Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed a 20% cut to general and admiral positions. Senators called it a purge of military leadership.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed Wednesday that the U.S. military will cut 20% of its general and admiral positions, delivering the announcement during a “State of the Force” address to junior officers and enlisted service members at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. The order doubles a 10% reduction Hegseth directed last spring for roughly 800 flag and general officer positions across the services, with the full 20% cut to be completed by Jan. 1, 2027.
Hegseth used the address, his second consecutive year delivering such a speech to junior personnel rather than senior leadership, to announce a series of additional changes, including the creation of a new drone command and an end to tenure protections for civilian faculty at the nation’s military academies. He also touted the Trump administration’s investments in the defense industry and pressed contractors to accelerate weapons production. The speech departs from how Hegseth’s predecessors have traditionally addressed top officers, typically in smaller, more private settings, rather than before large gatherings of junior troops.
Several Democratic senators criticized the move as excessive. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a former Navy combat pilot and NASA astronaut who has previously criticized Hegseth, described the cuts as amounting to a “purge” of the military’s senior ranks that would take years to rebuild. Since taking office, Trump and Hegseth have fired or pushed out more than two dozen military leaders, including the Army’s top uniformed officer. It remains unclear whether cuts from Hegseth’s earlier orders, a 20% reduction specifically to four-star positions and to National Guard general officers, have been fully carried out.
Hegseth has framed the broader effort under the banner “Less Generals, More GIs,” arguing that reducing senior headquarters positions shifts resources and authority toward troops closer to combat operations. He has previously noted that the U.S. maintained just seven four-star generals during World War II, when the military numbered roughly 12 million troops, compared with 44 four-star officers today in a force of about 2.1 million.
This report is based on information from the Associated Press (via Boston Globe and KSAT), Reuters (via Jerusalem Post), Al Jazeera and The Hill.