A third high-level Pentagon staffer has been placed on administrative leave in two days as part of a probe into media leaks.
Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Secretary Stephen Feinberg, was escorted out of the building on Wednesday, following Dan Caldwell, senior advisor to Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Darin Selnick, deputy chief of staff to Hegseth.
"We can confirm that Mr. Carroll has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation. We have nothing additional to provide at this time," a defense official told Fox News Digital.
Carroll did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Pentagon has not provided specifics about what the three officials are accused of leaking.
Last month Defense Department (DOD) announced it would launch a probe into "recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information" and might employ the use of polygraphs to determine the source of the leaks.
"The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy," DOD Chief of Staff Joe Kasper wrote in a memo. "This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense."
He wrote that "information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure" would be referred for criminal prosecution.
The Trump administration has sacked a senior NATO official who was recommended by a conservative research group to be fired as part of a broader effort to purge wokeness from the Pentagon.
Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO’s military committee, was dismissed from the alliance over the weekend without explanation, according to multiple reports. She is one of only a handful of female Navy three-star officers and was the first woman to lead the Naval War College, a job she held until 2023.
Chatfield reportedly got a call from Adm. Christopher Grady, the acting chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was told the administration wanted to go in a different direction with the job, according to the Associated Press, citing officials. The officials said they believe the decision was made last week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, but it was unclear whether he received any direction from President Donald Trump. Reuters was first to report on her termination.
It was unclear if her firing was related to any U.S. policy direction on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Trump and Hegseth have been vocal in their insistence that so-called woke policies are dead and have vigorously sought to remove leaders who promoted diversity, equity and inclusion and to erase DEI programs and online content. The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, is ditching almost 400 books from its library with DEI content.
In December, the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), a conservative research group, sent a letter to Hegseth with a list of 20 general officers or senior admirals whom it said were excessively focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and other similar left-wing initiatives. AAF wrote that focusing on such policies is an impediment to national security and Chatfield was one of eight women who made the list.
Chatfield made the list due in part to a 2015 speech where she bemoaned that lawmakers in the House of Representatives at the time were 80% males, proclaiming that "our diversity is our strength." The group said she also quoted a slide from a presentation by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute highlighting "Investing in gender equality and women's empowerment can unlock human potential on a transformational scale."
Chatfield, a Navy helicopter pilot who also commanded a joint reconstruction team in Afghanistan, had been serving as one of the 32 representatives on NATO’s military committee. The panel is the primary source of military advice to the North Atlantic Council and NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group, according to NATO. It serves as the link between the political decision-makers and NATO’s military structure.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said that he was "deeply disturbed" by her sacking while blasting President Donald Trump.
"Trump’s relentless attacks on our alliances and his careless dismissal of decorated military officials make us less safe and weaken our position across the world," Warner wrote on X.
Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also sounded off on the president for the firing of Chatfield, describing it as "disgraceful."
Admiral Chatfield is among the finest military officers our nation has to offer, and she has distinguished herself as the U.S. Military Representative to NATO. Her 38-year career as a Navy pilot, foreign policy expert, and preeminent military educator—including as President of the Naval War College—will leave a lasting legacy on the Navy and throughout the military. Admiral Chatfield’s record of selfless service is unblemished by President Trump’s behavior.
Reed also called out Republicans for not voicing their displeasure at her sacking, noting that Trump has fired 10 generals and admirals since taking office. It follows Thursday's removal of General Timothy Haugh, the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command.
For the Navy, it follows the firing of its top officer, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to become Chief of Naval Operations.
"I cannot fathom how anyone could stand silently by while the President causes great harm to our military and our nation," Reed said.
"I will continue to call out this unconscionable behavior and sound the alarm about the dangers of firing military officers as a political loyalty test. I urge my Republican colleagues to join me in demanding an explanation from President Trump and Secretary Hegseth."
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Senate voted Monday to invoke cloture on Elbridge Colby’s nomination, moving the national security strategist one step closer to confirmation as undersecretary of defense for policy, the Pentagon’s No. 3 post.
The procedural vote, which limits debate and tees up a final confirmation vote, passed by a margin of 53 to 49. Colby’s nomination advanced out of the Armed Services Committee last month, overcoming skepticism from hawkish Republicans like Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., during a closed-door vote.
Colby, a co-founder of the Marathon Initiative and a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development under the Trump administration, is best known for his role in authoring the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which reoriented long-term military strategy toward a great power competition with China.
He has long argued the U.S. military needs to limit its resources in the Middle East in a pivot to the Indo-Pacific region.
Colby has scored staunch backing from a number of figures in Trump world, increasing the pressure on GOP skeptics to get on board with his nomination.
Vice President J.D. Vance paid a visit to Capitol Hill last month to offer support for his "friend" Colby.
"In so many ways, Bridge predicted what we would be talking about four years down the road, five years down the road, 10 years down the road. He saw around corners that very few other people were seeing around," Vance said at the time.
"If you look at his long career in defense policy, he has said things that, you know, frankly, alienated Democrats and Republicans. He's also said things that I think both Democrats and Republicans would agree with."
During the hearing, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., questioned Colby on his previously stated position, "America has a strong interest in defending Taiwan, but Americans can survive without it."
"Your views on Taiwan’s importance to the United States seems to have softened considerably," Wicker told Colby.
Colby disputed that point, arguing he had been sounding the alarm that the U.S.’ "military balance has declined" in relation to China.
