, for proposing, against U.S. policy, to invade China during the Korean War.

Sounding like Trump today, Truman said, “I didn’t fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was. But that’s not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.”

Then, addressing a joint session of Congress upon his retirement after a long military career, MacArthur announced that like the old soldier that he was he would now just fade away, which he did.

Instead of fading away, the generals today become lobbyists.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com

Pete Hegseth (AP)