DOD firings
Probationary-employee firings on hold. A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to fire thousands of recently hired and promoted federal employees. “The Office of Personnel Management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees at another agency,” said Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District for Northern California.
SecDef Hegseth’s planned firing of some 5,400 DOD probationary employees was to start today, according to court filings.
The Trump administration tried to argue that it never ordered the firings, its own memos and communications to the contrary. That drew a rebuke from Alsup, who said it was unreasonable to suggest that agencies across government simultaneously decided to fire probationary employees on their own volition, adding that the nation cannot “run our agencies with lies.” GovExec’s Eric Katz reports.
Coming soon: far wider dismissals through formal reduction-in-force orders. By March 13, federal agencies must submit plans for “maximum elimination” of functions not required by law, per a Wednesday memo from the White House’s Office of Management and the Budget. Agencies are to start with employees whose jobs are not required in statute and who face furloughs in government shutdowns—typically around one-third of the federal workforce, or 700,000 employees. Read on, here.
Last week, Hegseth announced plans to cut 5 to 8% of DOD’s civilians, which would mean up to about 61,000 workers.
What are your thoughts? We want to hear from you about how the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the DOD civilian workforce could affect military operations and readiness. Please share your thoughts with Jennifer Hlad ([email protected]; Signal: jhlad.25) and Meghann Myers ([email protected]; Signal: Meghann.Myers55).
Five former SecDefs denounce firing of senior leaders. “We are deeply alarmed by President Trump’s recent dismissals of several senior U.S. military leaders,” Lloyd Austin, Jim Mattis, Chuck Hagel, Leon Panetta and William Perry write in an open letter to Congress. “We write to urge the U.S. Congress to hold Mr. Trump to account for these reckless actions and to exercise fully its Constitutional oversight responsibilities.”
ICYMI: Trump and Hegseth announced plans to replace Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations; Gen. James Slife, Air Force vice chief of staff; and the top military lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force.
“The President offered no justification for his actions, even though he had nominated these officers for previous positions and the Senate had approved them. These officers’ exemplary operational and combat experience, as well as the coming dismissals of the Judge Advocates General of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force, make clear that none of this was about warfighting,” the letter says. The Washington Post has more, here.
Op-Ed: Dennis Blair, who led USPACOM and the U.S. intelligence community, disapproves of those firings and more in a commentary piece for Breaking Defense.
Welcome to this Friday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Bradley Peniston and Audrey Decker. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1994, NATO engaged in its first combat action since its founding 45 years previously when U.S. fighter planes shot down four Serbian warplanes that were violating Bosnia’s no-fly zone.
On the Hill
SecNav nominee’s confirmation hearing. Navy secretary nominee John Phelan has no military experience, but he was speaking the language Thursday during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill, reports D1’s Meghann Myers. He called “people our most precious resource,” vowing to “restore operational readiness” as the Navy faces “an inflection point” with China’s growing naval power outpacing the U.S.’s ability to put more ships in the water.
“I understand that some may question why a businessman who did not wear the uniform should lead the Navy. I respect that concern,” Phelan, 60, a career investment banker and Trump-campaign donor, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The Navy and the Marine Corps already possess extraordinary operational expertise within their ranks. My role is to utilize that expertise and strengthen it to step outside the status quo and take decisive action with a results-oriented approach.”
Trump’s marching orders: “The president has been very consistent when he spoke with me: shipbuilding, shipbuilding, shipbuilding,” said Phelan, who added that the chief executive is also pretty concerned about photos of rusty warships he’s seen posted on social media. “I jokingly say that President Trump has texted me numerous times very late at night – sometimes after one in the morning – [pictures] of rusty ships or ships in a yard, asking me, what am I doing about it? And I’ve told him, ‘I’m not confirmed yet and have not been able to do anything about it, but I will be very focused on it.’” Read on, here.
Former Navy diver tapped to be undersecretary. In another late-night post, Trump announced that he would nominate Hung Cao, a Vietnamese immigrant and Navy special-operations diver who deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia and served at the Pentagon, Homeland Security, and the FBI. Cao retired as a captain and later ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for House and Senate seats. Breaking Defense has more.
