United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently shut down several hoaxes propagated by the media in a confident video statement. Hegseth highlighted the agenda he is pursuing with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) along with other initiatives that the media is refusing to cover it accurately.
According to Hegseth, there are three key initiatives within the Pentagon centered around building America’s defense capabilities, including DOGE collaborations, refocusing the Biden-Harris administration’s former budget, and reevaluating headcount. The secretary also emphasized that the Trump administration would continue to communicate directly with the American people to avoid media misrepresentation.
Hegseth began, “The first is Doge. They’re here, and we’re welcome, welcoming them. In fact, right over there, about 20 minutes ago, I just met with them, and we’re going to be incorporating into what we’re doing at DOD, everything they’re doing to find fraud, waste and abuse in the largest discretionary budget in the federal government.”
He added, “They care just like we do, define the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities, the DEI the woe, the climate change. Bs, that’s not core to our mission, and we’re going to get rid of it all with Doge. We’re focusing as much as we can on headquarters and fat and redundancies and top line stuff that allows us to reinvest elsewhere.” The secretary emphasized this is a “good thing” that the media won’t cover.
Addressing the next agenda item, Hegseth said, “The second story in the news is our work reorienting the budget that we inherited. We inherited that budget one month ago from the Biden administration. We’re refocusing, that’s a key word, our existing budget away from the Biden priorities that, frankly, were all over the map, to President Trump’s priorities of building a lethal fighting force.” Calling out the media, he noted, “The media wants to call these exclusively cuts, but it’s the opposite, of course, as always is the case.”
Getting into details, he continued, “Now, beginning right away, we are pulling around 8% or $50 billion from the Biden budget we’re planning. This is planning for this year that we will move away from woke, Biden era, non lethal programs, and instead spend that money on President Trump’s America first, peace through strength, priorities for our national budget.” Hegseth maintained that critical areas of spending, such as border defense, military technology, and other defense capabilities, would not be touched.
Getting to the final hoax, Hegseth said, “The third and final bogus story that is out there is around our reevaluation of our probationary workforce.” He added, “Now this is part of something that was mandated by an executive order from the President. Remember, President Trump was elected. He has the prerogative to advance executive orders. Our job is to follow them, and we’re doing that.”
"*" indicates required fields
“Now bottom line is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission critical and to restore accountability within the federal workforce, taxpayers deserve to have us take a really thorough look at our workforce top to bottom, and it will be top to bottom to see where we can find and eliminate redundancies,” the secretary continued.
“We start with poor performers amongst our probationary employees, because that is common sense, and you want the best and brightest. So when you look at head count, we’re going to be thoughtful, but we’re also 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,” he emphasized.
Watch Hegseth below:
Hegseth concluded, “We’re motivated to rebuild the most capable military in the world. That’s why I’m here. That’s what the President has asked me to do. But doing so does require tough decisions, and we are prepared to make them.” Prioritizing communication, he said, “But in the process, we want to communicate with you directly, rather than through the filter of media outlets.”
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.