Tag Archives: Pentagon

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration has sidelined a senior Defense Department spokesman, defense officials said Thursday, ending a brief and tumultuous tenure in which he clashed with colleagues and journalists who cover the Pentagon, and aggressively defended the agency’s purge of government-produced content recognizing the contributions of minorities in the military. John Ullyot’s removal followed an uproar Wednesday …

Axios reports: A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to ban transgender people from serving in the military. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to appeal. “The Military Ban is soaked in animus and dripping with pretext,” wrote U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in a scathing ruling that found the restrictions that were due to take effect …

CNN reports: Articles about the Holocaust, September 11, cancer awareness, sexual assault and suicide prevention are among the tens of thousands either removed or flagged for removal from Pentagon websites as the department has scrambled to comply with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s order to scrub “diversity” content from all its platforms. A database obtained by CNN shows that more …

NBC News reports: The military story of Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball after serving as a 2nd lieutenant in the Army, no longer exists on the Department of Defense’s website as part of the Trump administration’s wiping out of diversity, equity and inclusion within the federal government. Robinson trained as an officer and was …

Axios reports: Articles about the renowned Native American Code Talkers have disappeared from some military websites, with several broken URLs now labeled “DEI.” From 1942 to 1945, the Navajo Code Talkers were instrumental in every major Marine Corps operation in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Axios identified at least 10 articles mentioning the Code Talkers that had disappeared …

The New York Times reports: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the shuttering of the Office of Net Assessment, a small, often secretive and sometimes opaque office that for more than 50 years has helped the Pentagon’s most senior leaders think about the future of war. The office costs about $10 million to $20 million a year — a fraction of …

Reuters reports: The White House has quietly directed the FBI to halt the background check process for dozens of President Donald Trump’s top staffers, and has transferred the process to the Pentagon, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The directive came last month after agents tasked with completing the background investigations had conducted interviews with a handful of …

NBC News reports: The White House has directed the U.S. military to draw up options for increasing the American troop presence in Panama to achieve President Trump’s goal of “reclaiming” the Panama Canal, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the planning. During a joint address to Congress last week, Trump said, “to further enhance our national security, my administration …

The Guardian reports: The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is expected in the coming weeks to start a sweeping overhaul of the judge advocate general’s corps as part of an effort to make the US military less restricted by the laws of armed conflict, according to two people familiar with the matter. The changes are poised to have implications across …

The Kyiv Independent reports: The United States has notified its allies that it does not plan to participate in military exercises held in Europe beyond those already scheduled in 2025, Swedish media outlet Expressen reported on March 7. Sources told Expressen that this will affect several exercises currently in the “drawing board” phase that will be held in Sweden. Since …

NBC News reports: Changes this year to Tricare, the military’s health care program, have brought cascading disruptions to millions of service members, their families and network providers nationwide. About 16,000 health care providers on the East Coast alone have not been paid for months, forcing many to drop Tricare patients, reduce their hours or consider closing their clinics. On the …

The Associated Press reports: References to a World War II Medal of Honor recipient, the Enola Gay aircraft that dropped an atomic bomb on Japan and the first women to pass Marine infantry training are among the tens of thousands of photos and online posts marked for deletion as the Defense Department works to purge diversity, equity and inclusion content, …

ProPublica reports: Earlier this year, the Air Force revealed that the general who oversaw its lobbying before Congress had inappropriate romantic relationships with five women, including three who worked on Capitol Hill. Maj. Gen. Christopher Finerty’s colleagues told investigators the relationships were “highly inappropriate” as they could give the Air Force undue influence in Congress. “I honestly felt sick to …

Politico Europe reports: French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot voiced his confusion over reports that the United States’ Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a halt of offensive cyber operations against Russia. “I have a bit of trouble understanding [Hegseth’s decision],” Barrot told public radio France Inter Monday. The French minister said European Union countries “are constantly the targets” of …

The Washington Post reports: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered an additional 2,500 to 3,000 active-duty troops to the southern U.S. border, including soldiers from a motorized brigade equipped with 20-ton armored Stryker combat vehicles, defense officials familiar with the effort said. The Pentagon announced the deployment, first reported by The Washington Post, in a statement Saturday afternoon. Hegseth has …

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 …