Pete Hegseth Tightens Pentagon Control, Purges Generals After Trump Returns To Office

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has tightened his control at the Pentagon, with multiple reports describing a power grab that has left senior military leaders with less room to operate and communicate.

“ByPalestine Chronicle Staff The Washington Postreportedgrowing criticism of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth inside the Trump administration despite his increasingly powerful position within the Pentagon”

Palestine Chronicle

The Daily Beast says Hegseth, “the defense secretary, 45,” has become “emboldened to do as he pleases within the Pentagon” as his willingness to follow President Donald Trump’s bidding has “apparently shielded him from pushback.”

The Daily Beast

The Washington Post, as quoted by the Daily Beast, reports that Hegseth controls “not only the department’s major weapons procurement programs but also keeps a tight rein over each branch’s personnel.”

The Daily Beast adds that “All the power has been taken away from the uniforms and 100 percent gone to the political appointees,” quoting “one unnamed official.”

The Washington Post itself is described by the Daily Beast as saying Hegseth’s approach includes limiting “top generals’ and admirals’ communication with the public.”

The Guardian frames the situation as “just disarray,” describing an “unprecedented wave of firings” compared by some to “Stalin’s purges,” and says Hegseth has fired or forcibly retired “24 generals and senior commanders” since Trump returned to office in January last year.

The Guardian also says Hegseth has made it his mission to remake a military ethos he denounced as “woke,” and that he has fired or retired officers “with no performance-related reason given.”

A central flashpoint described across reports is a dispute over submarine and shipbuilding authority, with Navy Secretary John Phelan portraying Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg as stripping the Navy of control.

The Daily Beast says Phelan’s firing came after he tried to warn lawmakers about Hegseth’s “land grab” within the military, and that Phelan alleged the former Fox News host had usurped the Navy’s authority over submarine and shipbuilding decisions.

The Guardian

The Daily Beast adds that “Quickly, word of Phelan’s insubordination reached Hegseth’s ears,” leading to a plan with Trump to get rid of Phelan, and it reports that Phelan was ousted on “April 22.”

The Palestine Chronicle, describing the same Washington Post reporting, says tensions intensified after Phelan privately complained to lawmakers that Hegseth and Feinberg were “stripping the Navy of authority over submarine and shipbuilding decisions,” and that Phelan described the situation as a “land grab” by Pentagon leadership.

The Palestine Chronicle also repeats the account that “It took literally three minutes for his s—talking to get back to the front office,” quoting a source who said, “They were like, ‘Alright, enough with this guy.’”

The Washington Post is referenced in the Daily Beast as reporting that Phelan sought out lawmakers on Capitol Hill, troubled by what he saw as a “land grab,” and that Hegseth and Feinberg imposed “rigid control” over submarine and shipbuilding decisions.

The Guardian adds a broader pattern by saying the Pentagon’s top brass no longer seemed like a reliable bulwark after an “unprecedented wave of firings,” and it points to the most recent victim as Gen Randy George, the army chief of staff, ousted last month after he refused to obey Hegseth’s instruction to strike four officers from a list of prospective promotions.

Hegseth has defended his personnel moves during congressional testimony, while White House officials have publicly backed him even as criticism grew inside the administration.

“Since Donald Trump’s first term, they have been viewed comfortingly as the “adults in the room,” a last line of defense against the impulsive whims of a president with access to the nuclear codes”

The Guardian

The Palestine Chronicle reports that Hegseth defended the removals during congressional testimony, saying, “I have gotten rid of many general officers in this administration because we need new leadership.”

When lawmakers raised fears that the conflict could become a “quagmire,” the Palestine Chronicle quotes Hegseth rejecting the criticism by saying, “You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies,” and adding, “Shame on you for that statement.”

The Daily Beast reports that White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told the Post that Trump “appreciates all Secretary Hegseth has done to restore a focus on readiness, lethality, and support for our warfighters.”

The Daily Beast also says Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is among those “frustrated” with Hegseth’s moves, and it quotes an unnamed official describing Hegseth creating “headaches” for the White House.

In the Palestine Chronicle’s version, it similarly says “Officials reportedly complained about repeated personal disputes, social media behavior, and what they described as grandiose public claims regarding the Iran war,” and it quotes an administration official saying Hegseth’s behavior created “more headaches for the White House and the Pentagon and distracts away from other things we’re trying to do.”

The Guardian adds that at a Senate armed services committee hearing, Jack Reed asked Hegseth if Trump instructed him to single out Black and female officers, and the Guardian quotes Hegseth’s response: “Of course not,” followed by “Members on this committee and the previous leadership of this department were focused on height, social engineering, race and gender in ways that we think were unhealthy.”

The Guardian describes the internal alarm as driven by an extensive personnel purge and by the demographic and ideological framing of those removals.

It says that since Trump returned to office in January last year, Hegseth has fired or forcibly retired “24 generals and senior commanders,” with the Guardian adding that “About 60% have been Black or female.”

The Guardian

The Guardian links the firings to the administration’s proclaimed onslaught against “DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) hires,” and it says the officers forced out “have had impeccable reputations.”

It recounts that the spate began in February last year with the termination of General CQ Brown as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and that Brown was replaced by Dan Caine, a three-star general who had retired and had to be quickly promoted to earn the fourth military star needed to win Senate confirmation.

The Guardian says prominent among the female officers removed was Lisa Franchetti, an admiral who was “the first woman to be chief of naval operations and the first to sit on the joint chiefs of staff.”

It also describes how Hegseth’s staff purges have been compared by some to “Stalin’s purges,” and it quotes Paul Eaton warning that the goal is “to create ideologically pure armed forces that will be pliant to the president and his secretary of defense and whose oath will be more to a person than to the constitution.”

The Guardian also provides a sense of the Pentagon’s scale by saying “around 2.1m military personnel and 770,000 civilian employees worldwide,” and it says most day-to-day work is overseen by Steve Feinberg.

Across the reports, the stakes are tied both to the Pentagon’s internal stability and to the ongoing war against Iran, with some officials questioning whether Hegseth fully informed Trump about limitations and risks.

“ByPalestine Chronicle Staff The Washington Postreportedgrowing criticism of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth inside the Trump administration despite his increasingly powerful position within the Pentagon”

Palestine Chronicle

The Palestine Chronicle says concerns inside the administration have intensified as the war against Iran drags on longer than originally expected, and it quotes that Trump had initially predicted the conflict would last only four to five weeks.

The Daily Beast

It adds that even some administration officials doubt whether the Iranian government can be defeated without significant additional American casualties, and it says when lawmakers raised fears of a “quagmire,” Hegseth sharply rejected the criticism by saying, “You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies,” and “Shame on you for that statement.”

The Guardian similarly warns that Eaton believes “the senior leadership of the US military has been substantially damaged,” and it says he warned that “You develop a fracture in the” (the quote is cut off in the provided text).

The Daily Beast adds that Hegseth’s position has been secured because he is “confident his job is safe after the firings of three other Cabinet officials,” and it lists those ousted in March and April as Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

It also says Hegseth survived Trump’s ousting of those officials and that one source told the Post it seems Hegseth now “thinks he’s untouchable” and safe from any blowback.

The Daily Beast reports that Hegseth’s decision to fly aboard Apache helicopters with MAGA musician Kid Rock was “widely seen as a dig at Army leadership,” and it says an earlier bid to investigate pilots involved in a flyby at the rocker’s house was quashed at Hegseth’s request.