"What I have been trying to shoot a signal flare over is that it is vital for us to focus and enable our own forces for an effective and reasonable defense of Taiwan and for the Taiwanese, as well as the Japanese, to do more," said Colby.
When pressed by Cotton during the hearing, Colby said he believes Iran to be an "existential" threat to the U.S.
"Yes, a nuclear-armed Iran – especially, Senator, given that … we know they’ve worked on ICBM-range capabilities and other capabilities that would pose an existential danger to the United States," Colby said.
He promised to provide "credible good military options" to the president if diplomacy with Iran fails.
It was a different tune than he’d sung in years past.
"The only thing worse than the prospect of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons would be consequences of using force to try to stop them," Colby had said in 2012.
"I would say a lot of what I was arguing against at the time, these conversations 15 years ago, a lot of the opponents I felt had a casual or in some cases even flippant attitude towards the employment of military force," Colby said. "That’s a lot of what I was arguing against. Was my wording always appropriate, was my precise framing always appropriate? No."
President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the U.S.’s top military officer is set to take the hot seat before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.
Lt. Gen. Daniel "Razin" Caine was plucked to replace Gen. C.Q. Brown, who Trump relieved of his role as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff last month. It will be Caine’s first highly publicized remarks since the shakeup. After testifying before the committee, he will have to pass a committee vote and then a full Senate vote.
If confirmed, Caine would serve as a go-to adviser for both Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Caine first caught the eye of the president years ago, when he was among a group of military leaders who met with Trump in December 2018 at the Al Asad Airbase in Iraq.
Trump was visiting to deliver a Christmas message and hear from commanders on the ground. There, Caine told Trump they could defeat ISIS quickly with a surge of resources and a lifting of restrictions on engagement – a different message than the president was getting back in Washington.
"We’re only hitting them from a temporary base in Syria," Trump said Caine told him. "But if you gave us permission, we could hit them from the back, from the side, from all over – from the base that you’re right on, right now, sir. They won’t know what the hell hit them."
Trump had plucked the retired Air Force general from relative obscurity after accusing Brown of pushing a "woke" agenda at the Pentagon. Brown had been behind a 2022 memo laying out diversity goals for the Air Force.
Caine does not meet the position's prerequisites, such as being a combatant commander or service chief, and will require a waiver to be confirmed to the position.
Caine’s reputation as an aggressive fighter pilot earned him the nickname "Razin Caine."
Caine, who flew F-16s, also spent time as the top military liaison to the CIA, an Air National Guard officer and regional airline founder in Texas. He was a White House fellow at the Agriculture Department and a counterterrorism specialist on the White House’s Homeland Security Council.
From 2018-19, he was the deputy commander of Special Operations Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, which has been fighting the Islamic State since 2014. Little is publicly known about his role in that operation. The role of airstrikes, however, grew during that time, including clandestine ones, and Trump designated airstrike approval to commanders rather than the White House.
Critics viewed Caine as an unconventional pick who lacked the experience for the job – he had already retired from the military and held the rank of three-star general, not four.
If confirmed, he would be tasked with providing the president with military advice at a time when Trump has toyed with bombing Iran and the Pentagon is shoring up its capabilities to ensure America is capable of winning a hypothetical war with China.
The Pentagon is also in the midst of a major modernization push to integrate AI across its systems and will soon take up the monumental task of putting a "Golden Dome" over the U.S. homeland. It is currently trying to whittle down its civilian workforce by more than 50,000 people and identify waste in the agency with the largest budget.
The Trump administration was warned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Thursday to not act against transgender military members while a federal judge’s order to block a ban on them was being appealed.
The Department of Defense (DOD) led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, filed a notice to appeal Washington, D.C.-based U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes’ denial of their motion to dissolve her order that prevents the military from denying transgender people the ability to enlist in the military on Wednesday.
The Biden-appointed judge presided over a hearing on March 21, when she requested the DOD delay its original deadline to enact the policy on March 26.
On March 21, the defendants in the suit, who include President Donald Trump and Hegseth, filed a motion to dissolve the injunction blocking the Pentagon's ban. The filing argued that the policy is not an overarching ban but instead "turns on gender dysphoria – a medical condition – and does not discriminate against trans-identifying persons as a class."
The Trump administration further requested that, if the motion to dissolve is denied, the court should stay the preliminary injunction pending appeal.
Reyes denied the motion to dissolve, and the Trump administration filed an appeal.
On Thursday, the D.C. Circuit said the purpose of the administrative stay is to give the court enough opportunity to consider the emergency motion for stay while under appeal.
The court added that the stay should not be construed as a ruling on the merits of the motion.
"If any action occurs that negatively impacts service members under the Hegseth Policy and [Military Department Identification (MDI) Guidance] before the court lifts the administrative stay, the plaintiffs may file a motion to lift the administrative stay, and the court will consider it expeditiously," the court wrote.
It added that appellees have until noon on April 1 to file a response.
The government cited new guidance issued March 21 that it expected to enact the policy if not for the ongoing litigation. The guidance clarified that "the phrase ‘exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria’" solely applies to "individuals who exhibit such symptoms as would be sufficient to constitute a diagnosis."
Reyes said she wanted to allow more time for the appeals process. She also said she had previously allowed plenty of time to appeal her earlier opinion blocking the ban from going into effect.
