“No fat people, no trans people, no bearded people, no weirdos, no wimps, no extremists. Just warriors, tough, ready and dedicated.” American Defense Minister Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday, September 30, that he had reduced the number of generals and admirals in the army by 20%, massive cuts that he described as “a necessity for a long time.”
An initial reduction of 10% in the number of generals and admirals, the highest ranking officers in the American army, was announced in May 2025. “I know, because I ordered it, that we have reduced the total number of positions (…) by 10% more, so yes, that’s a 20% reduction”, declared Pete Hegseth in front of an audience of soldiers at the American base of Quantico, in Virginia (east).
“The media calls it a purge. I call it responsibility and a necessity for a long time. And frankly, the bare minimum,” said the minister, former presenter on the conservative channel Fox News, in his one-man show-style speech, in front of a huge screen projecting the American flag.
In the spring of 2025, Pete Hegseth decided on cuts of 10% in the number of generals and admirals, and 20% among the highest ranking among them in office (four stars).
To readIn the American army, women and blacks in Pete Hegseth’s viewfinder
Count on the rise
At the end of May 2025, the American army had 831 generals and admirals, according to Pentagon figures.
At the last available count, dated July 31, 2026, there were 851, a slight increase compared to the previous year, despite Pete Hegseth’s announcements.
Asked by AFP to clarify whether the Pentagon had already made this 20% cut or if it was still in progress, he referred to a press release from the ministry which did not specify the question and indicated that he had “no element to add to the minister’s statements”.
Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House in early 2025, he and his government have carried out a broad purge in the highest ranks of the US military – usually rather removed from partisan political interference.
In February 2025, the chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff installed by former Democratic President Joe Biden, General Charles “CQ” Brown, was ousted without justification and replaced by Dan Caine, leading the war with Iran.
The list grew over the months with, among others, the senior officers at the head of the Navy and Coast Guard, the NSA spy agency, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and his deputy…
At the beginning of April, in the midst of the war against Iran, it was the Chief of Staff of the American Army, General Randy George, who was pushed out overnight, without the Pentagon providing any explanation either.
Also readUnited States: national security under the influence of Trump’s “crazy people”
“We are no longer the ‘woke’ ministry”
“You don’t change the culture with the same people who enabled it,” Pete Hegseth said Wednesday.
He, who renamed the administration he heads as the “Ministry of War”, is keen to reinject into the American army – with the biggest budget in the world – what he describes as the figure of the “warrior”, like the testosterone tests recently introduced, and to rid it of any pro-diversity element.
“We are no longer the ‘woke’ ministry or the weak ministry,” claimed Pete Hegseth, playing on the homophony in English between “woke” and “weak”.
“Translation: no fat people, no trans people, no bearded people, no weirdos, no wimps, no extremists. Just warriors, tough, ready and dedicated,” he listed.
To readThe “High-T” man or the new testosterone crusade of Pete Hegseth and the far right
A year earlier, from the same military base, he had given a speech with virilistic and bellicose overtones in which he particularly attacked overweight soldiers and the “fat generals and admirals” encountered “in the corridors of the Pentagon”.
“Since taking office, Minister Hegseth has made countless irresponsible and partisan decisions that have damaged our military. He has ended the careers of dozens of our most accomplished senior officers and refused to explain why,” Democratic Rep. Jack Reed, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Wednesday.
With AFP