Related: The Government Accountability Office has released a new report: “Shipbuilding and Repair: Navy Needs a Strategic Approach for Private Sector Industrial Base Investments.” Read that, here.
Industry
Consultants in the crosshairs. In an effort to cut “non-essential consulting contracts,” the acting head of the General Services Administration, Stephen Ehikian, has told agencies to reduce spending to the 10 companies the administration deems the highest paid: Deloitte, Accenture Federal Services, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Dynamics, Leidos, Guidehouse, Hill Mission Technologies Corp., SAIC, CGI Federal and IBM.
Those 10 companies “are set to receive over $65 billion in fees in 2025 and future years,” Ehikian wrote in a memo dated Feb. 26 obtained by Nextgov/FCW. “This needs to, and must, change,” he added in bold. More from Nextgov and the Wall Street Journal.
Around the Pentagon
DOGE employees fan out at the food court. Staff members from the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency office are posted up in the Pentagon’s cafeteria and other common areas, a source tells Defense One. The DOGE workers have been approaching Pentagon employees, who have been told to be polite but dismissive, according to a source. They’re pretty easy to spot; reportedly, they’re wearing gear that says “DOGE.”
Earlier this month, defense officials met with DOGE representatives, who are making the rounds to federal agencies to find ways to slash funding. Hegseth has already directed the military services to find programs to cut to free up $50 billion in the Pentagon’s 2026 budget so that money can be moved to Trump-aligned priorities.
“What did you do this week” email guidance. The Pentagon has also instructed civilian employees how to respond if and when they receive a second email that will ask them for a bullet-point list of what they did last week. DOD personnel were instructed not to respond to the first email from the Office of Personnel Management. And the second time around, employees have been instructed not to respond unless it comes from a DOD email address, according to a source.
Details on transgender troops follow a kick-them-out memo. A senior defense official said on Thursday that there are currently 4,240 transgender servicemembers on active duty and in the Guard and Reserve. The exact number is uncertain, as the Pentagon doesn’t require transgender troops to self-identify.
A Pentagon plan to kick out transgender service members surfaced Wednesday in a public court filing that is part of a lawsuit over the administration’s new policy to block transgender Americans from joining the military. A memo orders the removal of current transgender troops unless they can obtain a waiver granted for “compelling government interest” that directly supports warfighting capabilities, or if servicemembers demonstrate “36 consecutive months of stability” in their sex without “clinically significant distress,” according to the memo.
Between 2015 to 2024, about 1,000 servicemembers received gender-affirming surgery, the official said, and the department spent roughly $52 million across those years for “psychotherapy, gender-affirming hormone therapy, gender affirming surgery, and other treatment-related costs.”
Defense officials have yet to provide any data or evidence to support the claim in Trump’s executive order that transgender servicemembers are “incompatible with active duty” or less mentally or physically fit for duty.
Further reading:
- “Trump eases rules on military raids and airstrikes, expanding range of who can be targeted” (CBS News)
- “SOCOM to host first-of-its-kind exercise to inform multi-domain task force,” DefenseScoop reports on April’s Sonic Spear, the command’s first-ever live-virtual-constructive exercise.
- “New Scout Unit That Heavily Leverages Drones, Electronic Warfare Tested By U.S. Army” (The War Zone)
- Commentary: “‘One Voice’ and the Trump Administration’s Conduct of Foreign Affairs,” from Lawfare: “A new executive order deploys a contested theory of presidential authority—and uses it to target the public servants responsible for conducting America’s foreign relations.” Read, here.
Etc.
And lastly today: RIP and Semper Fi, Gene Hackman. The Marine-turned-Oscar-winner has passed away at his house in New Mexico. Though Hackman served primarily as a radioman, a stint as an Armed Forces Radio DJ set him on a winding path to show business—including a role as a submarine commander in 1995’s Crimson Tide. Military.com has an appreciation, including a list of his duty stations, here.
The post The D Brief: Some DOD firings blocked; Consulting, eyed for cuts; SecNav nom speaks; DOGE in the food court; And a bit more. appeared first on Defense One.
