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The Defense Department shakeup included President Trump’s firing of Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. (left), weeks after Pete Hegseth (right) became defense secretary.
The U.S. Defense Department functions best with stability—stable funding, programs progressing, known leaders in established roles.
President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have made it their goal to upend the bureaucracy and culture of the top-heavy department. Just more than a month in, they appear to be having some success, as the department is, in many ways, scrambling.
A series of directives from Trump, Hegseth and the Elon Musk-initiated cost-cutting effort, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), are forcing a spending reprioritization at a time when the Pentagon’s budget request should be reaching its final stages. The administration is meanwhile firing thousands of civilian employees and culling the uniformed leadership.
- Funding shifts toward missile defense and border operations
- Hegseth welcomes Musk-led DOGE with open arms
For budgetary planners, the big hit came on Feb. 19 in an after-hours announcement calling for the military services to find about $50 billion in offsets from the Biden administration’s planned fiscal 2026 budget request to shift to other programs that are “aligned with President Trump’s priorities.”
“The Department of Defense is conducting this review to ensure we are making the best use of the taxpayers’ dollars in a way that delivers on President Trump’s defense priorities efficiently and effectively,” Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Salesses said in the statement.
The announcement led to some confusion because initial reports widely pointed to cuts before being clarified as offsets. Additionally, the statement called for 8% of Biden’s planned request, “totaling around $50 billion,” although that amount is actually about 5% of the military budget. This funding will be shifted to such priorities as a missile defense shield and military support of operations on the U.S.-Mexico border. The request also comes as lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been arguing about whether to add $100 billion or $150 billion to the fiscal 2025 appropriations in a reconciliation bill.
At the same time, Musk’s so-called DOGE is pressing the Pentagon to cancel contracts in the name of broad government savings. Hegseth said he welcomes DOGE to the building and expects the group to identify billions of dollars in savings.
The ensuing uncertainty has rippled to major defense industry players, which had expected some shakiness but are surprised at the scale.
“It was a few months ago that we said 2025 was going to be a year of unprecedented change and uncertainty and volatility,” L3Harris Chief Financial Officer Ken Bedingfield said at the Barclays Annual Industrial Select Conference in Miami on Feb. 20. “I think that is playing out as we pick up the paper and read about what’s going on every day. I know it’s a little confusing, but the tailwinds are positive. There’s a lot of politics going on. It’s difficult to follow hour by hour and day by day, but that’s generally how I see 2025 playing out.”
Alongside the DOGE moves, the Pentagon is firing workers en masse to reduce costs and trim bureaucracy. In a Feb. 21 statement, the department said it would fire up to 8% of its total workforce—or more than 61,600 of 770,000 employees, according to a 2023 Government Accountability Office estimate—starting with 5,400 probationary workers.
In a separate announcement on the same day, the Pentagon disclosed a series of high-profile firings, including those of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr.; Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti; and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jim Slife. Trump in a social media post said he was removing Brown—whom he had picked to lead the Air Force during his first term. Pending Senate confirmation, Trump intends to replace Brown with Air Force Lt. Gen. (ret.) Dan Caine, who had served as a three-star general and associate director of military affairs at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Trump said he picked Caine because he was “highly qualified and respected to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff” and noted that Caine had been passed over by then-President Joe Biden. Trump described Caine as “an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience.”
During his career, Caine was also special assistant to the chief of the National Guard Bureau, director of the Pentagon’s special-access program central office and deputy commanding general of U.S. Central Command Special Operations.
The nomination is unique in the history of the chairmanship. According to 10 U.S. Code §152, the president may appoint an officer to the role only if the officer served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, as service chief or as commander of a unified or specific combatant command, although that requirement could be waived “if the president determines such action is necessary in the national interest.”
The firing of Slife comes as Hegseth has ordered the Air Force to pause implementation of a broad restructuring effort, started in 2023, to “reoptimize” for war in the Pacific. A spokesperson for the service stated that the pause should continue until the Senate confirms an Air Force secretary and undersecretary. The plan hinged on changing how the service is organized within the U.S. for procurement and how it deploys its combat units. Slife had pushed much of the plan as vice chief of staff and during his prior role as deputy chief of staff for operations. He had also served as commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, where he oversaw extensive change.
Franchetti was the first woman on the Joint Chiefs and the first female chief of naval operations. In about a year and a half in the role, Franchetti—a surface warfare officer who had commanded carrier strike groups and U.S. Forces Korea—pressed for a navigation plan to increase the service’s ranks, improve ship readiness and increase shipbuilding. The Navy faces a severe backlog in shipbuilding that threatens to divert funding from other priorities, including nuclear modernization and new aviation programs, such as the F/A-XX. Following the firing, Franchetti’s No. 2, Adm. Jim Kilby, became acting chief of naval operations.
During his announcement of the firings, Hegseth said he was requesting new nominations for judge advocates general of the Army, Navy and Air Force. The Pentagon wants to find new top lawyers who would not be “roadblocks,” Hegseth told FOX News on Feb. 23.
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