Critics of the War Department&#8217;s purchase of steak and lobster have largely fallen silent in the face of overwhelming evidence that this is standard practice for troops about to deploy. But while they were going, they were loud — and they were all Democrats.
 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) blasted War Secretary Pete Hegseth on social media and accused him of wasting taxpayer money on luxuries such as “fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan king crabs, and a Steinway &amp; Sons grand piano.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Hegseth spent $93 billion in one month – roughly the cost of extending the ACA tax credits for THREE YEARS.
But instead of lowering American’s healthcare costs, Hegseth used millions of taxpayer dollars on fruit baskets, Herman Miller recliners, ice cream machines, Alaskan… <a href="https://t.co/bdCHRWip3P">https://t.co/bdCHRWip3P</a>
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenSchumer/status/2031497646892872011?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
California Governor Gavin Newsom similarly circulated a <a href="https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/2031441496801529864">viral post</a> accusing the Pentagon of blowing through $93 billion in spending during a single month.
By now, countless commentators have pointed out that there&#8217;s nothing unusual about serving steak and lobster to troops on the verge of deploying. Military leaders have <a href="https://www.army.mil/article/284118/food_connects_us_nutrition_community_important_for_service_members">frequently emphasized</a> that small comforts can have an outsized impact on morale, particularly for troops stationed overseas or serving in stressful environments. And, according to a recent analysis from government watchdog group <a href="https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/pentagon-should-focus-on-defense">Open the Books,</a> the War Department purchased much of its steak and lobster towards the end of the last fiscal year, when federal agencies often accelerate purchases before budgets reset.
Faced with all this evidence, critics have been eating crow. But perhaps they should also eat fungus.
In 2024, the Biden Defense Department awarded nearly $1.5 million to The Better Meat Company, a California firm that develops alternative protein products using fungal roots grown in bioreactors. The company’s process feeds water and nutrients to the fungus in a fermentation tank, producing a gray semi-solid material that can be processed into protein ingredients.
Pentagon officials at the time insisted the project was not intended to place synthetic meat substitutes in soldiers’ Meals Ready-to-Eat (MREs). Instead, a Pentagon spokesman said the funding supported a facility for producing shelf-stable protein ingredients that could help sustain troops deployed around the world.
“Where was the outrage when the Biden administration wanted to force-feed franken-meat to America’s military heroes?&#8221; Jack Hubbard, executive director of the watchdog Center for the Environment and Welfare, said. &#8220;&#8216;Ick&#8217; factor aside, there are no long-term health studies on the effects of lab-grown meat. Our armed forces deserve better.”
Hegseth has made combating the Biden administration&#8217;s woke policies central to his mission at the helm of the War Department, saying that doing so boosts morale and makes the country safer.
“We became the woke department. But not anymore,” Hegseth said during a 2025 <a href="https://www.war.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript/Article/4318689/secretary-of-war-pete-hegseth-addresses-general-and-flag-officers-at-quantico-v/">address</a> to generals and flag officers. “This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice, politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics.”
Hegseth added that the effort included eliminating programs he said distracted from the military’s core mission.
“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions,” he said. “As I&#8217;ve said before and will say again, we are done with that sh*t. I&#8217;ve made it my mission to uproot the obvious distractions that made us less capable and less lethal.”

US-IRAN-CONFLICT-DEFENSE

FLASHBACK: Dems Outraged Over Surf And Turf For Troops Were OK Feeding Them Fungus

