Hegseth announces 20% cut to generals and admirals in second State of the Force address

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered his second State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Wednesday, confirming plans to cut 20% of generals and admirals and saying a 10% reduction has already been achieved.

Hegseth told hundreds of junior officers and enlisted leaders that the military is no longer the ‘woke department or the weak department.’ He said the only focus in formations should be training, readiness, accountability, discipline, and lethality. ‘The complainers, the ideologues, and the poor performers are no longer in the driver’s seat,’ he said.

Generals ‘who clung to the woke department, or seemed to think civilian control of the military is simply a suggestion, well, they no longer work here,’ Hegseth said. He also blamed past generals and defense secretaries by name for weakening the military, continuing the partisan posture he established at his first address a year earlier.

‘Just warriors’

Hegseth declared: ‘No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors.’ He added that ‘the ideological clowns are out, the patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top.’

Bipartisan alarm over firings

Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued a statement saying Hegseth ‘has ended the careers of dozens of our most accomplished senior officers and refused to explain why.’ Reed called the news alarming and accused the secretary of reckless, partisan actions that have damaged the military. Many of Hegseth’s notable firings were of Black or female officers let go without explanation despite excellent service records, a pattern that has drawn criticism from both sides of the aisle. The Pentagon has not held a news briefing since May, despite maintaining a handpicked press corps more sympathetic to the Trump administration.

Morale claims meet the Lincoln

Hegseth claimed retention and recruitment, including among women and minorities, has risen, and he called the new force ‘color-blind’ and merit-based. He pointed to the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying about 80% of the force onboard was retained. That carrier’s crew was at sea for 286 days and disembarked on 1 September in a Thai resort city. The crew had been scheduled to wrap their deployment in May, but it was extended amid the war on Iran. Eight Navy personnel assigned to the Lincoln attempted suicide during the deployment, a fact that emerged last week.

Hegseth attacked the media for reporting on troop morale and deployment issues, calling such reports false or propaganda. He said a free press is important, but added that ‘partisan activism that intentionally smears the troops and the historic mission that they’re undertaking is fundamentally anti-American.’ He called it ‘treason, actually.’

New partnerships and a ‘future of warfare’

Hegseth announced new partnerships with colleges for an educational pipeline to produce officer candidates, naming Liberty University and Hillsdale College. Other schools include Louisiana State University, Mississippi University, and Tuskegee University. He branded Ivy League universities and liberal arts colleges as ‘DEI-worshipping woke factories.’ Hegseth is a graduate of Harvard and Princeton, both Ivy League members.

Hegseth announced a new Pentagon project on the ‘future of warfare’ involving Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey, and Newt Gingrich. Anduril Industries, Luckey’s company, has received billions in government contracts over the last year. Hegseth also announced new initiatives around autonomous weapons, technological innovation, base construction, and domestic production of essential military supplies. He declared an end to civilian tenured positions at U.S. military academies, with a Pentagon press release saying the move would ensure the institutions remain focused on lethality and readiness. Hegseth pledged to boost the standing of the military’s chaplains and called religious faith the most essential component of the republic.

This was Hegseth’s second State of the Force address, which he said would be an annual event. The U.S. is engaged in a war with Iran, now in its seventh month.