Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth verified that staffers from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency are working in the Pentagon to uncover waste, fraud and abuse in the government’s largest discretionary budget.
On Wednesday, Mr. Hegseth posted a video on X in response to what he said were misrepresentations in the media over changes in the Defense Department since President Trump returned to the White House.
“The American people gave a mandate to President Trump … to double down on [his] priorities — and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” he said. “The legacy media has, of course, a different agenda. You see the same clickbait headlines that I do. Time after time, the media distorts good news stories or often just gets them flat wrong.”
Mr. Hegseth said he met with the DOGE staffers minutes before he posted the message on X.
“They’re going to have broad access, but obviously with all the safeguards on classification, to find the redundancies and last vestiges in priorities — the DEI, the woke, the climate change B.S. — that are not core to our mission. We’re going to get rid of it all,” he said.
The secretary said the initial DOGE focus on “fat and redundancies” at the headquarters level will allow the Pentagon to reinvest the savings on other projects that align with Mr. Trump’s priorities.
“Finding those efficiencies is how we save taxpayer dollars — a good thing that is being distorted in the media,” Mr. Hegseth said.
He said the Pentagon under Mr. Trump is “refocusing” a budget inherited from the previous administration. The secretary explained that his department would shift about $50 billion that had been earmarked for “woke, Biden-era, nonlethal programs” to those that match Mr. Trump’s agenda. Priorities that won’t be cut include securing the southern border, nuclear modernization, Virginia-class submarines and missile defense, he said.
“The media wants to call these exclusively cuts, but it’s the opposite, of course, as always is the case,” Mr. Hegseth said. “It’s refocusing and reinvesting existing funds into building a force that protects you, the American people.”
The Defense Department, like other federal agencies in the Trump administration, is evaluating its workforce of probationary employees. Mr. Hegseth said the Pentagon is “swiftly and carefully” conducting the review.
“It is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission-critical, to restore accountability within the federal workforce,” he said. “We’re going to be aggressive — up and down the chain — to find the places where we can ensure the best and brightest are promoted based on merit.”
Mr. Hegseth said the president tasked him with “rebuilding the most capable military in the world” when he asked him to lead the Pentagon.
“Doing so does require tough decisions, [and] we are prepared to make them,” he said.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.