Chuck Schumer

Department of War

Food

Pentagon

Politics

U.S. Military

After years of ignoring — and often enabling — fraud, waste, and abuse, many Democrat officials and left-wing pundits have finally found what they consider to be a financial “scandal” worth caring about: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s end-of-fiscal-year spending included just over $20 million in ribeye steaks, lobster tails, and crab legs.
Assuming these expenses must have been for lavish nonsense, Democrats from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to California Governor Gavin Newsom sprang to social media, mocking Hegseth, heaping scorn on the Trump administration, and promising a full-scale congressional investigation.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
In addition to billions of taxpayer dollars being burned in this war in Iran, reports are showing that Sec. Pete Hegseth blew $93 billion in federal DOD funding at the end of last year on:
$3.5 billion for cable TV 
$225 million for furniture 
$15.1 million for ribeye steaks 
$6.9…
— Rep. Melanie Stansbury (@Rep_Stansbury) <a href="https://twitter.com/Rep_Stansbury/status/2031500011700367429?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Source: @Rep_Stansbury/X.com
None of them stopped to ask why the Department of War might spend this money on “surf and turf.” Longtime Democrat consultant Paul Begala, former chief strategist for Bill Clinton, even insisted in a ridiculous cable news display that Secretary Hegseth was eating all the steak and lobster himself.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
CNN&#8217;s Paul Begala falsely claims Pete Hegseth purchased ribeye steaks and lobster tails for himself, not the troops.
Scott Jennings, &#8220;Internet do something.&#8221;
Here are the receipts: <a href="https://t.co/VZ6j4j2sn2">pic.twitter.com/VZ6j4j2sn2</a>
— Thomas Hern (@ThomasMHern) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThomasMHern/status/2031911892109721777?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Source: @ThomasMHern/X.com
In their desperation to dunk on the Trump administration, Democrats humiliated themselves, insulted America’s servicemen, and reminded the general public of previous “waste, fraud, and abuse” they had endorsed, hid, and protected themselves – while illustrating just how little they understand the American military.
A <a href="https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/pentagon-should-focus-on-defense">March 9 opinion piece</a> by Open the Books, a government spending and campaign finance watchdog group, criticized spending reports from the Department of War near the end of September 2025 — near the end of the fiscal year — which listed several purchases in the millions of dollars for fine foods, technology, and furniture. These included $2 million on Alaskan king crabs, $6.9 million on lobster tails, $15.1 million on ribeye steaks, $1 million on salmon, and several hundreds of thousands of dollars on desserts.
To the average American, this is meant to sound bizarre and corrupt. Are generals, admirals, and Pentagon bureaucrats feasting on surf-and-turf nightly? That’s what Open the Books’ report, subsequent legacy media meltdowns, and Democrat officials’ craven pearl clutching is intending to convey. Just look at Newsom’s “Press Office” account on X, picturing AI slop of Hegseth reclining amid piles of lobster tail.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
HEGSETH BLOWING $93 BILLION OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS IN 1 MONTH !! <a href="https://t.co/L8GmyWQ2bt">pic.twitter.com/L8GmyWQ2bt</a>
— Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovPressOffice/status/2031441496801529864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Source: @GovPressOffice/X.com
Even the libertarians got in on the lie, with Reason’s Eric Boehm <a href="https://reason.com/2026/03/11/war-rations/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=reason_brand&amp;utm_content=autoshare&amp;utm_term=post">fabricating a thumbnail</a> showing the Secretary of War at a table with a bright red lobster in front of him using Midjourney AI.
Far-left outlets like The New Republic attempted to whip this assertion into a frenzy, <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/207555/pete-hegseth-billions-dollars-fruit-basket-stands-chairs-crab">claiming</a> “a good chunk of the budget wasn’t used for anything that could be considered a pertinent military expense,” thereby implying soldiers are left with MREs while the brass enjoys Hunger Games-in-the-Capital-style feasting.
But if this was all true, it wouldn’t just be liberal Karens and Democrat officials shouting about it — it would include the voices of angry former servicemen, veterans outraged over such frivolous spending.
It didn’t, because they know this is all a lie.
Serving surf-and-turf to troops — <a href="https://x.com/EODHappyCaptain/status/2031519972447465799?s=20">lobster tail</a>, <a href="https://x.com/infantrydort/status/2031495562072060271?s=20">crab legs</a>, ribeye steaks — right before deployment or after a stressful mission is a tried and true tradition of the United States military, not to mention a few American civilian and military contracting groups, too. With many units, <a href="https://x.com/MostlyPeaceful/status/2031800839455613332?s=20">surf-and-turf Fridays</a> are a common and well-deserved expense for our men and women in uniform.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
To all the idiots criticizing the pentagon for surf and turf here’s a story for you <a href="https://t.co/ZsC7JYI4dI">pic.twitter.com/ZsC7JYI4dI</a>
— Joey Jones (@Johnny_Joey) <a href="https://twitter.com/Johnny_Joey/status/2032120815781564850?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
It has long been an inside joke, a meme among America’s troops, to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNi_o4uy1WZ/?hl=en">beware being served the surf-and-turf</a> before a long briefing with battalion staff. Similar memes, videos, and jokes have long <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFjEAlNuq82/">celebrated camaraderie</a> over surf-and-turf following a large operation.
And this is just what our nation’s veterans ruthlessly mocked Democrats with all over social media.
The lack of self-respect in most of this reporting is simply pathetic. Eric’s Reason was comfortable enough with the deliberately misleading assertion to AI generate a picture for it (strange we couldn’t get photo after photo from Getty Images or Reuters of Hegseth chowing down on lobster tail, considering how much of it he apparently devours!), but had to cover his tracks later in the article.
All of this consternation about government spending is part of Democrats’ absurd pivot away from all the waste and fraud in the welfare programs they have favored for years. Where was their objection to the USAID revelations showing the millions upon millions the Biden administration had spent on transgender theater in South America, “Iraqi Sesame Street” for the Middle East, or spreading atheism in Nepal? Where was <a href="https://x.com/MollyJongFast/status/2031402915731034131?s=20">Molly Jong Fast’s criticism</a> of Pete Buttigieg spending almost $7.5 billion on just eight charging stations at random interstate rest stops?
All of the sudden, I’m supposed to be outraged because Hegseth’s Department of War spent money on giving our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, guardians, and coastguardsmen a decent meal? Do these weeping masses of outrage buying ice cream machines not remember that the United States had multiple Navy craft dedicated to delivering ice cream to our troops during the Second World War?
When billions in grants go to NGOs, fraudulent programs, and silly social adventures, the Department of War can afford to spend a drop in the bucket to give our troops a decent meal, replace old phones, computers, and furniture, or (God forbid) replace a piano.
Our troops deserve better than a nothingburger. Give them a good steak and some lobster. They deserve it.
* * *
Tony Kinnett is the host of The Tony Kinnett Cast at The Daily Signal. Connect with him on X: <a href="http://twitter.com/thetonus">@TheTonus</a>
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Soldier in tactical gloves holding canned MRE food.

Surf-And-Turfgate: Democrats Melt Down Over Steak And Lobster For Our Heroes

Defense Spending

Democrats

Opinion

Pete Hegseth

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Tuesday would mark the “most intense” day of strikes against Iran since the launch of the joint U.S.-Israeli military operation. 
“Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran: the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes, intelligence, more refined, and better than ever,” Hegseth said during a press briefing Tuesday morning. “On the other hand, the last 24 hours have seen Iran fire the lowest number of missiles they&#8217;ve been capable of firing yet.”
During the same briefing, General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said more than 5,000 Iranian targets have been struck since the operation began. He also said that Air Force bombers had dropped dozens of 2,000-pound GPS-guided penetrating weapons on deeply buried missile launchers in recent days. 
“On day 10 of Operation Epic Fury, we are winning with an overwhelming and unrelenting focus on our objectives,” Hegseth said. “No hesitation, no half measures. As President Trump declared yesterday, we&#8217;re crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force. We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.”
Hegseth also defended the U.S. military&#8217;s record on minimizing civilian casualties. 
“No nation takes more precautions to ensure there is never targeting of civilians than the U.S.,” he said. “From the boat strikes in the Caribbean to this campaign here, no nation in the history of warfare has ever attempted in every way possible to avoid civilian casualties.”
Hegseth added that the U.S. military investigates any incidents where questions arise.
“It’s a point that isn’t appreciated enough,” he said. “Where things happen that need to be investigated, we’ll investigate.”
Those comments came after the Pentagon said it was investigating reports that an Iranian girls&#8217; school had been struck during the operation. 
During the briefing, Caine and Hegseth outlined the three primary objectives of the campaign. First, Caine said the goal was to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile and drone capabilities to prevent attacks on U.S. forces and regional partners.
“That means attacking launch sites, command and control nodes, and stockpiles before they can threaten our personnel, our facilities, and our partners,” he said.
Second, Caine said the U.S. military is targeting Iran’s naval forces while protecting shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz. 
The third goal, Caine said, is targeting Iran’s military and industrial base, including weapons production facilities, research sites, and related infrastructure.

