Hegseth Outlines DOD Priorities, Cost-Saving Efforts

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has released a video detailing priorities for his department and promising transparency, including explaining the Defense Department's plans to reinvest $50 billion in Pentagon funds and to push to focus efforts on President Donald Trump's priorities for national defense.

He said in a video released Thursday through the Department of Defense that the Pentagon's plans to pull 8%, or roughly $50 billion, from nonlethal programs in its current budget is not a funding cut, but a necessary reinvestment into the military.

"It's refocusing and reinvesting funds into building the force that protects you, the American people," Hegseth said.

Funding will not be refocused on items that are in line with Trump's agenda, he said. These include border protection, nuclear modernization, fighting transnational criminal organizations, submarine programs, missile defense, core readiness and training, drone technology, and the defense industrial base.

Hegseth opened his remarks by stating that the Defense Department owes Americans transparency while working with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) while spending taxpayer dollars.

"We want you, the American people — the taxpayers — to understand why we're making the decisions that we're making here," Hegseth said.

He noted that the department is working to achieve the goals of peace through strength through work to rebuild the military.

"Ever since I've taken this position, the only thing I've cared about is doing right by our service members — soldiers, sailors, Marines, airmen, and guardians," the secretary said. "In short, we want the biggest, most bad**s military on the planet."

He added that the department will rely on DOGE while it tackles the issues of wasted spending and fraud.

He added that the DOD will give access to DOGE with its systems, while requiring safeguards and classifications, to identify redundancies and previous priorities that are not part of the department's current mission, and eliminate them.

"[DOGE is] here, and they're going to be incorporated into what we're doing at DOD to find fraud, waste, and abuse in the largest discretionary budget in the federal government," Hegseth said.

"With DOGE, we are focusing as much as we can on headquarters and fat and top-line stuff that allows us to reinvest elsewhere," he added.

Hegseth warned that there are challenges in communicating the DOD's efforts through the "legacy media."

"The legacy media has an agenda, and in many cases, simply fails to understand the facts," Hegseth, a former Fox News host, said. "We encourage you to take those negative reports with a grain of salt and understand the real thought process behind the decisions we are making."

Hegseth also discussed the reevaluation of the DOD's probationary workforce, pushing back on media reports that the department is planning to make across-the-board cuts of employees.

Leaders, he said, are evaluating the probationary employees "carefully and smartly" while making manning decisions on the quality of their performance.

"We're starting [cuts] with the poor performers among our probationary employees because it's common sense that you want the best and brightest," Hegseth said. "When you look at headcount, 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."

However, he said that the DOD will implement a hiring freeze while identifying better hiring practices and finding the most "hard-charging" employees that will be central to its mission.

"We’ll keep fighting to ensure that America’s military remains the most lethal fighting force on the planet," he said. "We’re not here to just defend; we’re here to win. And under President Trump’s leadership, that’s exactly what we’re going to do."