On Saturday, Hegseth said Reyes should report to military bases since she is "now a top military planner."
"Since 'Judge' Reyes is now a top military planner, she/they can report to Fort Benning at 0600 to instruct our Army Rangers on how to execute High Value Target Raids…after that, Commander Reyes can dispatch to Fort Bragg to train our Green Berets on counterinsurgency warfare," Hegseth wrote on X.
On Wednesday, Reyes acknowledged that Military Department Identification Guidance (MIDI Guidance) is new, but the argument presented by the defense is not.
"Defendants re-emphasize their ‘consistent position that the [Hegseth] Policy is concerned with the military readiness, deployability, and costs associated with a medical condition,’" the judge wrote. "Regulating gender dysphoria is no different than regulating bipolar disorder, eating disorders, or suicidality. The Military Ban regulates a medical condition, they insist, not people. And therein lies the problem.
"Gender dysphoria is not like other medical conditions, something Defendants well know," Reyes continued. "It affects only one group of people: all persons with gender dysphoria are transgender and only transgender persons experience gender dysphoria."
Fox News Digital's Haley Chi-Sing contributed to this report.
Reporters are claiming to have found private contact information online for top Trump administration officials at the center of a Signal text chain leak disclosing U.S. plans to attack Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
Germany’s Der Spiegel said national security advisor Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth are among those affected.
The outlet reported that phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the officials were found on the internet by its staff after they "used commercial people search engines along with hacked customer data that has been published on the web."
"Most of these numbers and email addresses are apparently still in use, with some of them linked to profiles on social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn. They were used to create Dropbox accounts and profiles in apps that track running data," Der Spiegel reported. "There are also WhatsApp profiles for the respective phone numbers and even Signal accounts in some cases."
Der Spiegel reported that its staff also found private Google accounts linked to Gabbard in use as recently as two weeks ago.
A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told Fox News Digital on Thursday that "this occurred almost 10 years ago, and the platforms mentioned haven’t been used in years and the passwords have changed multiple times."
White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly also told Fox News Digital, "Passwords and accounts associated with the reported leaks are nearly a decade old, and passwords have long been changed."
The Department of Defense did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on Thursday.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doubled down Wednesday that no war plans or classified information were shared during a Signal group chat of Trump administration officials about possible strikes on Houthi targets, which was mistakenly shared with a journalist.
The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, published a story this week detailing the group chat messages, prompting pushback from the administration and calls from Democrats for Hegseth and other defense officials to resign.
"Nobody's texting war plans," Hegseth said Wednesday before boarding a plane in Hawaii. "I noticed this morning out came something that doesn't look like war plans. And as a matter of fact, they even changed the title to attack plans because they know it's not war plans."
"There's no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information," he added, saying no sensitive information was divulged in the chat.
Hegseth said he was keeping President Donald Trump's national security team informed in real time.
"My job, as I said, on top of that, everybody's seen it now," Hegseth said. "[The] team update is to provide updates in real time - general updates in real time. Keep everybody informed. That's what I did. That's my job."
Goldberg said he received a request to join the group chat on the encrypted messaging service Signal on March 11 from what appeared to be National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. Goldberg released screenshots of some of the message exchanges he observed.
He reported that officials were discussing "war plans" but didn't publish some of the highly sensitive information he saw, including precise information about weapons packages, targets and timing, due to potential threats to national security and military operations.
Earlier in the day, Hegseth scolded Goldberg in a post on X, who he said has never "seen a war plan."
"So, let’s me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called "war plans" and those "plans" include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information," he wrote. "Those are some really sh---y war plans."
"This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an "attack plan" (as he now calls it). Not even close," he added.
Fox News Digital's Landon Mion contributed to this report.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe blasted a California Democrat Wednesday for asking him "whether Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had been drinking before he leaked classified information" in a Signal chat group, calling his words an "offensive line of questioning."
Rep. Jimmy Gomez sparked the testy exchange during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats, where Ratcliffe appeared alongside Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and other top Trump administration officials.
"The main person who was involved in this thread that a lot of people want to talk to is, Secretary of Defense Hegseth. And a lot of questions were brought up regarding his drinking habits in his confirmation hearing. To your knowledge, do you know whether Pete Hegseth had been drinking before he leaked classified information?" Gomez asked Gabbard, to which she responded, "I don't have any knowledge of Secretary Hegseth’s personal habits."
When Gomez then asked Ratcliffe the same question, telling him it was either a "yes or no" answer, Ratcliffe fired back, saying "You know, no. I'm going to answer that. I think that's an offensive line of questioning."
"The answer is no. I find it interesting..." Ratcliffe continued before Gomez began shouting "Hey, I yield back, this is my time, director! Director!"
"You asked me a question, do you want an answer?" Ratcliffe said. "You don't want to focus on the good work that the CIA is doing, that the intelligence community..."
"Director, I reclaim my time. Director, I reclaim my time," Gomez then said. "I have huge respect for the CIA, huge respect for men and women in uniform. But this was a question that's on the top of the minds of every American, right?"
"He stood in front of a podium in Europe holding a drink," Gomez then claimed.
"Was his performance compromised because of a successful strike?... you think he should accept responsibility for a successful strike to make Americans safer?" Ratcliffe started saying as Gomez again interrupted him in an attempt to get the situation under control.
Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., followed Gomez’s questioning and allowed Ratcliffe to speak without interruption.
