Hegseth previews Pentagon staffing cuts, targets probationary employees

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Pentagon is preparing for a hiring freeze and an “aggressive” effort to fire civilian employees as the Trump administration’s axe to the federal workforce reaches the Defense Department (DOD).

Hegseth said the government’s largest agency was doing a “reevaluation of our probationary workforce” in compliance with President Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order to cull the federal workforce by at least 10 percent. That effort, undertaken by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), could affect more than 50,000 civilian employees across the U.S. military.

DOD officials for the past week have braced for mass firings after internal communications across multiple military services indicated probationary workers — those hired within the past year — were on the chopping block. But that plan may be temporarily delayed while the Pentagon’s Office of General Counsel carries out a review of how the impacts could have on military readiness, among other areas, CNN reported.

“It is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission critical,” Hegseth said in a video posted to the social platform X late Thursday. “Taxpayers deserve to have us take a really thorough look at our workforce top to bottom — and it will be top to bottom — to see where we can find and eliminate redundancy.”

He did not give a headcount of how many workers the Defense Department was looking to cut or when, only saying “we're going to be thoughtful, but we're also going to be aggressive, up and down the chain,” and that they would start with axing probationary employees.

Hegseth added that the Pentagon has “put out a hiring freeze” on all employees while it takes the time to identify “a performance-based standard.” 

“We're going to take a little bit more time, make sure top to bottom we're doing a review, those who we need, who are the best and brightest are going to stay. Those who are underperformers won't,” he said.

Hegseth spent a significant portion of the video hammering “legacy media,” claiming they had “misrepresented” or not reported the facts correctly on DOGE's efforts at the department or upcoming layoffs.

But he also gave no time frame for any layoff efforts, nor how they might run up against laws that help veterans get hired or federal employee protections.

CNN earlier reported that the firings could run afoul of Title 10 section 129a of the U.S. code, a law that stipulated the Pentagon chief may not reduce the civilian workforce unless they conduct “an appropriate analysis” of how such firings could impact the U.S. military’s lethality and readiness.

Pentagon lawyers began reviewing whether planned terminations were legal following that report, two officials told the outlet.

Hegseth’s office did not respond to a request for comment from The Hill. 

DOGE officials first visited the Pentagon on Feb. 14, with the office posting on social media that it had a “great kickoff” at the building.

Hegseth has appeared to welcome DOGE with open arms, saying last week that “there is waste, redundancies, and headcounts at headquarters that need to be addressed.”

Commands and agencies DOD-wide had also been instructed to compile lists of probationary employees, including ones exempted from firing, Defense One reported. 

Following DOGE’s visit, an official in the Pentagon’s policy shop warned staff in an email that news the administration was eyeing probationary employees for the axe was “very concerning – to the individuals, their offices, and our organization overall.”

“If someone in Policy is in a probationary status, it’s because Policy went through a great deal of effort to bring them onboard to fill critical roles in our support to the Secretary of Defense, and those individuals are making important contributions to our mission,” they wrote, according to Defense One.