Pete Hegseth

Hegseth Orders 20% Cut in Senior Officer Positions

Hegseth Names Musk, Luckey and Gingrich to Lead Pentagon Warfare Study

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth named Elon Musk, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to help lead Project Meridian, a roughly four-month Pentagon study of technologies for future warfare, from underground battlefields to space. The Pentagon says the effort will focus on identifying and fielding tools, but the appointments have raised conflict-of-interest concerns because Musk and Luckey’s companies hold defense contracts and both are major Republican political donors.

SNL spoofs Amodei arguing with himself before Trump dinner

A Weekend Update sketch mocked Anthropic’s CEO hours before his first private dinner with President Trump, sharpening the fight over pace, Pentagon access, and who sets the rules.

Hegseth doubles target for cuts to general and flag officers

Pete Hegseth will announce a 20 percent cut in general and admiral billets at Quantico, doubling last year’s target to strip headquarters bulk and push authority toward troops.

Hegseth memo orders Pentagon to counter foreign threats to 2026 midterms

Hegseth's Sept. 22 memo orders Cyber Command to deploy advanced intelligence and cyber capabilities to identify, disrupt, and neutralize foreign interference in the 2026 midterms.

Pete Hegseth to cut 20 percent of generals and admirals

Pete Hegseth approved plans to cut general and flag officer positions by up to 20%, with Army, Navy, Air Force and joint groups to finish by January 1, 2027.

US Military Says Four Killed in Caribbean Vessel Strike

The U.S. military struck a vessel in the Caribbean suspected of drug trafficking, killing four people as part of a broader campaign led by President Trump against alleged narco-terrorists, bringing total reported deaths to at least 231 across 69 strikes. While the administration touts the campaign as necessary to curb drug flow, critics and rights groups label the operations extrajudicial killings and note limited publicly available evidence supporting the targets or outcomes, with reports of expansion plans for joint actions in Latin America.

Hegseth Details Pentagon Religious Affairs Office

At Quantico, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth paired plans to cut general and flag officer positions by 20% with attacks on “woke” policies and the media, and announced a new Office of Religious Affairs to strengthen religious support in the military. The initiative comes amid criticism that a newly shortened list of military religious-affiliation codes excludes atheism; the Air Force says the change standardizes records, while critics say it risks sidelining non-Christian service members.

Hegseth cites 300,000 unregistered troops in push for 2026 midterms

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged service members and their families to register and vote in the 2026 midterms, citing an estimate that 300,000 troops were unregistered in 2024 and pointing them to federal absentee-voting options. His appeal drew scrutiny over its political framing and the administration’s efforts to restrict mail voting, with voting-rights advocates warning that changes could jeopardize military and overseas ballots.