"I appreciate that, Congressman. I guess, you know, just a general reflection here again, that, for the last two days, members of the intelligence community have been asking questions about a Signal messaging group and not asking questions -- from Democrats either in the Senate or the House -- on China, Russia, Iran and the real threats, that are going on the United States," the CIA director said.
"No one's asked me about my second day on the job here, where I lit the fuse that led to a foreign government participating with us to capture one of the senior planners of the Abbey gate bombing that killed 13 Americans," he added, "But instead, we're getting questions about whether or not someone has drinking habits."
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the Signal chat texts published by The Atlantic Wednesday revealing the so-called "attack plans" targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels prove he "did not transmit classified information."
Ratcliffe, speaking during a House Intelligence Committee hearing on worldwide threats, told lawmakers "With regard to that article, I also would appreciate the opportunity to relay the fact that yesterday I spent four hours answering questions from senators as a result of that article that were intimating that I transmitted classified information because there were hidden messages."
"Those messages were revealed today and revealed that I did not transmit classified information, and that the reporter who I don't know, I think intentionally intended it to indicate that," Ratcliffe continued. "That reporter also indicated that I had released the name of an undercover CIA operative in that Signal chat. In fact, I had released the name of my chief of staff who was not operating undercover. That was deliberately false and misleading."
"I used an appropriate channel to communicate sensitive information. It was permissible to do so. I didn't transfer any classified information. And at the end of the day, what is most important is that the mission was a remarkable success is what everyone should be focused on here, because that's what did happen, not what possibly could have happened," he also said.
In messages published Wednesday, The Atlantic quoted Hegseth as saying in the Signal group text chat "TEAM UPDATE: TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch. 1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package). 1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)," Hegseth apparently wrote in a screenshot of a text message released Wednesday by The Atlantic.
"1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package). 1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier ‘Trigger Based’ targets). 1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched," Hegseth reportedly continued, before adding "we are currently clean on OPSEC [operational security]" and "Godspeed to our Warriors."
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard vowed during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday that there was "no classified material" in the messages.
"My answer yesterday was based on my recollection, or the lack thereof on the details that were posted there. What was shared today reflects the fact that I was not directly involved with that part of the signal chat and replied at the end, reflecting the effects, the very brief effects that the national security advisor had shared," Gabbard said Wednesday when asked about the matter.
"So it's your testimony that less than two weeks ago, you were on a Signal chat that had all of this information about F-18s and MQ-9 Reapers and targets on strike. And you, in that two-week period, simply forgot that that was there. That's your testimony?" Ranking Member Jim Himes, D-Conn., asked her.
"My testimony is I did not recall the exact details of what was included there," Gabbard said.
"That was not your testimony," Himes responded. "Your testimony was that you were not aware of anything related to weapons, packages, targets and timing."
"As the testimony yesterday continued on, there were further questions, related to that, where I acknowledged that there was conversation about weapons," Gabbard said. "And, I don't remember the exact wording that I used, but I did not recall the specific details that were included."
At one point in Wednesday’s Senate hearing, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said there were "operational details" in the Signal messages.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., also joined other Congressional Democrats calling for the resignation of Secretary of State Pete Hegseth over the leak.
"There can be no fixes. There can be no corrections until there is accountability. And I'm calling on the administration to move forward with accountability," Crow said.
The Atlantic published Wednesday what it described as the "attack plans" at the center of a Signal text chain leak involving senior officials in the Trump administration.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz have faced calls to resign following revelations that the outlet's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to a private group chat earlier this month in which Hegseth, Waltz, Vice President JD Vance and other top administration officials reportedly discussed impending airstrikes on Yemen's Houthi rebels. Hegseth has said "nobody was texting war plans."
"TEAM UPDATE:TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch. 1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package). 1345: ‘Trigger Based’ F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)," Hegseth apparently wrote in a screenshot of a text message released Wednesday by The Atlantic.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich responded to the report on Wednesday by saying "The Atlantic has already abandoned their bulls--- ‘war plans’ narrative, and in releasing the full chat , they concede they LIED to perpetuate yet ANOTHER hoax on the American people. What scumbags!"
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is now the highest-ranking Democrat to call for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to resign over the Signal text chain leak, writing a letter to President Donald Trump demanding that he be "fired immediately."
"Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in American history. His continued presence in the top position of leadership at the Pentagon threatens the nation’s security and puts our brave men and women in uniform throughout the world in danger," the Democrat from New York said.
"The so-called Secretary of Defense recklessly and casually disclosed highly sensitive war plans -- including the timing of a pending attack, possible strike targets and the weapons to be used --during an unclassified national security group chat that inexplicably included a reporter. His behavior shocks the conscience, risked American lives and likely violated the law," Jeffries continued.
"Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth should be fired immediately," he added.
Hegseth on Tuesday fended off a reporter’s questions about the leaked Signal chat group allegedly involving Trump administration officials discussing forthcoming strikes on the Houthis in Yemen. The strikes then happened on March 15.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, said officials were discussing "war plans," but he decided not to publish some of the highly sensitive information he saw, including precise information about weapons packages, targets and timing, due to potential threats to national security and military operations.
The secretary repeated his claims that "nobody was texting war plans," pushing back on Goldberg's assertion.
"As I also stated yesterday, nobody’s texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that," Hegseth said.