Secretary Pete Hegseth Hosts Americas Counter Cartel Conference In Florida

Pentagon: Most Punishing U.S. Strikes Yet On Iran Happening Now

Dan Caine

Iran

Defense officials were pushing for unrestricted lawful use of Anthropic’s AI models. Anthropic agreed—with two caveats. The leading AI company did not want its technology deployed for autonomous weapons systems or for mass domestic surveillance. The Biden administration previously agreed to these terms under a contract in 2024, but Trump administration Undersecretary of War Emil Michael is pushing back.
“I looked at the contracts and was like, holy cow. You can’t use them to plan a kinetic strike. You can’t use their AI model to move a satellite,” Michael said, arguing that the terms are incompatible with the Pentagon’s mission.
“I need to have terms of service be rational relative to our mission set,” he added.
Negotiations reached a climax when the Department of War designated Anthropic as a &#8220;supply-chain risk.&#8221; Historically, that label has only been used for foreign companies. 
During talks, Anthropic agreed to make exceptions to their rules for certain scenarios, such as planning for a drone swarm or responding to a Chinese hypersonic missile—but those carve-outs were not enough for the Pentagon.
“The exceptions [don&#8217;t] work,” said the undersecretary of War. “I cannot predict for the next twenty years all the things we might use AI for, so all lawful use seems like a good thing. If Congress wants to act, great. We have our own internal policies; we’ll follow them. It’s our province to decide how we fight and win wars.”
Michael also raised concerns about operational risk.
&#8220;If they&#8217;re willing to impose red lines that limit lawful military use, what&#8217;s to stop them from enforcing a shutdown if they disagree with how we&#8217;re applying it?” He added, “If in the middle of an operation they decide it violates something and shut it down, that&#8217;s not just unreliable—it&#8217;s dangerous to the troops depending on it.&#8221;
Senior employees at Anthropic have <a href="https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=cd133ae2d49e3551&amp;rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS1183US1185&amp;sxsrf=ANbL-n6QiThSAILMq57dIAMIniqyHLAwXw:1772902370049&amp;udm=7&amp;fbs=ADc_l-aN0CWEZBOHjofHoaMMDiKpaEWjvZ2Py1XXV8d8KvlI3ppPEReeCOS7s1VbbZz2TLt2sOibMbYx2XAHg-v8xM5VswWDsYo9WtqkvCRRg9-K9YK9-rwJY6otdILLcL1llHf6wa6fD9SWKWQ3hafveoFnDlzP7RXdVXDjm5FT8bTXZrAumtXaqFa-mzfvg6g4QfqAeDxEdIS5054TbMKRJVNt4dwQNA&amp;q=tarun+chhabra&amp;sa=X&amp;sqi=2&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjh0_P_n46TAxXiMlkFHZPEDdEQtKgLegQIFRAB&amp;biw=706&amp;bih=775&amp;dpr=2#fpstate=ive&amp;vld=cid:ee0a1859,vid:09BzmFm6lDU,st:0">publicly acknowledged</a> the company restricts model access when it believes usage violates its policies.
“We know what Russia and China and North Korea and others are trying to do with these models right now. We catch them. We turn it off,” said Tarun Chhabra, a senior member of Anthropic’s national security team, a team involved in negotiations with the Pentagon. Chhabra previously served as a member of Biden’s National Security Council.
Trump administration AI Czar David Sacks has stated that Biden-era policies would cause America to lose the global artificial intelligence race and <a href="https://x.com/DavidSacks/status/2028160240974188590">highlighted</a> that many Biden AI staffers have joined Anthropic. &#8220;Guess where those Biden AI staffers went to work as soon as the admin was over? Anthropic.&#8221;
Biden alum Elizabeth Kelly currently leads Anthropic&#8217;s Beneficial Deployments team and Biden&#8217;s special assistant Benjamin Merkel serves as a legislative analyst.
Anthropic told The Daily Wire that while the company has employed staff from the Biden administration, they recently appointed Trump alum Chris Liddell to the company&#8217;s board of directors.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei added that despite the Trump administration&#8217;s unprecedented decision to deem his company a supply-chain risk, the company will allow the Pentagon to continue using its technology. 
“We have offered continuity. We&#8217;re actually deeply concerned about this. We&#8217;re deeply concerned about the kind of interruption of service, which is exactly what&#8217;s happening when we&#8217;re designated a supply chain risk,” Amodei <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-full-transcript/">said</a>.
Secretary of War Pete Hegeseth <a href="https://x.com/SecWar/status/2027507717469049070">confirmed</a> the continued usage, saying, “Anthropic will continue to provide the Department of War its services for a period of no more than six months to allow for a seamless transition to a better and more patriotic service.”
​​Michael explained the unprecedented designation is needed because he didn’t want the risk of Anthropic’s policy bias to enter into any part of the defense enterprise. “If their model has this policy bias based on their constitution, their culture, their people, I don’t want Lockheed Martin using their model to design weapons for me.”
Dean Ball, a former Trump administration official who left his AI advisory position six months ago, said he sympathizes with Anthropic’s stance.
“I’m very sympathetic to—if I built something that was powerful and dangerous and uncertain, and the government was excitedly buying it for uses that could be very profound in how they affect people’s lives—wanting to be very careful that I didn’t sell them something that went horribly [expletive] wrong. And then I am blamed for it by the public and by the government,&#8221; said Ball.
Anthropic’s position differs from other AI companies. Elon Musk’s Grok and Google’s Gemini agreed the Pentagon could use their software for all lawful use cases.
Anthropic CEO Amodei <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anthropic-ceo-dario-amodei-full-transcript/">told</a> CBS his hesitation to give the Pentagon full lawful use of Anthropic’s technology is because the &#8220;technology is not ready.&#8221; He added, “We don&#8217;t want to sell something that we don&#8217;t think is reliable, and we don&#8217;t want to sell something that could get our own people killed or that could get innocent people killed.”
Secretary of War Hegseth <a href="https://x.com/SecWar/status/2027507717469049070">argues</a> that unelected tech executives such as Amodei should not make that call and should leave operational risk decisions to the United States military, and ultimately, President Trump.
“The Commander-in-Chief and the American people alone will determine the destiny of our armed forces, not unelected tech executives,&#8221; he stated.

