{"id":5132,"date":"2025-05-06T14:30:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T14:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/06\/hegseth-orders-20-reduction-of-four-star-generals-and-admirals\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T14:30:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T14:30:39","slug":"hegseth-orders-20-reduction-of-four-star-generals-and-admirals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/06\/hegseth-orders-20-reduction-of-four-star-generals-and-admirals\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth orders 20% reduction of four-star generals and admirals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div xmlns:default=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" id=\"article-0\">\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-video embed--type-content_video is-video embed--float-none embed--size-medium is-hero \" data-ads=\"{\" extrawordcount=\"\">\n<div class=\"embed__content-wrapper\">\n<link rel=\"preload\" as=\"image\" 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class=\"lazyload embed__frame\" data-width=\"1920\" data-height=\"1080\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" id=\"hegseth-orders-cuts-at-pentagon-to-focus-spending-on-warfighters--hero\" title=\"Video: Hegseth orders cuts at Pentagon to focus spending on \" warfighters=\"\" data-sort-time=\"1746538281000\" data-update-time=\"1746538281000\"><\/iframe><\/p><\/div>\n<p>          <button class=\"player-overlay__button--icon-close__mobile\" data-target=\"\" aria-label=\"Close sticky player\"><br \/>\n        <svg class=\"player-overlay__button--icon\">\n          <use xlink:href=\"#player-icon-close\"\/>\n        <\/svg><br \/>\n      <\/button><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n                              <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/video\/hegseth-orders-cuts-at-pentagon-to-focus-spending-on-warfighters\/\" class=\"embed__headline-link\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\"><\/p>\n<p>          <span class=\"embed__icon\"><br \/>\n            <svg viewbox=\"0 0 32 32\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n              <use xlink:href=\"#icon-video\"\/>\n            <\/svg><br \/>\n          <\/span><\/p>\n<p>          <span class=\"embed__headline\">Hegseth orders cuts at Pentagon to focus spending on &#8220;warfighters&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>          <span class=\"embed__video-duration\">04:15<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                      <\/a><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<section class=\"content__body\">\n<p>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday ordered a minimum 20% reduction of four-star generals and admirals across the military, he said in a memo addressed to senior Pentagon leadership.<\/p>\n<p>He also ordered at least 20% of general officers in the National Guard and 10% of all flag and general officers to be cut. In the one-page memo, which was <a href=\"https:\/\/media.defense.gov\/2025\/May\/05\/2003704210\/-1\/-1\/1\/MEMORANDUM-DIRECTING-GENERAL-AND-FLAG-OFFICER-REDUCTIONS.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">posted<\/a> on the Defense Department&#8217;s website, Hegseth said that to &#8220;drive innovation and operational excellence, the military must be &#8220;unencumbered by unnecessary bureaucratic layers that hinder their growth and effectiveness,&#8221; and part of achieving this &#8220;is removing redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership by reducing excess general and flag officer positions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth announced the memo in a video on X, vowing, &#8220;We&#8217;re going to shift resources from bloated headquarters elements to our warfighters.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He did not give a timeline for the cuts but said they would be carried out &#8220;expeditiously.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There are currently 38 four-star generals or admirals, as of March 31, 2025, according to Defense Department data. CNN first\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.channel3000.com\/news\/hegseth-orders-pentagon-to-cut-number-of-senior-generals-by-20\/article_c3ff5f1c-ac79-5521-a7a8-8bad6631e1f0.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reported<\/a> Hegseth&#8217;s memo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth has raised questions about the number of top military officers in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We won World War II with seven four-star generals. Today we have 44,&#8221; Hegseth said at a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/video\/951876\/defense-secretary-pete-hegseth-hosts-town-hall-meeting-pentagon-feb-7-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">town hall<\/a> at the Pentagon in February. &#8220;Do all of those directly contribute to warfighting success? Maybe they do \u2014 I don&#8217;t know \u2014 but it&#8217;s worth reviewing to make sure they do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- data-recirc-source=\"queryly\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation \">\n<p><h3 class=\"component__title\">More from CBS News<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>    <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-author\">\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/team\/eleanor-morgan-watson\/\" class=\"content-author__name\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Eleanor  Watson<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-author__bio\">\n<div class=\"content-author__full-information\">\n<p class=\"content-author__text\">Eleanor Watson is a CBS News multi-platform reporter and producer covering the Pentagon.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hegseth orders cuts at Pentagon Hegseth orders cuts at Pentagon to focus spending on &#8220;warfighters&#8221; 04:15 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday ordered a minimum 20% reduction of four-star generals and admirals across the military, he said in a memo addressed to senior Pentagon leadership. He also ordered at least 20% of general officers in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-political-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5134,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5132\/revisions\/5134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gunnewsusa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}