"I know exactly what I’m doing, exactly what we’re directing, and I’m really proud of what we accomplished, the successful missions that night and going forward," he also said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said wasteful spending is over as he signed a memo to cancel over $580 million in Department of Defense (DoD) contracts.
"We're back with another quick update on our efforts to cut wasteful spending and cut it quickly at the Department of Defense," Hegseth announced in a post on X.
"Today, I'm signing a memo directing the termination of over $580 million in DoD contracts, in grants that do not match the priorities of this president or this department. In other words, they are not a good use of taxpayer dollars."
Hegseth said that they owe Americans transparency, sharing details on some of the contracts and grants that have been canceled.
"There's an HR software effort that was supposed to take a year and cost $36 million, but instead it's taken eight years and is currently $280 million over budget, not delivering what it was supposed to. So that's 780% over budget. We're not doing that anymore," Hegseth vowed.
Hegseth added that they uncovered another batch of DoD grants, totaling $360 million worth, that decarbonizing emissions from Navy ships – part of the Obama-Biden Green agenda.
"That's 6 million bucks, $5.2 million on something that would diversify and engage the Navy by engaging underrepresented Bipoc students and scholars. Another $9 million at a university to approach equitable AI and machine learning models. I need lethal machine learning model, not equitable machine learning models," Hegseth explained.
On this third point, Hegseth said Thursday's other cuts included wasteful spending on external consulting services.
"30 million bucks in contracts with Gartner and McKinsey. That's IT purchasing unused licenses. So when you add it all up, $580 million in DoD contracts and grants DOGE is helping us cut today," Hegseth said.
When added up all together, Hegseth said that over $800 million in wasteful spending has been canceled over the first few weeks, as DoD partners with DOGE "to make sure that our warfighters have what they need by cutting the waste, fraud, and abuse."
"They're working hard. We're working hard with them. We appreciate the work that they're doing, and we have a lot more coming. So stay tuned," Hegseth said.
"So, might as well not waste any more time right now, just sign this thing. How about that? So this makes it official. We're going to keep going for you guys," Hegseth said while signing the orders.
"Have we ever seen this level of transparency? Amazing, thank you @SecDef," Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., commented on Hegseth's post.
"We will partner with them. It's long overdue. The Defense Department's got a huge budget, but it needs to be responsible," Hegseth previously told Fox News.
As of Thursday afternoon, 239 "wasteful" contracts with a "ceiling value" of $1.7 billion have been terminated over a two-day period, DOGE announced.
Fox News Digital's Deirdre Heavey and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
A federal judge appointed by former President Joe Biden has blocked President Donald Trump's executive order banning transgender people from serving in the U.S. military.
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary injunction barring the Pentagon from enforcing Trump's order, which asserted "expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service." The order, issued Jan. 27, instructed the Department of Defense (DOD) to update its medical standards for military service and pronoun policies, stating that "beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one's personal life."
Reyes said that the executive order likely poses constitutional rights violations.
"The court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes," Reyes wrote, delaying her order until Friday morning to allow time for the Trump administration to appeal. "We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect."
Transgender individuals were considered unfit for U.S. military service until the DOD changed its policy during former President Barack Obama's second term.
"Women were ‘included in the sequel’ when passage of the Nineteenth Amendment granted them the right to vote in 1920," Reyes wrote in the footnotes, adding, "That right is one of the many that thousands of transgender persons serve to protect."
Reyes said plaintiffs "face a violation of their constitutional rights, which constitutes irreparable harm."
"Indeed, the cruel irony is that thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed – some risking their lives – to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the Military Ban seeks to deny them," the judge wrote, adding that the defendants, on the other hand, "have not shown they will be burdened by continuing the status quo pending this litigation, and avoiding constitutional violations is always in the public interest."
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller condemned Reyes' ruling on X, writing, "District court judges have now decided they are in command of the Armed Forces…is there no end to this madness?"
Reyes was the second judge of the day to rule against the Trump administration. Trump called for impeaching a third judge who temporarily blocked deportation flights, drawing a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts.
"Unelected rogue judges are trying to steal years of time from a 4 year term. It’s the most egregious theft one can imagine: robbing the vote and voice of the American People," Miller wrote in another X post.
In response to Trump's executive order, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy on Feb. 26 that presumptively disqualifies people with gender dysphoria from military service. The policy says, "a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria are incompatible with the high mental and physical standards necessary for military service."
Plaintiffs’ attorneys contend Trump’s order violates transgender people’s rights to equal protection under the Fifth Amendment.
Government lawyers argue that military officials have broad discretion to decide how to assign and deploy service members without judicial interference.
Reyes said she did not take lightly her decision to issue an injunction blocking Trump’s order, noting that "Judicial overreach is no less pernicious than executive overreach." However, she said, it was also the responsibility of each branch of government to provide checks and balances for the others, and the court "therefore must act to uphold the equal protection rights that the military defends every day."
Thousands of transgender people serve in the military, but they represent less than 1% of the total number of active-duty service members, according to The Associated Press.
In 2016, a DOD policy permitted transgender people to serve openly in the military. During Trump’s first term, he issued a directive to ban transgender service members. The Supreme Court allowed the ban to take effect.
Biden, a Democrat who served as Obama's vice president, scrapped it when he took office.
Six service members and two people wanting to enlist in the military sued the government in January over Trump’s executive order. About a dozen others, including nine people on active duty, have since joined the lawsuit. Their attorneys, from the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLAD Law, said transgender troops "seek nothing more than the opportunity to continue dedicating their lives to defending the Nation."
