Massive DOGE cuts are hitting both war and peace this week.
A day after Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency decapitated the U.S. institute of Peace, a congressionally funded independent nonprofit group, the Defense Department made moves to slash the Pentagon’s civilian workforce.
Pentagon leaders are looking to slice between 50,000 and 60,000 civilian jobs from the agency.
So far, fewer than 21,000 took the government up on Musk’s ‘fork in the road’ email offer allowing employees to take ‘deferred resignation,’ according to a senior defense official.
Pentagon officials say Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants to ensure cuts don’t jeopardize U.S. military readiness. He was one of a handful of agency heads who told employees to hit pause when Musk last month asked 2 million federal workers to write an email about five things they did last week.
To reach the goal of a 5% to 8% cut in a civilian workforce of more than 900,000, the official said, the department aims to slash about 6,000 positions a month by simply not replacing workers who routinely leave.
A key concern is that service members may then be tapped to fill those civilian jobs.
Cuts are already reshaping the military’s leadership as well, including the elimination of most of the top female officers.
The cuts are part of the broader effort by the Department of Government Efficiency Service, including billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk, to slash the federal workforce and dismantle U.S. agencies.
Acknowledging that ‘some’ military veterans will be among the civilians let go, the official would not estimate how many but agreed it could be thousands. They make up about a third of the civilian workforce.
Word of the civilian cuts come after the U.S. launched weekend attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen in response to attacks on Israel and shipping in the Red Sea. President Trump is seeking to find a negotiated solution to Russia’s war on Ukraine, although there was ambiguity in the immediate results of his Tuesday call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Israel has launched renewed attacks on Gaza, in yet another hot spot that the U.S. military must monitor and prepare for.
Firings of veterans have brought some political pushback on Capitol Hill, even as slashing cuts in areas like foreign aid have brought little opposition from elected Republicans.
The department is using three ways to accomplish the workforce cuts: voluntary resignations, firing probationary workers and cutting jobs as employees routinely leave.
However federal judges have deemed some early steps against probationary workers to be illegal. The feds are now rushing to rehire 24,500 probationary employees fired across government agencies.
Another judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump Administration must stop dismantling U.S.A.I.D.
The official said the military services and Pentagon officials are going over the personnel on a case-by-case basis to ensure cuts don’t affect critical national security jobs.
Plans to cut probationary workers – which the Pentagon said targeted about 5,400 of the roughly 54,000 in the department – are already on hold due to court challenges.
The official added that Hegseth is confident the staffing cuts can be done without negatively affecting military readiness.
In other Pentagon news, the Department has restored web pages of a black Medal of Honor winner and others honoring Japanese American servicemen and women, saying it had happened accidentally using an automated system.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell defended efforts to scrub DEI from the Pentagon.
‘I think the president and the secretary have been very clear on this — that anybody that says in the Department of Defense that diversity is our strength is, is frankly, incorrect. Our shared purpose and unity are our strength,’ he said. ‘And I say this as somebody who led a combat platoon in Afghanistan that was probably the most diverse platoon that you could possibly imagine.’
