Senators give cold shoulder to Hegseth plan to cut admirals, generals

Defense-focused senators are giving a cool reception to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s proposal to cut by 20 percent the number of nation’s admirals and generals.

Several lawmakers said they had not seen the rationale for Hegseth’s argument, while others clearly wanted to talk about other things.

“No, I certainly want to see his rationale in detail, and I don’t have that yet,” Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) said when asked if this was a good move for the U.S. military.

“We are focused [on] what we are doing today,” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) told reporters when asked about the cuts.

When reporters approached Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) for comment Wednesday, the Senate Armed Services Committee chair began singing lyrics from Alfred Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” which is based on Homer’s “Odyssey.”

“There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail; there gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners, souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought with me,” Wicker sang.

Hegseth’s office did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment.

Democrats have, unsurprisingly, been more vocal with their criticisms.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), a former CIA analyst, said Wednesday that by any standard, Hegseth is carrying out a “purge” at the Pentagon.

“And what I’ve been hearing from people inside the department is just how bad morale is. How many folks in uniform, extremely promising people, who are people of color or women just feel like there’s no way they’ll ever get ahead; that they’ll always be perceived as a DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] case, no matter how fantastic a job they do,” Slotkin told reporters.

There were some Republicans offering measured support for the proposal.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), a former Navy radarman and President Trump ally, told The Hill that he hadn’t seen the plan, “but as a general rule, I think most organizations have become top-heavy, and so I think as part of what he’s doing to look and make sure we have the most efficient military, we don’t waste our money.”

Hegseth publicly confirmed the plan during a wide-ranging speech to active-duty officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on Wednesday.

The Defense secretary argued the major shake-up, which will affect senior leadership positions across the Army, Navy and the Air Force, was long overdue.

“Now the media calls that a purge. I call it accountability and long overdue, and frankly, the bare minimum. As usual, what the media levels as an accusation, I wear as an accomplishment,” Hegseth said during his 52-minute address.

“You see, you can’t change a culture with the same people who enabled it. Personnel is policy at every single level,” he said.

Service branches are asked to implement the cuts by Jan. 1 next year, while some positions will be downgraded instead of eliminated.

The personnel changes come a year after Hegseth oversaw a 10 percent reduction of general officers and after already firing or pushing out more than two dozen senior military officers across the service branches since taking over at the Pentagon — changes that have unnerved lawmakers in both parties.

National security Democrats said the Defense secretary’s cuts would further unsettle the military and contribute to degrading the morale inside the Pentagon.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member, told The Hill late Tuesday, before the plans were formally announced, that cuts will “add further disruption and confusion to the military forces, and he offered no framework for his decision. It seemed to be arbitrary, and it’s going to cause harm rather than help [the] military.”

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said late Tuesday he heard about the forthcoming cuts in the news media but has not received a briefing from the Pentagon on it.

“I don’t know what his plan is,” Rounds told The Hill, referring to Hegseth.

Apart from firing or pushing out senior military leaders, Hegseth has also blocked dozens of promotions across the Army, Navy and Air Force, prompting pushback from Democrats, a few Republicans and former Defense officials .

Hegseth’s allies and GOP lawmakers supportive of the Defense secretary said the Pentagon chief does not consider the color of service members’ skin or their gender as a factor and that military leaders serve at the pleasure of the president.

“You see, last year’s speech was not for those generals,” Hegseth said Wednesday, referencing his speech last year at Quantico to top Pentagon brass. “It was for you, the backbone of our force, the current and future leaders on the front lines.”

The staff turmoil at the Pentagon under Hegseth’s leadership is a major concern for some GOP senators , who have lost confidence in him but have conceded that Trump is the one who makes the final call.

“I mean, I think there’s a lot of frustration under the surface, but there’s a big difference between private frustration and public courage,” Slotkin told The Hill when asked if Hegseth is losing support among her Republican colleagues. She pointed to GOP candidates like former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), who have called for the U.S. war against Iran to end.

“The great concern on the Hill is that the secretary is not being upfront with the president, and we all feel very much that the secretary has put the president in a very bad place with Iran,” a senate Republican source told The Hill on Monday.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said Hegseth is going about the officer cuts in a “very draconian” way without coming to Congress, “which he is obligated to do.”

“Second, he is putting political loyalty above merit in reducing the number of officers,” Blumenthal told reporters Wednesday. “So there may be a need to reduce the number of officers, but there’s no evidence that he’s conducted any kind of systematic or intelligent or strategic oversight, either in the number or the specific individuals, beyond just personal discrimination.”

The Connecticut senator said Congress will push back, especially if the Democrats take the majority in the upper chamber.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), an Air Force veteran who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said by cutting the number of posts for generals, Hegseth “gets more sway in choosing who becomes a General – and the longer his influence holds.”

“These service members have dedicated their lives to protecting our nation and we owe it to them to have a SecDef that respects their careers, honors their service and applies their expertise to the challenges facing us today,” Houlahan said Wednesday on social platform X .