Anthropic AI – Photo Illustration

Are Biden-Era AI Ties Behind Pentagon Showdown In Trump’s War Department?

Artificial Intelligence

Biden Administration

Defense

Donald Trump

Executive

The most significant threat to the United States military is the strategic divide between the citizen and the soldier, a distance that has only increased in recent decades as more and more Americans live removed from military life. A peek under the hood at the military planning apparatus can create an eye-opening experience for many otherwise well-informed citizens. Such is the case with a controversy that has spread like wildfire through the pages of Reddit and posts on X since the current Iran Operation began, focused on the infamous Millennium Challenge wargame, and particularly the approach of Marine Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper.
During peacetime, the military professionals of this country conduct serious and deliberate research in an attempt to understand “What is the American way of war? What are its strengths and weaknesses?” Far from an academic exercise, this self-understanding is vital to winning our nation’s wars. As American bombs fall on Tehran and our Navy dismantles what remains of Iran’s fleet, most Americans are watching the explosions without understanding the decades of quiet work that made this moment possible.
In the summer of 2002, the Pentagon conducted a $250 million exercise called Millennium Challenge, the most expensive war game in American history. A retired Marine Lieutenant General named Paul Van Riper was chosen to command the opposing force (a thinly veiled Iran). Van Riper was brilliant, aggressive, and innovative. He used motorcycle couriers instead of radios and signaled attacks from mosque loudspeakers. He launched swarms of suicide boats and a massive cruise missile salvo against a carrier battle group inside the Persian Gulf. In the first hours of the exercise, he sank sixteen warships and killed over twenty thousand Americans on paper. 
This was an astounding result. The exercise was halted, the ships “refloated,” and the game restarted with a script guaranteeing an American victory. Van Riper struggled under increasing “control mechanisms,” which he viewed as unfair, and then stepped down as the OPFOR commander mid-exercise.
The conventional reading of Millennium Challenge is that it was an expensive embarrassment. On the one hand, critics posited that Pentagon brass couldn’t stomach honest results, and more conservative voices faulted Van Riper for “breaking” the exercise. The latter argued that the simulation had been exploited: small boat swarms carrying unrealistically large explosive loads, couriers simulated as instantaneous, and air forces conjured from nowhere. They opined that Van Riper was overplaying. They pointed to Operation Praying Mantis in 1988, and later the events of April 2024. When Iran launched over three hundred drones and missiles at Israel in April 2024, 99% of them were intercepted. The pattern held in October 2024 and the Twelve-Day War of June 2025. Every real-world test confirmed what skeptics argued: Iran could never execute the Van Riper playbook.
Here is what amateurs and skeptics miss. The military effectiveness of Operation Epic Fury is precisely because Van Riper played the enemy so aggressively. This is why we were prepared.
Every day for decades, gray-faced staff officers swiped into the CENTCOM compound in Tampa and burned the midnight oil for uncelebrated hours upon hours to develop solutions to Millennium Challenge — think of it as the equivalent of the Kobayashi Maru. The 752-page JFCOM after-action report acknowledged what Van Riper had proven: that a 24-hour notice to Iran could be devastating to the United States; that we must focus on anti-access threats consistently; and that we lacked deployment agility and needed to take care in our basing.
These findings became vital data points to planners. Across two decades, posture was developed in depth, we upgraded our weapons (Arrow-3, upgraded Aegis), ringed the Gulf with THAAD batteries, and refined counter-drone and counter-small-boat technologies. We stopped giving adversaries twenty-four-hour ultimatums. We increased carrier standoff. All measures built against the Van Riper challenge. That is the legacy of Millennium Challenge ‘02.
There is a growing chasm in this country between those who serve and those who don’t, and nowhere is it wider than in understanding what the military does when it isn’t fighting. There are no movies or medals for the men and women who spend careers in the windowless vaults at CENTCOM, producing war plans upon contingencies, upon war plans upon contingencies — all classified, most never executed, none glamorous. I was one of them. What those planners do, year after year, is imagine the worst scenarios and build the architecture to defeat them. The dominance you are witnessing against Iran was not born on February 28, 2026. It was born in those vaults, over decades, by people whose names you will never know.
A perceptive cynic might see this as the self-gratifying sentiment of a retired Colonel, and maybe so. More importantly, however, with Operation Epic Fury, we are answering one of our own vital questions: “What is the American way of war?” It is an opportunity for an honest reckoning of where we excel and a humble review of where we falter.
We are outstanding planners, inheritors of the discipline of Alfred von Schlieffen and the foresight of the Rainbow Plans of the 1920s. Give America two decades to plan a theater war against a known adversary, and we will execute with devastating precision. No nation on earth comes close. But we ought to pause and ask harder questions about how we respond to the unexpected. We should ask ourselves whether we are a one-trick pony — vulnerable to conflicts in places that don’t look like the National Training Center at Barstow, against enemies we haven’t spent a generation gaming out. Today, we recognize the gift that preparation gives us.
Twenty-four years ago, Paul Van Riper sank our fleet on a computer screen, and a lot of very serious people in concrete rooms took notice. As a community, we studied his moves, debated their veracity, and then built systems to counter them. We war-gamed and rehearsed his tactics until the countermoves became doctrine and the doctrine became muscle memory. Now, Iran has attempted the real thing by unleashing drone swarms, missile barrages, closing the Strait of Hormuz, and conducting attacks across the Gulf. All of which are being decisively defeated.
So today, we owe our thanks and gratitude to Lt. Gen. Van Riper. His courage and insight fueled every nameless planner who will walk through the CENTCOM gates next month and do it all again — because that is what makes victory possible.
* * *
COL (ret) Alexander “Xander” Bullock served in the U.S. Army from 1997-2024, with a tour at U.S. Central Command from 2016–2020 as a logistics planner, logistics operations officer, and advisor in the CENTCOM Commander’s Action Group.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Riper marines

America Lost An Infamous Wargame To Iran. That’s Why We’re Winning Now. 

