Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired his director of the Joint Staff after only two months in the job, according to sources.
The Pentagon boss flip-flopped on the appointment of Vice Admiral Fred Kacher, whom he had appointed on Dec. 10. He has now sent him back to work with the U.S. Navy, Reuters first reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter.
The director of the Joint Staff is responsible for assisting with overseeing the armed forces and strategic planning. Kacher’s exit comes as the U.S. military conducts a major buildup of its forces in the Middle East, amid escalating tensions with Iran.
At the time of writing, the America’s Navy website had last been updated on Dec. 10, and said Kacher “assumed duties as the Director of the Joint Staff in December 2025.”
In a statement to Reuters, General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, “We are deeply grateful for Vice Adm. Kacher’s dedicated service to the Joint Force and his contributions to the Joint Staff.” A Joint Staff spokesperson added to The Hill that Kacher was “a distinguished and highly experienced surface warfare leader.”
Department of Defense spokesperson Joseph Holstead did not give a reason for his removal. The news agency reported that a spokesperson said he would “return to service” with the Navy after departing the Joint Staff.
Kacher is an experienced career serviceman and surface warfare specialist, first enrolling in the United States Naval Academy in 1990 and having since deployed several times across varying classes of ships and in different fleets.
Prior to his appointment as director for the Joint Staff, he served with the Seventh Fleet, the largest in the U.S. Navy, which is stationed in Japan. The fleet is in a crucial strategic location, in no small part due to its proximity to China and North Korea.
He also served as the commanding officer of the guided-missile destroyer USS Stockdale.
Kacher holds a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and was the 64th Superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy. He authored and co-authored a number of books, including the Newly Commissioned Naval Officer’s Guide.
Hegseth, who has titled himself the “Secretary of War,” served in the Army National Guard beginning in 2002 and joined Fox News as a contributor in 2014. The 45-year-old resigned from military service in 2021 after being removed from his inauguration duties for President Joe Biden.
Kacher’s departure comes amid a period of unrest in the military’s top jobs under Trump. Hegseth fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, last year.
In September, he made the astonishing move of gathering his top generals in one place to deliver an unsettling directive prioritizing a macho version of military service. “If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he said.
Many have been ousted since he took over the office, with the New York Times reporting in November that top staff are often removed “with little explanation.”
The ongoing military staffing shakeups come as the U.S. and Iran are holding talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on Thursday. In a post on X, Ali Shamkhani, a top Iranian advisor to the Supreme Leader, said that an agreement was on the horizon.
“If the main issue of the negotiations is preventing Iran from producing nuclear weapons, this would be in line with the supreme leader’s fatwa (religious edict) and Iran’s defence doctrine, and an immediate agreement is within reach,” he said.
It has been a long-running, bipartisan policy of the U.S. to prevent Tehran from possessing a nuclear weapon, one that has been upheld by the current administration.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Defense for more information.