The Department of Defense has dissolved its Office of Net Acquisition – a think tank-like arm of the Pentagon that Republicans have claimed was involved in the Trump-Russia investigation.
Pentagon chief spokesperson Sean Parnell said civilian employees within the office would be "reassigned to mission-critical roles" as the DOD established a plan to rebuild the office "in alignment with the Department’s strategic priorities."
The office is meant to provide long-term strategic analysis within DOD, but it has become a target of Republicans who claim it has engaged in "projects unrelated to its mission."
"Praise the Lord. This wise move saves American taxpayers over 20 million dollars a year," Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement.
The office in recent years has been focused on strategizing a potential war with China. It championed a strategy known as "AirSea Battle," where a blinding campaign against the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of stealth bombers and submarines would take out China’s long-range surveillance before a naval assault.
But Grassley has for years scrutinized ONA’s contracting practices.
ONA has failed to produce classified net assessments for years, with whistleblowing analyst Adam Lovinger once complaining in emails to Director James Baker that the office seemed to attract overpriced academic-style papers instead of classified net assessments.
"On the issue of quality, more than once I have heard our contractor studies labeled ‘derivative,’ ’college-level,’ and based heavily on secondary sources," Lovinger wrote in a September 2016 email. "One of our contractor studies was literally cut and pasted from a World Bank report."
Lovinger had complained about questionable government contracts awarded to Stefan Halper, an FBI informant who spied on the Trump campaign in 2016.
A DOD inspector general’s report later found that Halper had failed to properly document the research he did as a contractor on four studies valued at $1 million. The four contracts, spanning from 2012 to 2016, were meant to encompass relations between the U.S., Russia, China and India.
The report found that Halper had not provided proof of any meetings he had or locations he had visited as part of his studies.
"ONA personnel could not provide us any evidence that Professor Halper visited any of these locations, established an advisory group, or met with any of the specific people listed in the statement of work."
For a study on what China relations could look like in 2030, Halper had proposed travel to London and Tokyo.
"The contract was fixed price based on the acceptance of the deliverables and did not require Professor Halper to submit travel receipts. ONA personnel could not provide documentation that Professor Halper traveled for this contract."
Contracts show that Halper listed a Russian intelligence official as a consultant for an ONA project, the same intelligence official who was listed as a source in the Trump dossier used to spy on Carter Page. He was in contact with Page and former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos, "raising questions about whether Halper used U.S. taxpayer dollars to seek connections with Trump campaign officials," according to Grassley.
Halper was also a confidential human source for the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections who recorded conversations with officials from the campaign.
The senator claims that ONA has stonewalled on his inquiries about Halper’s relations to the Trump-Russia probe.
Senator Jack Reed, D-R.I., top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, called the office’s closing "shortsighted," adding that it would "undermine our ability to prepare for future conflicts."
Pentagon press secretary John Ullyot lobbed a shot at the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Mark Milley, as he explained Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's new review of physical fitness and grooming standards.
"Unfortunately, the U.S. military’s high standards on body composition and other metrics eroded in recent years, particularly during the tenure of former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, who set a bad example from the top through his own personal corpulence. Secretary Hegseth is committed to restoring high standards, and this review is the first step in doing so," Ullyot said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The review comes after the secretary has voiced concerns that fitness standards have eroded, and questioned whether mismatched standards for men and women are affecting readiness.
The memo specifically calls out protocols for beards.
It directs the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness to look at "existing standards set by the Military Departments pertaining to physical fitness, body composition, and grooming, which includes but is not limited to beards."
The memo directs the review to examine how standards have changed since 2015.
"Our troops will be fit – not fat. Our troops will look sharp – not sloppy. We seek only quality – not quotas," Hegseth wrote in a post on X late on Wednesday.
"That will be part of one of the first things we do at the Pentagon – is reviewing that in a gender-neutral way – the standards ensuring readiness and meritocracy is front and center," Hegseth promised in January.
In December 2015, the military opened up all combat roles to women. In a podcast interview shortly before he was tapped as secretary, Hegseth said the U.S. "should not have women in combat roles." But during his confirmation hearing, he clarified that in ground combat roles, women should have to meet the same standards as men.
"Whether it is a man or woman, they have to meet the same high standards," he said. "In any place where those things have been eroded, or courses or criteria have been changed to meet quotas . . . that’s the kind of review I’m talking about. Not whether women should have access to ground combat."
The review could possibly lead to changes to the Army Combat Fitness Test, which is currently scored under age- and gender-specific requirements. That became the Army’s standard fitness test in 2023, after decades of a physical fitness test that imposed the same standards on men and women.
The current test requires men ages 17-21 to run two miles in 22 minutes, and women of the same age to do it in 23 minutes and 22 seconds.
The service branches began making accommodations for recruits who don’t meet physical fitness standards in recent years as a way to address the recruiting crisis. The Army and Navy offered pre-boot camp training for those who did not meet physical fitness or testing scores. But those recruits had to meet the same standards in order to graduate from training courses and serve.
"When I was in the Army, we kicked out good soldiers for having naked women tattooed on their arms, and today we are relaxing the standards on shaving, dreadlocks, man buns, and straight-up obesity," Hegseth wrote in his book ‘The War on Warriors.’
"Piece by piece, the standards had to go ... because of equity," he added.
