Pete Hegseth is slashing a fifth of leadership positions across the Pentagon as his paranoia and deep distrust of leaders who could potentially undermine his own power deepen.
The defense secretary, who never reached a rank higher than major, will announce plans to cut positions reserved for generals and admirals across the armed forces by 20 percent during his State of the Forces address on Wednesday, a Defense Department official told the Daily Beast.
Hegseth’s cuts double the 10 percent reduction in leadership he ordered last year. It also follows his May 2025 order to slash four-star active-duty positions and general officer positions in the National Guard by 20 percent.
The former Fox & Friends Weekend host will order that the latest cuts are completed by Jan. 1, 2027, according to a report from Fox News.
In a September memo, Hegseth directed Pentagon officials to identify general and flag officer positions eligible for a downgrade, Fox News reported. Others will be eliminated along with their positions.
Since the start of Hegseth’s tenure, numerous former and current Pentagon officials have spoken out against the culture of fear that the seemingly insecure Hegseth has created inside the department, clashing with anyone who potentially commands more respect than he does.
All told, Hegseth has already fired or blocked promotions for some 80 of the nation’s top officers—roughly 10 percent of the U.S. military’s highest-ranking officers.
For example, his widely questioned ousting of “once-in-a-generation general” Christopher Donahue stemmed in part from the fact that Donahue was revered, respected, and admired—three attributes that reportedly, don’t exactly describe Hegseth within the halls of the Pentagon.
“I don’t care,” Hegseth told Joe Kasper, his chief of staff, after he handed him a card listing reasons to keep Donahue, according to The New York Times.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, a close friend of JD Vance from Yale Law School, also attempted to orchestrate an intervention from the vice president to keep Donahue. But when Hegseth discovered that Driscoll had set up a meeting between Vance and Donahue, he canceled it, according to the report.
Soon after, Driscoll resigned.
Then there’s Hegseth’s so-called war on wokeness. During his tenure, the secretary has focused much of his enthusiasm on blocking promotions for women and minorities, as well as instituting his own version of MAHA: Making the Armed Forces Hot Again.
At his Wednesday address, for example, Hegseth is casting troops who fit specific “physical standards” to support him in the audience—asking top military brass to nominate service members who exhibit “impeccable grooming and uniform standards” and conform to certain body fat requirements to attend his speech, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The service members selected must pass the Army’s fitness test and meet its waist-to-height ratio requirement, the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper revealed, citing an email sent to Army commanders. Some of the chosen service members will also participate in a workout with Hegseth.
Additionally, Hegseth, who has faced scrutiny over his drinking and alleged affairs during and between his three marriages, has been repeatedly accused of eroding the separation of church and state.
Among other institutional changes, he has launched a monthly Christian worship series at the Pentagon, where he invited his self-described Christian nationalist pastor, Doug Wilson. The pastor, who has supported repealing women’s right to vote and criminalizing homosexuality, delivered a sermon in the Pentagon auditorium.