America Lost An Infamous Wargame To Iran. That's Why We're Winning Now. 

Marines

Middle East

The Department of War released the names of four U.S. Army Reserve soldiers killed in an Iranian attack in Kuwait over the weekend.
Those fallen include Capt. Cody A. Khork, 35, Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens, 42, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole M. Amor, 39, and Sgt. Declan J. Coady, 20, according to the Pentagon.
All four of the soldiers were assigned to the 103rd Sustainment Command, Des Moines, Iowa, and were supporting Operation Epic Fury.
The department is continuing to investigate the incident that occurred in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, during an unmanned aircraft system attack.
Two other service members were also killed in the attack but have yet to be identified publicly.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Monday that the troops were killed after an Iranian missile slipped through U.S. air defenses during heavy incoming fire.
“You have air defenses and a lot coming in — and you hit most of it,&#8221; Hegseth said. “Every once in a while, you might have one — unfortunately, we call it a ‘squirter’ — that makes its way through.”
&#8220;These are powerful weapons,” he added.
President Donald Trump expressed his gratitude to the fallen, but said “there will likely be more” before the operation ends.
“We honor our fallen heroes, who served fearlessly and selflessly in defense of our nation. Their sacrifice, and the sacrifices of their families, will never be forgotten,” Lt. Gen. Robert Harter, chief of Army Reserve and commanding general of U.S. Army Reserve Command, said.
<div id="attachment_1053173" style="width: 586px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1053173" class="size-large wp-image-1053173" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQvW0AAOhSS-576x576.jpeg" alt="" width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQvW0AAOhSS-576x576.jpeg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQvW0AAOhSS-300x300.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQvW0AAOhSS-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQvW0AAOhSS-768x768.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQvW0AAOhSS-1536x1536.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQvW0AAOhSS.jpeg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" />Capt. Cody Khork</div>
Khork, a resident of Lakeland, Florida, first joined the National Guard in 2009, where he worked as a 13P (Multiple Launch Rocket System / Fire Direction Specialist). In 2014, he became a commissioned officer in the Army Reserve, serving as a Military Police officer. Over the course of his service, he deployed to Saudi Arabia in 2018, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in 2021, and Poland in 2024.
Khork’s awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Army Superior Unit Award, Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Korea Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, Army Reserve Component Overseas Training Ribbon, Armed Forces Reserve Medal with 10 Year Device and “M” Device, and the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal.
<div id="attachment_1053177" style="width: 586px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1053177" class="size-large wp-image-1053177" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ1XEAA4aAk-576x576.jpeg" alt="" width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ1XEAA4aAk-576x576.jpeg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ1XEAA4aAk-300x300.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ1XEAA4aAk-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ1XEAA4aAk-768x768.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ1XEAA4aAk-1536x1536.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ1XEAA4aAk.jpeg 2047w" sizes=" (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" />Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor</div>
Amor, a resident of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, enlisted in the National Guard as a 92A (Automated Logistics Specialist) in 2005. She transferred to the Army Reserve in 2006 and deployed to Kuwait and Iraq in 2019.
Amor’s awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Service Medal, NCO Professional Development Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, and the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” Device.
<div id="attachment_1053175" style="width: 586px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1053175" class="size-large wp-image-1053175" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ7WAAEPX9w-576x576.jpeg" alt="" width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ7WAAEPX9w-576x576.jpeg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ7WAAEPX9w-300x300.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ7WAAEPX9w-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ7WAAEPX9w-768x768.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ7WAAEPX9w-1536x1536.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQ7WAAEPX9w.jpeg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" />Sgt. 1st Class Noah L. Tietjens</div>
Tietjens, a resident of Bellevue, Nebraska, enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2006 as a 91B (Wheeled Vehicle Mechanic). He had two deployments to Kuwait in 2009 and 2019.
Tietjens’ awards and decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, and the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with “M” Device.
<div id="attachment_1053179" style="width: 586px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1053179" class="size-large wp-image-1053179" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQyWIAAh8wr-576x576.jpeg" alt="" width="576" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQyWIAAh8wr-576x576.jpeg 576w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQyWIAAh8wr-300x300.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQyWIAAh8wr-150x150.jpeg 150w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQyWIAAh8wr-768x768.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQyWIAAh8wr-1536x1536.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/HChdlQyWIAAh8wr.jpeg 2047w" sizes=" (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px" />Sgt. Declan J. Coady</div>
Coady, posthumously promoted from specialist, was a resident of Des Moines, Iowa. He enlisted in the Army Reserve in 2023 as a 25B (Army Information Technology Specialist).
Coady’s awards and decorations include the Army Service Ribbon, National Defense Service Ribbon, and the Overseas Service Ribbon.
“To the families and teammates of these Cactus Nation soldiers: you have my deepest sympathy and my respect,” Maj. Gen. Todd Erskine, commanding general, 79th Theater Sustainment Command, said. “Our nation is kept safe by folks like these — brave men and women who put it all on the line every single day. They represent the heart of America. We will remember their names, their service, and their sacrifice.”

