Donald Trump is preparing big changes in the Pentagon. According to exclusive information from Reuters, the newly elected president of the USA has instructed his advisers to draw up a list of military officials who are to be fired.
According to sources in the news agency, this list may include the General Staff of the Army. This move is going to be an unprecedented reorganization at the Pentagon.
The stages of Donald Trump’s plan for the Pentagon
Planning for the layoffs is still at an early stage. That is likely to change as Donald Trump’s administration takes shape, the sources told Reuters. As the medium reports, the people who spoke about the changes of the new president are familiar with his transition. A fact which means that they were in corresponding positions in his first term. While they pointed out that they want complete anonymity, to be able to describe what is happening.
In fact, one of the sources questioned the feasibility of mass layoffs at the Pentagon.
It is still unclear whether Donald Trump is willing to support such a plan. However, he has in the past spoken out against defense officials, who have criticized him. While it has succeeded extensively against those responsible for the troubled 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The side of the US president has not commented on this information for now.
“Key” Mark Miley
The second source said the incoming administration would likely focus on US military officials seen as connected to Mark Miley. Mark Milley is Donald Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Although he himself was in a key position in the previous term of the president, some time ago he “attacked” Donald Trump. In particular, Mark Milley in Bob Woodward’s book “War” referred to the newly elected president as “Fascist to the bone».
Supporters of the US president have now targeted the former chairman of the Army General Staff and are “accusing” him of perceived disloyalty to him.
«Every person promoted and appointed by Miley will be gone“, the second source told Reuters. “There is a very detailed list of everything associated with Miley. And they will all disappear“, he explains.
It is worth noting that the Joint Chiefs of Staff includes the top officers of the US military and consists of the heads of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, National Guard, and Space Force.
How important Pete Hegseth’s choice is to the Pentagon
The revelation of Donald Trump’s plans for mass firings of senior military officials comes a day after the selection of a new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. Hegseth is a Fox News commentator, former military veteran, and critic of woke culture. He himself has declared himself willing to “clean up” the pentagon.
“The next president of the United States must fundamentally overhaul the Pentagon’s senior leadership so that we are ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. A lot of people need to be fired,” wrote Pete Hegseth in his book, “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free2024: The War on the Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.
Additionally, it is unclear whether Hegseth’s lack of administrative experience could complicate his Senate survival. At the same time, it is unclear whether a more traditional alternative to the position would have carried out such sweeping layoffs.
Hegseth and Trump are targeting Brown
After Miley, it’s Charles K. Brown’s turn. According to Reuters, Mark Milley’s successor has been targeted by Hegseth and Trump. The new Secretary of Defense asked about the Air Force general if he would have gotten that position if he wasn’t black.
«Was it because of the color of his skin? Or for his abilities? We’ll never know, but we always doubt, which on the face of it seems unfair to Charles K. But since he’s made the “card” of the race, one of the “most important” cards, it doesn’t really matter“, he wrote.
One of two sources who spoke to Reuters with knowledge of Donald Trump’s plan for the Pentagon said Charles K. Brown would be among several officials to leave.
«The chiefs of the General Staff and all deputy chiefs will be dismissed immediately“, the informant explained. Although he noted that this is still an early design.
Can Trump’s Pentagon Design Be Overturned?
Some current and former US officials have played down the possibility of such a major reshuffle. In fact, they justify this belief of theirs, stressing that it would be unnecessary and disruptive in a time of global turmoil with wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The first Reuters source said it would be bureaucratically difficult to fire and replace a wide range of senior US military officials. In doing so, they hint that the design may be “drumrolling” on the part of Donald Trump’s supporters.
On the contrary, the second source explained that the camp of the US president believes that the General Staff of the Army should be shrunk, due to excessive bureaucracy. For this to work, the cuts would have to be made on a certain scale in the US military, adds the same informant. “These people are not irreplaceable. They are very replaceable. And the other issue too is that there is no shortage of people who will undertake these tasks“, he said.
The second source concludes by emphasizing that, “in World War II, we were appointing people very quickly, in their 30s, or people capable of becoming generals. And you know something? We won the war».
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