Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s brutal staff cuts at the Pentagon have impacted the departments that would have investigated the fatal strike on a girls’ school in Iran.
President Donald Trump, who has blamed Iran for the bombing, revealed on Monday he was waiting for more information about the strike that killed approximately 168 people, mostly children.
“I just don’t know enough about it,” Trump admitted. “I think it’s something that I was told is under investigation... whatever the report shows I’m willing to live with that.”
However, Hegseth’s gutting of Pentagon oversight offices, which are specialized entities designed to ensure accountability, has suffered from staff cuts of up to 90 percent. That is likely to impact any investigation into the school strike, according to a Politico report.
The offices affected included the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, whose role is to limit risk to civilians. Its 200-strong workforce was slashed by 90 percent.
A team that handles civilian casualties at Central Command, which oversees the Middle East, is now down to a single employee from 10 previously, Politico reports.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for comment.
The oversight offices cannot be completely closed as they are approved by Congress. Hegseth’s extreme staff cuts have severely limited their ability to operate, according to Politico’s sources, which include two current and former officials.
Wes Bryant, the Pentagon’s former chief of staff of civilian harm assessment until last year said it was “so unbelievably unacceptable” that Hegseth could not even confirm whether or not a bomb was dropped near the girls’ school.
“It just points even more to recklessness in this, in the entire planning and execution of this campaign, the fact that they don’t have any idea,” Bryant said.
Speaking on Tuesday, Hegseth continued to tout the Pentagon’s investigation skills, including finding intel on the girls’ school strike, despite the staff cuts under his watch.
“No nation in history has ever attempted in every possible way to avoid civilian casualties,” he said. “Frankly, that’s a point that isn’t appreciated enough. Where things happen that need to be investigated, we will investigate... ”
“We take this very, very seriously and we invest in it early which takes time,” Hegseth added.
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt continued to insist Trump will “accept the conclusion of this investigation” by the Pentagon on the lethal school strike.
“I know there’s been a lot of speculation in the media about who may be responsible for this,” she said, noting they were “not gonna get ahead” of the Pentagon’s investigation.
“The president has a right to share his opinions with the American public, but he has said he’ll accept the conclusion of that investigation.”
It comes as a new report revealed that the Pentagon spent more than $93 billion in September 2025 on various grants and contracts, which was the highest total since 2008.
That included $2 million spent on Alaskan king crab last September alone, and $6.9 million on lobster tail and $1 million on salmon. The Defense Department also spent $15.1 million on ribeye steak and almost $140,000 on doughnuts, according to government watchdog Open the Books.
The spending on luxury food items was part of the Pentagon attempting to use as much of its congressionally allocated as possible before the end of the fiscal year. If they end the year with leftover funds, they risk having their budget reduced the following year.