Fallen Soldiers

Pentagon Identifies Four Army Reserve Soldiers Killed In Iranian Attack: ‘Served Fearlessly And Selflessly’

Global Politics

World

War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that the Trump administration is monitoring for potential domestic threats related to Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. military campaign in Iran.
Concerns about Iranian sleeper cells have persisted since last year. Those fears intensified after the FBI said it is investigating a “potential nexus to terrorism” in connection with a shooting in Austin, Texas, on Sunday that left two people dead and 14 injured, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/fbi-probes-potential-nexus-to-terrorism-in-deadly-austin-shooting-spree" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a> previously reported.
“Well, across the inner agency in full coordination, of course, we’re paying attention to any potentialities there. This is a former regime, a regime that seeks to export that ideology, to try to sow terror,” Hegseth said when asked by The Daily Wire.
“We’re ready for that. We’ve seen these types of folks before. And the American people can rest assured that we’re vigilant on that,” he added.
Hegseth appeared alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine at the Pentagon on Monday morning, where they outlined the opening phase of the operation. Officials said the campaign aims to dismantle Iran&#8217;s missile and nuclear capabilities and degrade its naval forces.
Iran&#8217;s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other leaders were killed in the strikes. President Donald Trump has since encouraged the Iranian people to rise up against the country&#8217;s theocratic government.
“This is not a so-called regime change war. But the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it,” Hegseth said.
He also brushed off criticism of the operation being compared to the Iraq War, saying, “This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted to X over the weekend that she is in “direct coordination with our federal intelligence and law enforcement partners as we continue to closely monitor and thwart any potential threats to the homeland.”
The Department of Homeland Security is currently facing a funding lapse, and the war in Iran is raising calls from Republicans in Congress to end the shutdown, which began amid disputes over federal immigration enforcement tactics.
In June 2025, DHS’s National Terrorism Advisory System issued a bulletin warning of potential risks tied to tensions with Iran. The bulletin, which expired in September, noted that the likelihood of danger within the United States could increase if Iranian leadership called for retaliation.
“Multiple recent Homeland terrorist attacks have been motivated by anti-Semitic or anti-Israel sentiment, and the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict could contribute to US-based individuals plotting additional attacks,” the bulletin said.
Anti-Iranian regime rallies took place in the United States over the weekend after Operation Epic Fury began, including in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Hegseth Sends Clear Message To Potential Iran-Linked Terrorists Targeting U.S. Soil

Terrorism

Trump Administration

The Pentagon is severing ties with a major AI developer after a standoff over military access to artificial intelligence tools, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced Friday, designating Anthropic a “Supply-Chain Risk to National Security.”
In a lengthy X post, Hegseth <a href="https://x.com/secwar/status/2027507717469049070?s=46">stated</a> in part: “Our position has never wavered and will never waver: the Department of War must have full, unrestricted access to Anthropic’s models for every LAWFUL purpose in defense of the Republic.”
Hegseth said Anthropic and CEO Dario Amodei chose “duplicity,” accusing them of trying to &#8220;strong-arm the United States military into submission &#8211; a cowardly act of corporate virtue-signaling that places Silicon Valley ideology above American lives.”
“Their true objective is unmistakable: to seize veto power over the operational decisions of the United States military,” the secretary said. “That is unacceptable.”
The War Secretary added that “Anthropic’s stance is fundamentally incompatible with American principles,” and announced that, as a result of the company’s refusal to accede to the Pentagon’s demands, it would be designated a “supply-chain risk.”
“Effective immediately, no contractor, supplier, or partner that does business with the United States military may conduct any commercial activity with Anthropic,” Hegseth stated, adding that the Pentagon and Anthropic will untangle their relationship over the next six months while the federal government transitions to a new AI partner.
Hegseth’s announcement follows President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116144552969293195">statement</a> earlier Friday, in which the president ordered “EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology.”
Trump called Anthropic a “radical Left, woke company” whose “selfishness is putting AMERICAN LIVES at risk, our Troops in danger, and our National Security in JEOPARDY.”
In January, the Department of War released a document outlining its strategies for AI dominance, which included the following <a href="https://media.defense.gov/2026/Jan/12/2003855671/-1/-1/0/ARTIFICIAL-INTELLIGENCE-STRATEGY-FOR-THE-DEPARTMENT-OF-WAR.PDF">statement</a>: “The Department must also utilize models free from usage policy constraints that may limit lawful military applications.”
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei released a <a href="https://www.anthropic.com/news/statement-department-of-war">statement</a> of his own on Thursday as the negotiations were ongoing, stating that while he believes in utilizing artificial intelligence to defend the United States and push back against autocracies, in certain cases, AI could be used in opposition to such goals.
Those cases, according to Amodei, are “mass domestic surveillance” and “fully autonomous weapons.”
“AI-driven mass surveillance presents serious, novel risks to our fundamental liberties. … For example, under current law, the government can purchase detailed records of Americans’ movements, web browsing, and associations from public sources without obtaining a warrant, a practice the Intelligence Community has acknowledged raises privacy concerns and that has generated bipartisan opposition in Congress. Powerful AI makes it possible to assemble this scattered, individually innocuous data into a comprehensive picture of any person’s life—automatically and at massive scale,” Amodei said.
As to fully autonomous weapons, the CEO acknowledged that such weapons may one day “prove critical,” but with current AI technology, “systems are simply not reliable enough to power fully autonomous weapons.”
The clash marks a dramatic rupture between the U.S. military and one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent AI firms, escalating a broader battle over who controls the future use of artificial intelligence in national defense.

