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   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ordered senior Pentagon   
   leadership to cut the number of four-star generals and admirals by at   
   least 20% across the military, according to a memo signed by Hegseth dated   
   Monday and obtained by CNN.   
      
   As of 2023, there were 37 four-star generals and admirals across the   
   entire military.   
      
   The memo also directs the Pentagon to cut the number of general officers   
   in the National Guard by 20%, and to cut the total number of general and   
   flag officers across the military by 10%. There are currently about 900   
   general and flag officers — those with the rank of one star or higher —   
   across the military.   
      
   In his memo, Hegseth wrote that the cuts are a “critical” step toward   
   “removing redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership   
   by reducing excess general and flag officer positions.”   
      
   The Pentagon has been considering making significant cuts to the top of   
   the military amid an administration-wide effort to shrink the federal   
   government, CNN reported in March.   
      
   That includes potentially consolidating combatant commands, such as   
   merging European Command and African Command.   
      
   Hegseth has argued before, including during his confirmation hearing, that   
   there are too many senior generals in the military. He said during a   
   podcast interview last summer that he believes roughly a third of the   
   military’s most senior officers are “actively complicit” in the   
   politicization of the military.   
      
   “I would say over a third are actively complicit, and then you have a lot   
   of grumblers who are sort of going along, trying to resist the nonsense as   
   much as they can, but they’re not fundamentally changing it,” he said.   
      
   In a second podcast, Hegseth claimed that senior officers in the military   
   are “playing by all the wrong rules” to cater to “idealogues in   
   Washington, DC.”   
      
   “And so they’ll do any social justice, gender, climate, extremism crap   
   because it gets them checked to the next level,” he said.   
      
   The Trump administration has already undertaken an unprecedented purge of   
   military leadership, firing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and   
   Navy chief in February. The same night, Hegseth said he was “requesting   
   nominations” to replace the military services’ most senior lawyers, the   
   Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force.   
      
   https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/05/politics/hegseth-orders-pentagon-cut-   
   senior-generals?iid=cnn_buildContentRecirc_end_recirc   
      
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