Pete Hegseth has been a busy man since ditching his role as a weekend talk show host to become the least qualified secretary of defense in U.S. history. Now that the veteran and accused rapist is fully into the swing of his job, he has decided—like many of his colleagues—to lay off a chunk of his workforce.
On Tuesday, a senior official at the Pentagon told reporters that the Department of Defense would be expecting civilian job cuts between 50,000 to 60,000. While the official couldn’t give an exact number, they agreed that it is likely that thousands of military veterans will be among the civilians losing their jobs. As of 2021, almost 46% of the department’s civilian employees are veterans.
Demonstrators rally in support of federal workers outside of the Department of Health and Human Services, Feb. 14, 2025, in Washington.
As for the job cuts at the Pentagon, the way things will go down is part of a three-fold plan. Some of these job losses include those “fork in the road” employees who willingly resigned through Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency buyout offer earlier in 2024.
According to the Associated Press, the Pentagon only allowed a certain number of employees to accept the buyout offer. Some were denied acceptance due to national security reasons or to make sure that too many people in one office didn’t leave. After they leave, these positions will simply be dissolved.
Another way they are seeking to make these massive job cuts includes firing probationary workers. This tactic is already hitting legal barriers through the courts.
As Daily Kos previously reported, two judges ruled last week that Trump’s haphazard firing of probationary employees was illegal and ordered their jobs be offered back. Now the administration is scrambling to make amends to over 24,000 probationary employees, which has not been a smooth process.
The third way the Trump administration is achieving cuts is simply by not filling positions when employees routinely leave.
A source told AP that Hegseth—a man who doesn’t believe germs exist because he “can’t see them”—does not intend for these job cuts to impact national security or military readiness. However, given Hegseth is a man who literally had to promise not to drink in order to get the job, the situation is looking dire.
More so, the Trump administration has already smeared egg all over its orange face since Jan. 20 by firing employees who oversaw the nuclear weapons stockpile. They’ve also had to quickly retrace their steps when they accidentally fired experts who were fighting the ongoing bird flu epidemic in the U.S.
Trump seems to be using his loyal fan base—re: Cabinet members—to carry out his plan to dismantle the U.S. government.
And while some people can see the writing on the wall for why firing tens of thousands of Pentagon workers amid rising global tensions might be a bad idea, all we can do is sit back and wait for them to retrace their steps.
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