President Trump Holds Cabinet Meeting At The White House

Pentagon Moves To Blacklist AI Company In Escalating National Security Clash

National Security

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Friday that Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts, agreed to abandon its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and ensure private spaces for males and females. 
Hegseth said the Pentagon would continue providing support to Scouting America contingent on its compliance with demands to drop woke policies. He added that the department would yank funding if the organization did not follow through on its commitment to end DEI policies. 
&#8220;After 2012, however, the Boy Scouts lost their way, and a once great organization became gravely wounded. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) crept in. The name was changed to ‘Scouting America.’  Girls were accepted,” Hegseth said in a video message.  &#8220;The focus on God as the ruler of the universe was watered down to include openness to humanism and Earth-centered pagan religions. Scouting became an organization that no longer supported and celebrated boys.”
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The Department of War has officially put Scouting America on notice.
It’s time to get back to basics — and DoW is leading the charge. <a href="https://t.co/EnY9mvaFLX">pic.twitter.com/EnY9mvaFLX</a>
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecWar/status/2027369564531818827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Historically, the department has supported the Scouts by providing personnel and access to equipment, installations, facilities, and office space. Hegseth said the changes adopted by the organization since 2012 “jeopardized the relationship with this department and I was very seriously considering ending our support of scouting altogether.&#8221;
Hegseth said Scouting America agreed to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order on &#8220;Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” which bars federal funding for organizations that promote DEI. He described the move as one of several “key reforms” the group had agreed to implement. 
He said the organization would be &#8220;reviewing and replacing politicized, divisive, and discriminatory language throughout the organization&#8217;s programs and all publications. No more DEI. Zero.”
Hegseth added that the organization would discontinue a DEI-focused merit badge and introduce a new military service badge. He said Scouting America would also clarify its policies to ensure that showers, tents, and other private spaces were kept sex-specific. 
“Scouting America will modify its policy to make clear that membership will be based solely on biological sex at birth and not gender identity,” Hegseth said. “That means that the application, any application, will have only two sex designations, male and female, and the application must match the applicant&#8217;s birth certificate. Scouting will also make clear that biological boys and girls will not be allowed to occupy or share intimate spaces together.”
In a statement to The Daily Wire, Scouting America said it had engaged in dialogue with the Trump administration to comply with the DEI executive order, but added that it would keep its current name and emphasized that girls would still be welcome.
&#8220;Over several months, we engaged in dialogue with Department leadership to align on how we could deepen our service to military families, while making programmatic updates to comply with Executive Order 14173,&#8221; the organization said. &#8220;Today we are moving forward with implementing new programmatic elements that deliver on that mission: waiving registration fees for military families, launching a new merit badge focused on military service and veterans, and reinforcing our commitment to Scouting’s foundational ideas: leadership, character, duty to God, duty to country and service. &#8221;
Hegseth said that the Department of War would review Scouting America’s compliance with the agreement and reassess its support in six months to determine whether to continue providing funding.
Earlier this month, Hegseth <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hegseths-war-department-says-boy-scouts-must-roll-back-woke-or-lose-military-support">gave</a> an ultimatum to Scouting America, telling the organization to ditch DEI or lose support from the Department of War. Before rebranding to Scouting America, the organization was known as the Boy Scouts for more than a century. Hegseth said he would like to see the organization return to its original name.

SECRETARY OF WAR PETE HEGSETH, COLORADO

Trump Admin Strikes Deal With Boy Scouts To End Woke Policies — Here Are The Reforms

Boy Scouts

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

It was not uncommon for the United States Army Corps of Engineers to hand out pamphlets offering federal assistance for municipal infrastructure projects to bolster local communities across the nation.
The problem? The money didn&#8217;t always exist.
Some of the advertised services were not covered by an approved federal budget and amounted to empty promises, according to Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle.
This is just one of the many issues detailed by Telle&#8217;s &#8220;Building Infrastructure, Not Paperwork” <a href="https://www.nao.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Stories/Article/4411097/assistant-secretary-of-the-army-for-civil-works-announces-building-infrastructu/">initiative</a> at a Pentagon roundtable discussion last week. He’s hoping to bring more efficiency to the department known most recently for its work in Southern California after the 2025 wildfires.
The 27 different initiatives aim to rein in bureaucratic bloat within the department. One of those initiatives is “consistency in communication of the president’s budget,” which would avoid more pamphlet mishaps by making it clear what the federal government can and cannot cover.
“Their mode has been out there to market to see ‘Hey, bring us more work. Bring us more work,’ instead of focusing on delivering the things that are nationally strategic,” Telle told The Daily Wire.
Other key initiatives outlined include scrapping “inactive projects,” improving prioritization, and ending contracts not considered beneficial.
In another example, he cited a Port Everglades project in South Florida with a price tag of $3.2 billion. In reality, it should have only cost $600 million to “deepen and widen” the key commerce hub.
“It’s because of all the processes and all the environmental concerns, all the, you know, lack of leadership to say ‘Hey, let’s be reasonable.’ Yes, we need to mitigate the environment, but it doesn’t need to cause a project to be 5X [the cost],” he said. “I mean, our competitors around the globe are not paying 5X for a port based on these types of concerns.”
It’s no secret that the Trump administration has been aiming to cut contracts and other efforts it has deemed unnecessary, most notably through the Department of Government Efficiency. Last April, War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the War Department would scrap $5.1 billion in contracts.
&#8220;We need this money to spend on better health care for our warfighters and their families, instead of $500 an hour business process consultant,&#8221; Hegseth said at the time. &#8220;That&#8217;s a lot of consulting.&#8221;
The month prior, he had announced $580 million in cuts.
As for the engineering corps, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll stated that “continuous Army transformation is about rapidly delivering war winning capabilities to the Army today, not years in the future. But that’s not all; we’re also transforming at home, too.”

Empty Promises To Billion-Dollar Blowouts — A Federal Cleanup Begins At The Pentagon

Major Efficiency Effort Aims To Cut Bloat For Army Engineers: 'Transforming At Home'

