Tag Archives: Pentagon

Oliver Darcy reports at Substack: Inside the Pentagon on Thursday afternoon, new chief spokesperson Sean Parnell convened a few dozen journalists for an off-the-record meeting to introduce himself to the press corps. Parnell then asked the room full of assembled journalists whether they were ‘rooting’ for the president to succeed. When he was not given the answer he had hoped …

The Record reports: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week ordered U.S. Cyber Command to stand down from all planning against Russia, including offensive digital actions, according to three people familiar with the matter. While the full scope of Hegseth’s directive to the command remains unclear, it is more evidence of the White House’s efforts to normalize ties with Moscow after …

The Washington Post reports: Openly transgender service members will be disqualified from serving in the U.S. military and will soon be removed from the ranks, according to a Pentagon memo that marks a significant shift from previous Defense Department policy that prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. The memo states that exceptions could be made for transgender service members who …

The Associated Press reports: On Wednesday, the department’s top public affairs official signed and sent out a new memo requiring all the military services to spend countless hours poring over years of website postings, photos, news articles and videos to remove any mentions that “promote diversity, equity and inclusion.” If they can’t do that by March 5, they have been …

Axios reports: Elon Musk singled out a Defense Department official who criticized an Office of Personnel Management email demanding workers account for their work, as he escalates DOGE’s efforts to overhaul the federal government. Musk said on X, “Anyone with the attitude of that Pentagon official needs to look for a new job.” The billionaire DOGE leader was apparently responding …

The New York Times reports: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that he was firing Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first female officer to rise to the Navy’s top job of chief of naval operations, and would be looking for her replacement. Mr. Hegseth said in his statement that he would also replace Gen. James C. Slife, the Air Force’s …

NBC News reports: President Donald Trump on Friday night terminated Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman CQ Brown Jr., the country’s highest-ranking military officer, from his position. Brown, a fighter pilot, was the second Black person to serve as Joint Chiefs chairman after Army Gen. Colin Powell held the role from 1989 to 1993. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called Brown …

CNN reports: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth could soon move to fire more than half a dozen generals and flag officers, according to two sources familiar with the matter, part of an effort to purge the department of senior leaders perceived as either too political or too close to former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The list includes Gen. CQ …

Oscar winner Julianne Moore writes on Instagram: It is a great shock for me to learn that my first book, Freckleface Strawberry, has been banned by the Trump Administration from schools run by the Department of Defense. Freckleface Strawberry is a semi-autobiographical story about a seven year old girl who dislikes her freckles but eventually learns to live with them …

The Washington Post reports: The Maryland National Guard has declined to participate in a parade to honor the life and legacy of abolitionist and Maryland native Frederick Douglass in his birthplace, citing recent Trump administration guidance. The guard sent organizers of the event a memo on Feb. 7 saying that it is unable to provide a flyover, band, military vehicles …

Prominent Christian nationalist Ben Zeisloft writes: The official X page for the United States Army rebuked efforts from a senior Army official who tried to covertly launch a DEI office. Libs of TikTok shared an image of a memo on Friday written by Lieutenant General Joseph Berger about the creation of an “Office of Professional and Organizational Development.” The new …

ABC News reports: The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman collided with a large merchant vessel Wednesday night in the vicinity of Port Said, Egypt, in the Mediterranean Sea. “The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) was involved in a collision with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M at approximately 11:46 p.m. local time, Feb. 12, while operating in …

The Washington Post reports: Dozens of American students at a U.S. military installation in Germany walked out of their middle school on Tuesday as part of protests aimed at an official visit by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, underscoring the scope of disillusionment with the Trump administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The students attend Patch Middle School …

The Military Times reports: The Army and other service branches are abandoning recruiting efforts at a prestigious Black engineering event this week, turning down access to a key pool of highly qualified potential applicants amid President Donald Trump’s purge of diversity initiatives in the military. Until this week, Army Recruiting Command had a long-standing public partnership with the Black Engineer …

The New York Times reports: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that he is renaming Fort Liberty, whose previous name honoring the Confederate general Braxton Bragg was changed in 2023 as part of a wider effort to eliminate military honors bestowed on individuals who rebelled against the Union during the Civil War. The move returns the Army base in North …

Yahoo News reports: The department’s “new Annual Media Rotation Program” will begin on Feb. 14, and will require The New York Times, NBC News, National Public Radio, and Politico to vacate “their physical office space effective” on that date. In their stead, The New York Post, One America News Network, Breitbart News, and HuffPost will move into the vacated office …

The Hill reports: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he has grounded the Army battalion involved in the operation of the Blackhawk helicopter with three soldiers that crashed into a passenger plane with more than 60 people on Wednesday night. Hegseth, in a video released by the Defense Department Thursday morning, said the 12th Aviation Battalion had been conducting an annual …

Via press release from the Pentagon: During a media interview today, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth affirmed the Defense Department’s commitment to working with other federal agencies to bolster security at the southern border. “You saw on Day 1 from [President Donald J. Trump’s] executive orders, the military’s … commitment to protecting the territorial sovereignty of the southern border, which is …

Raw Story reports: A leaked memo from the Defense Intelligence Agency shows personnel were instructed to suspend observances of certain holidays that do not specifically honor white men, including Holocaust Remembrance Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month, according to a document obtained by journalist Ken Klippenstein. “The Agency is working internally and with the department to …

The Washington Post reports: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has decided to remove retired Gen. Mark A. Milley’s security detail, suspend his security clearance, and order an inspector general inquiry into his behavior as the Pentagon’s top officer, senior defense officials said Tuesday, taking extraordinary action against a frequent target of President Donald Trump. Hegseth’s plan, first reported by Fox News, …