The service branches have begun allowing troops to sport different hairstyles, in large part due to female service members who argued that the constant tight, low bun was leading to hair loss. In recent years, the Army has begun allowing cornrows and twists after female service members argued that the hairstyles were cheaper and easier to maintain.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is ordering a review of military fitness and grooming standards as the Trump administration continues to reverse policies critics say have made America's fighting force appear weaker on the global stage.
In a memo Wednesday to senior Pentagon leadership, Hegseth ordered Darin Selnick, the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, to gather existing standards in all U.S. military branches related to physical fitness, body composition and grooming, including regulations on beards.
"We must remain vigilant in maintaining the standards that enable the men and women of our military to protect the American people and our homeland as the world's most lethal and effective fighting force," Hegseth said in a statement. "Our adversaries are not growing weaker, and our tasks are not growing less challenging."
The review will "illuminate how the department has maintained the level of standards required over the recent past and the trajectory of any change in those standards," he added.
Leaders will look at how those standards have changed since Jan. 1, 2015, and provide insight into how they have evolved and the effect of those changes.
Hegseth has vowed to bring back tougher standards while reversing "woke" policies that don't align with restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding the military and reestablishing deterrence.
"Our standards will be high, uncompromising, and clear," he said in a Jan. 25 memo to service members. "The strength of our military is our unity and our shared purpose."
SpaceX and NASA scrubbed the planned rocket launch of Crew-10 to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday due to a hydraulic issue with one of the ground systems, according to officials giving a live broadcast of the event.
NASA and SpaceX will get their next opportunity to send the rocket into space when the launch window opens on Thursday at 7:25 p.m.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared a message of support for NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 ahead of their launch on Wednesday, highlighting the U.S. military's prominent role in the mission.
"I just want to take a brief moment to say we are praying for you," Hegseth said in a video posted to X. "We wish you Godspeed, and we look forward to welcoming you all home soon."
NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 is slated to launch from the Kennedy Space Center at 7:48 p.m. on Wednesday. The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will carry a crew of four to the ISS for a six-month residency. The mission is set to usher in the much-anticipated homecoming of Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams.
"President Trump said to Elon Musk, ‘get the astronauts home and do it now' – and they're responding," Hegseth continued. "And they're bringing NASA astronauts, [who] also happen to be retired U.S. Navy Capt. Butch Wilmore and retired U.S. Navy Capt. Suni Williams, home."
The American astronauts have been stranded on the ISS for nine months after arriving there in June of last year. They were only supposed to stay for about a week.
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft had transported the pair of astronauts from Earth to the ISS. However, it returned to Earth unmanned in September. This came after Starliner suffered "helium leaks" and "issues with the spacecraft reaction control thrusters" while docking with the ISS.
"Now, the Department of Defense is also proud to have multiple branches and two active-duty U.S. military officers represented in the mission that's kicking off tonight between NASA and SpaceX. Yet, U.S. Army Colonel Anne McClain and U.S. Air Force Major Nichole Ayers," Hegseth said. "So this is Army, Air Force and Navy tonight."
NASA said there will be a "handover period" with the SpaceX Crew-10 before Wilmore and Williams head back to their home planet. They could return to Earth as early as Sunday.
Last week, Trump shared a special message for Wilmore and Williams.
"Elon [Musk] is right now preparing a ship to go up and get them," the president told Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy. "We love you, and we're coming up to get you, and you shouldn't have been up there so long."
FOX Business' Aislinn Murphy contributed to this report.
U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday that his department "does not do climate change crap," but instead focuses on things like warfighting and training.
The secretary was responding to a post from CNN’s Haley Britzky, who shared a story about the DOD and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cutting programs in the Pentagon that deal with climate change.
"The DOD and DOGE have said they plan to cut climate programs in the Pentagon – but officials & experts are warning that climate efforts at DOD are directly linked to military readiness, and say cuts could put troops and military operations at risk," Britzky wrote.
CNN reportedly reached out to the Pentagon with a list of questions about military readiness, Britzky added.
DOGE, which is being led by billionaire Elon Musk, and the DOD have been working together to slash wasteful spending, DOD spokesman Sean Parnell said in a video posted to social media last week.
He listed some of the initial findings flagged by DOGE, which consisted of millions of dollars given to support various diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, including $1.9 million for holistic DEI transformation and training in the Air Force and $6 million to the University of Montana to "strengthen American democracy by bridging divides."
Also, among the findings was $1.6 million to the University of Florida to study the social and institutional detriment of vulnerability in resilience to climate hazards in Africa.
"This stuff is just not a core function of our military," Parnell said. "This is not what we do. This stuff is a distraction from our core mission."
"We believe these initial findings will probably save $80 million in wasteful spending," he added.
Hegseth said his agency would work with DOGE, which has conducted reviews of the Treasury, Labor, Education and Health departments, as well as at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of Personnel Management and Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
He added that many DOGE workers are veterans, and it is a "good thing" that they will find deficiencies.
"They care just like we do, to find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities — the DEI, the woke, the climate change B.S., that's not core to our mission, and we're going to get rid of it all," Hegseth said.
Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.
Vice President JD Vance visited Capitol Hill to offer a message of support for his "friend," Elbridge "Bridge" Colby, President Donald Trump's contentious nominee for the Pentagon’s No. 3 spot, undersecretary of defense for policy.