Army

Army Corps of Engineers

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has directed Army Secretary Dan Driscoll to remove Colonel Dave Butler from his role as chief of Army public affairs and senior advisor, the latest in a series of leadership changes at the Pentagon tied to ongoing efforts to reshape senior military ranks.
On Thursday, Hegseth ordered Driscoll to remove Butler from his post even though Driscoll had resisted the move for months because of Butler’s role in Army transformation efforts and communications leadership. The order came just before Driscoll was to leave for Geneva to assume leadership of the U.S. delegation in ongoing talks on the Ukraine war.
In a statement <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/02/17/pete-hegseth-dan-driscoll-david-butler/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzcxMzA0NDAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzcyNjg2Nzk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NzEzMDQ0MDAsImp0aSI6IjM1NTk0ZDBjLWY1NmQtNDlkNC1hZTQyLTBjNDFlNWQxMjgxOCIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9uYXRpb25hbC1zZWN1cml0eS8yMDI2LzAyLzE3L3BldGUtaGVnc2V0aC1kYW4tZHJpc2NvbGwtZGF2aWQtYnV0bGVyLyJ9.2kXkZH7uJuJMTsWNZIda10tbo6UwQGf_ycpMPittFpY">sent</a> to The Washington Post, Driscoll thanked Butler for his service: “We greatly appreciate Col. Dave Butler’s lifetime of service in America’s Army and to our nation,” adding that Butler has been “an integral part of the Army’s transformation efforts” and wishing him success in his upcoming retirement after 28 years in uniform.
Butler had also served as the head of public affairs for the Joint Chiefs of Staff when General Mark Milley was chairman, a tenure that placed him in a leadership circle viewed critically by the Trump-aligned Pentagon team. Milley’s tenure became a flash point in the Trump era. As chairman of the Joint Chiefs during the previous administration, he drew public criticism from Trump allies after reportedly reassuring Chinese military officials during the 2020 transition that the U.S. would not attack, a development Trump himself <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/111111513207332826">called</a> “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.”
The Pentagon later <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-era-of-accountability-hegseth-strips-gen-mark-milleys-security-detail">revoked</a> Milley’s personal security detail and his security clearance, and multiple Pentagon investigations were <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/05/20/senators-demand-new-investigation-into-former-gen-milleys-conduct/">ordered</a> into his conduct.
Those actions by Hegseth — stripping Milley’s security detail and opening a formal inquiry — were widely covered in Pentagon reporting at the time and stem from long-running tension between Milley and Trump-aligned political leadership over the general’s calls with foreign counterparts and public statements about civilian control.
Butler’s association with Milley and his role as a senior communications officer under him have not been publicly cited by the Department of War as the official reason for his removal; however, the timing and the ongoing pattern of personnel changes at the Pentagon suggest internal disagreements over leadership philosophy and messaging are at work.
Since taking office, Hegseth has been reshaping senior roles across the Department of Defense. Fox News has <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/secdef-hegseth-responds-rumors-he-drafted-list-military-officials-he-purge">reported</a> that multiple senior officers, including four-star leaders across service branches, have been replaced, retired, or moved out of key positions amid what the War Department describes as a refocusing of leadership toward mission priorities.
Butler’s removal is especially notable because his name appeared on promotion lists for two consecutive years for his first star, but Hegseth has delayed approvals for several officers selected by the Army board, in part over concerns about those choices. Butler volunteered to withdraw his own name from the list to help clear the logjam.
The directive to remove Butler comes as the Pentagon continues to balance internal leadership changes with ongoing international commitments, and will likely draw scrutiny from lawmakers and military observers watching how the department manages personnel decisions amid fragile peace talks in both Europe and the Middle East that require a united front by American military command.

Hegseth Just Canned Top Pentagon Official

WASHINGTON — The Department of War reduced its civilian workforce by more than 10% last year, according to Pentagon data first obtained by The Daily Wire.
The War Department&#8217;s civilian workforce decreased from 794,538 to 712,677 employees last year, The Daily Wire has learned, resulting in a net reduction of 81,861 employees, about 10.3%. The reduction in force is one way War Secretary Pete Hegseth, under the direction of President Donald Trump, has worked to strengthen the American military.
&#8220;The goal was straightforward: eliminate redundancies and ensure the Department operates as a well-oiled machine for our warfighters,&#8221; a War Department official shared. “Doing this is fully aligned with the president’s priorities.”
Hegseth <a href="https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4189049/dod-uses-voluntary-reductions-as-path-to-civilian-workforce-goals/">announced in March 2025</a> that reductions in the workforce were part of his larger plan to rebuild the military in the spirit of the Trump administration. Hegseth emphasized that to minimize involuntary separations, he wanted to ease the path towards voluntary reductions.
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&#8220;To deliver on my commitment to urgently rebuild our military, revive the warrior ethos and deliver maximum deterrence, we must aggressively refocus every available resource towards our core mission,&#8221; Hegseth said. &#8220;We will realign the size of our civilian workforce and strategically restructure it to supercharge our American warfighters consistent with my interim National Defense Strategy guidance.&#8221;
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<div id="attachment_1044737" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-how-much-the-war-department-reduced-its-workforce-in-2025/u-s-president-trump-visits-uss-george-washington-in-japan-3" rel="attachment wp-att-1044737"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1044737" class="wp-image-1044737 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2243728587-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2243728587-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2243728587-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2243728587-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/02/GettyImages-2243728587.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)</div>
The War Department also hired 29,347 new employees and processed 109,441 departures in 2025. Of those departures, 14,606 were involuntary departures, and 94,835 were voluntary departures.
Under the 2025 Voluntary Deferred Resignation Program, civilian employees could submit a voluntary resignation with an effective date of September 30, 2025, while still receiving full salary and benefits. That program received 70,481 applications, resulting in 49,991 signed separation agreements.
Additionally, some 6,600 employees left the War Department using the Voluntary Retirement Authority program.
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Hegseth has argued throughout his tenure as the Secretary of War that his objectives are &#8220;restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military and reestablishing deterrence.&#8221; The most fundamental of those three, he said, is &#8220;restoring the warrior ethos.&#8221;
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&#8220;Everything starts and ends with warriors in training and on the battlefield,&#8221; he told top military leaders at Quantico in April 2025. &#8220;We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. And refocusing on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.&#8221;
At the time, he noted that the War Department was &#8220;optimizing the civilian workforce, ensuring that we have the right employees in the right roles, at the right time to support our warfighters.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;re doing this by voluntary means, to the greatest extent possible, through offerings like voluntary early retirement and separation initiatives,&#8221; he added, describing how the Pentagon was also ending telework and remote work culture, expecting employees to deliver results and respond to leadership needs.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a lot of change very quickly,&#8221; he said at the time. &#8220;Now as you may have noticed, the media likes to call it chaos. We call it overdue. How are the men and women responding to this — to this call? Well, I can tell you personally it&#8217;s going better than we could have ever expected. This department, and you know it, across the joint force is filled with patriots who want nothing more than to focus — be laser focused on serving their country. And that&#8217;s why retention is rebounding as well, big time, in real time.&#8221;
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