Since taking over as Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth has fired more than a dozen generals and admirals outright. When you include those blocked from promotions they had already earned, the total reaches 65 to 70 individuals — approximately 10 percent of the entire U.S. general officer corps. According to New York Times reporter Greg Jaffe, the real number is likely even higher.
The figures come from Jaffe and his colleague Kate Kelly, who investigated Hegseth's overhaul of the Pentagon's senior ranks. Their reporting identified two distinct categories: those directly fired, and those quietly denied promotions they had earned through the normal military advancement process.
That second category is the larger one. Blocking a promotion leaves no formal paper trail comparable to a dismissal — which is part of why Jaffe warns the 65-to-70 figure is a floor, not a ceiling. The true scope of the purge is, by design, difficult to fully measure.
Jaffe, who has covered the U.S. military continuously since 1999, calls this period unprecedented in 26 years of reporting. He states he cannot think of anything remotely close to the scale of what is now happening inside the Pentagon.
Hegseth's stated justification is merit: he argues that many senior officers rose through the ranks because of DEI programs rather than genuine military performance, and that he is correcting that distortion. His September 2025 speech at the Pentagon explicitly framed the removals as "clearing out the debris" and "ending the war on warriors."
But Jaffe's reporting reveals a second, quieter mechanism at work. The firings and blocked promotions send a signal throughout the entire force — not just to those directly affected. Officers still in the pipeline understand, clearly, that advancement now depends on passing political litmus tests as much as on demonstrated military performance.
"When you start firing people for political reasons, it's not just the person you fire, but it's the message that sends throughout the entire force that if you want to move up, there are political litmus tests that you have to pass through."
Greg Jaffe — Staff Writer and Military Correspondent, The New York Times
Jaffe has covered the U.S. military since 1999, spanning 26 years and multiple administrations, wars, and Pentagon leadership transitions. He co-reported this investigation with colleague Kate Kelly, focusing on the specific hiring and firing decisions shaping Pete Hegseth's remade senior officer corps. Jaffe describes the current purge as categorically unlike anything he has witnessed in his entire career — not a matter of degree, but of kind. He also notes that among the consequences of the overhaul, women are no longer being nominated to admiral rank for the first time in at least a decade, at a moment when women make up approximately 21 percent of the U.S. Navy.
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This answer comes from a full episode of The Daily — including reporting on specific cases like Lisa Franchetti and Daryl Caudill that illustrate exactly how Hegseth's decisions get made.
Listen to the episode on Listenly