"In so many ways, Bridge predicted what we would be talking about four years down the road, five years down the road, 10 years down the road. He saw around corners that very few other people were seeing around," Vance said in opening remarks Tuesday at Colby's confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"If you look at his long career in defense policy, he has said things that, you know, frankly, alienated Democrats and Republicans. He's also said things that I think both Democrats and Republicans would agree with," Vance continued.
The vice president praised Colby as a "good man" and an "honest man."
"You need people who are going to tell you the truth. We're going to look you in the eye who are going to disagree," Vance said.
The vice president’s presence demonstrates how seriously the White House is looking to shore up support for Colby, whose restraint-minded views have given pause to some more hawkish senators.
It is the second confirmation hearing Vance has attended after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who the vice president also has a close relationship with.
Colby said in his own opening remarks, "There is a real risk of major war, and we cannot afford to lose one. I recognize these realities in my bones. It is my great hope that we can get through the coming years peacefully, with strength in ways that put us and our alliances on a stronger and more sustainable footing."
"I'm willing and ready to engage with those who disagree with me and adapt my views based on persuasive arguments and the fact is that I value our alliances deeply, even as I think they must be adapted, and that I love our great country, and will put its interests first and foremost."
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., questioned Colby on his previously stated position, "America has a strong interest in defending Taiwan, but Americans can survive without it."
"Your views on Taiwan’s importance to the United States seems to have softened considerably," Wicker told Colby.
Colby disputed that point, arguing he had been shooting a warning flare that the U.S.’ "military balance has declined" with regard to China.
"What I have been trying to shoot a signal flare over is that it is vital for us to focus and enable our own forces for an effective and reasonable defense of Taiwan and for the Taiwanese, as well as the Japanese to do more," said Colby.
"So my position in terms of the value of Taiwan is consistent. But what I'm very fearful of, Senator, and I think this is agreed across administrations of both parties, is that, you know, the military balance has declined. So I'm trying to avoid a situation of which, because we are not adequately prepared."
Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the committee, pressed Colby on his views on Russia and Ukraine.
"In November 2023, you said, ‘The invasion of Ukraine is an evil act by the Russians, and I morally support the Ukrainian defense.’ Do you still agree with that statement?" asked Reed, D-R.I.
"I think I stand by my record, but at this point, I think, there's a very delicate diplomatic process going on where the president is rightfully trying to resuscitate the peace process. And I don't think it'd be appropriate for me to weigh in," said Colby.
Colby's confirmation process has rankled Iran hawks, and at least Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., has privately expressed skepticism. Wicker previously told Roll Call that Colby’s nomination poses "a concern to a number of senators."
Colby, who worked at the Pentagon during Trump’s first term and was a lead author on the 2018 U.S. National Security Strategy, has long asserted the U.S. should limit its resources in the Middle East and refocus on China as the bigger threat.
Colby said during the hearing that Iran was an "existential" threat to the U.S. and he present the White House with military options if diplomacy fails at preventing Iran with a nuclear weapon.
Cotton pressed Colby on whether a nuclear-armed Iran poses an "existential danger to us … not just a ‘severe danger,’ as you said in response to Sen. Gillibrand or a ‘significant one’ as you said in your written answers,"
"Yes, a nuclear-armed Iran — especially, Senator, given that … we know they’ve worked on ICBM-range capabilities and other capabilities that would pose an existential danger to the United States," Colby said.
"I believe we should not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon and, if confirmed, I would believe it’s my responsibility to provide credible good military options," he added later on.
Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-N.Y., pressed Colby on whether Russia was an "adversary" or an "ally" to the U.S.
"Russia presents a significant military threat to Europe, and there are significant military threats to the homeland as well," said Colby. "We can… diminish, you know, the potential for direct confrontation with Russia in the same way with China."
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Saturday that he has signed a declaration to expedite the delivery of nearly $4 billion in military aid to Israel, reversing a partial arms blockage imposed during the Biden administration.
"The decision to reverse the Biden Administration’s partial arms embargo, which wrongly withheld a number of weapons and ammunition from Israel, is yet another sign that Israel has no greater ally in the White House than President Trump," Rubio said in a statement.
The announcement comes as solutions to achieve a permanent cease-fire between longtime American ally Israel and Palestinian terrorist group Hamas remain unclear.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has approved nearly $12 billion in major foreign military sales to Israel, Rubio said.
"This important decision coincides with President Trump’s repeal of a Biden-era memorandum which had imposed baseless and politicized conditions on military assistance to Israel at a time when our close ally was fighting a war of survival on multiple fronts against Iran and terror proxies," Rubio continued.
Saturday’s announcement comes two days after the State Department said it has approved the potential sale of nearly $3 billion in bombs, demolition kits and other weaponry to Israel, according to the Associated Press.
The sales include approximately 40,000 defense items, including 35,500 MK 84 and BLU-117 bombs as well as 4,000 Predator warheads worth $2.04 billion.
The weaponry is expected to be delivered in 2026. However, some items may be ready for immediate shipment due to the possibility that "a portion of this procurement will come from U.S. stock," according to the Associated Press, citing the Pentagon.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Department of State for more information but did not immediately receive a response.
Rubio also approved a second package of munitions sales to Israel valued at $675 million for 2028, the Department of Defense reportedly stated.
"The Trump Administration will continue to use all available tools to fulfill America’s long-standing commitment to Israel’s security, including means to counter security threats," Rubio said in Saturday’s statement.
