President Donald Trump this weekend announced four appointees for the U.S. Naval Academy’s Board of Visitors, one month after purging six of the board’s previous members and claiming U.S. military academies have been “infiltrated by Woke Leftist Ideologues.”

The president named his former press secretary and “Dancing with the Stars” alum Sean Spicer to the board. Spicer, who is a commander in the Navy Reserve, served as White House Press Secretary for about six months in 2017, facing scrutiny for false statements and a tense relationship with the press corps.

The president also appointed U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician, whom Trump nominated as the U.S. secretary of veterans affairs in 2018. Jackson withdrew a month later after accusations emerged that he kept drank too much and frequently gave away Xanax, Percocet and Ambien on Air Force One. Jackson, whom the Navy demoted from a retired admiral to a retired captain after the allegations, has called the accusations false.

Other appointees include Walt Nauta, a Navy veteran who was federally indicted alongside the president in 2023 for refusing to return hundreds of government documents containing classified information, and U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a former Navy SEAL known for his anti-LGBTQIA+ views.

Trump said on his Truth Social account that the new board members will “ensure continued Greatness for the Academy!”

Members of the board of visitors at the Naval Academy, based in Annapolis, oversee curriculum, instruction and fiscal affairs, among other matters. The board has 15 members, six of them appointed by the president. The president receives an annual written report of the board’s findings and recommendations.

Trump’s four new appointees to the board started as soon as they were announced this weekend. They will be working alongside members appointed by the vice president and Congress, including U.S. Rep. Sarah Elfreth. The Maryland Democrat has previously expressed concern about out the Trump administration’s actions.

She said in a statement that she’s “committed to advancing the needs and best interests of our steadfast midshipmen” and that she serves on the House Armed Services Committee, which has “a long history of bipartisanship and cooperation.”

Trump has not yet announced his picks for the three other U.S. military academies, where he also fired board members last month.

Trump’s dismissal of the previous board members is not unusual.

In 2021, President Joe Biden fired board members appointed by Trump in the final months of his first term. That included Spicer.

Trump has exercised his influence on the Naval Academy more than once in the two months since he’s taken office.

Following an executive order the president signed in January, faculty at the Naval Academy last month were directed to no longer use materials in the classroom that teach about “divisive concepts” such as systemic racism and sexism, environmental justice or gender identity.

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