Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recent mass firings of top military personnel have left the Pentagon in disarray.
Since being sworn in as Secretary of Defense in January 2025, Hegseth has fired 24 military commanders, generals, or other top personnel, according to The Guardian.
Among those, around 60% were either Black or women, a move that likely reflects Hegseth’s remarks on removing “DEI hires” during a speech in April last year.
“We're removing DEI content, eliminating quotas, ensuring recruitment, retention and promotions are based on performance, not immutable characteristics,” he said. “DEI is dead at DOD.”
The firings began with the termination of General CQ Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in February 2025.
Brown, a distinguished former Air Force commander and four-star general with over 40 years of experience as a fighter pilot, served as the primary point of contact between the armed forces and civilian leadership.
He was replaced by Dan Caine, a three-star general who retired from the military in 2024. He had to be quickly promoted to four-star general prior to his appointment in April 2025 as the new chairman.
Hegseth also fired former Army Chief of Staff General Randy George last month after he reportedly asked to meet with Hegseth to discuss his blocking of promotions for four Black military officers, two men and two women, according to NBC News.
Back in March, Hegseth unilaterally removed the officers’ names from the list, despite lacking the legal authority to do so.
“I believe that the senior leadership of the US military has been substantially damaged,” Paul Eaton, a retired Army major general, told The Guardian.
“You develop a fracture in the cohesion of the people at that level. It is if you haven’t been purged, you wonder if you are next if you say the wrong thing to the man or woman on your left or right that may invoke the wrath of the secretary of defense or the president.”
Eaton further likened the firings to those carried out by Joseph Stalin during World War 2 and said they reflect plans spelled out in Project 2025, a handbook that has closely guided several of the administration’s policies.
The handbook repeatedly calls for the abolition of DEI offices in the military and the ending of government participation in DEI initiatives.
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