Hegseth confirms plan to cut 20% of US top military brass and rails at ‘beardos, weirdos and wimps’

United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has verified intentions to eliminate 20 percent of the military's top brass, including generals and admirals, while delivering a sharp critique of diversity initiatives across the armed forces.

Speaking at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia during a State of the Force presentation, Hegseth outlined the administration's aggressive pivot away from diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. He insisted that the Department of Defense would prioritize operational capability, discipline, readiness, accountability, and training above all else.

In remarks directed at junior service members, the defense chief said the Pentagon is no longer what he termed a woke or weak institution. Outlining his vision for personnel standards, Hegseth declared that the military would accept "no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals," adding that only "warriors" would be welcomed. He further warned that senior officers who resisted civilian leadership or clung to former diversity policies had already been removed from their posts.

Addressing reports regarding widespread operational strain and sagging troop morale, Hegseth dismissed such accounts as false claims and misleading headlines. He highlighted troop retention figures, claiming that armed services personnel were reenlisting at unprecedented rates. To support his argument, he cited personnel assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, noting that approximately 80 percent of the crew opted to stay in service despite a lengthy 286-day deployment connected to the conflict with Iran. The ship's extended deployment had recently drawn public attention following reports of supply shortages and mental health crises, including eight attempted suicides among personnel assigned to the vessel.

Beyond personnel adjustments, the defense secretary unveiled a new Pentagon initiative designed to evaluate the future landscape of warfare. The task force will feature high-profile outside figures, including tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, defense contractor and political donor Palmer Luckey, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich. Luckey's defense firm, Anduril Industries, has secured billions of dollars in government defense agreements over the past year.

Hegseth also announced a strategic shift in the military's higher-education recruiting partnerships, criticizing elite institutions and liberal arts schools as ideological factories. Despite holding degrees from both Harvard and Princeton, Hegseth stated the military would realign its educational pathways toward other schools, including conservative-aligned institutions such as Liberty University and Hillsdale College, alongside Louisiana State University, Mississippi University, and Tuskegee University.