WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Pentagon to make $50 billion in budget cuts for fiscal year 2026 to align with President Donald Trump’s priorities for the department.
According to a memo, it calls for military leaders to provide a proposal for eight percent in budget cuts each year for the next five years. Hegseth is also considering firing or removing generals and senior officers as early as this week.
“To achieve our mandate from President Trump, we are guided by his priorities including Securing our borders, building the Iron Dome for America, and ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing,” acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert G. Salesses said in a Wednesday statement. “Accordingly, Secretary Hegseth has directed a review to identify offsets from the Biden Administration’s FY26 budget that could be realigned from low-impact and low-priority Biden-legacy programs to align with President Trump’s America First priorities for our national defense.”
NBC News first reported that a list of potiential candiates to be fired was sent to Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon.
Prior to Trump nominating him to be Defense Secretary, Hegseth previously said “woke” officials needed to be removed from the department.
Any general that was involved — general, admiral, whatever — that was involved in any of the DEI woke shit has got to go,” Hegseth said during an interview with the “Shawn Ryan Show”.
It is unclear if Hegseth will also fire Gen. C.Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is currently making sweeping changes to shrink the federal government. So far, DOGE has been attempting to cut spending, resulting in lay offs for a significant number of workers across the country.
If the budget cuts do take place, it could result in tens of billions of dollars in cuts in the first year, the largest reduction in the Defense Department budget since 2013.
