Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth commented on reports of a "list" of officers he plans to remove from the Pentagon during an interview on "FOX News Sunday." SHANNON BREAM: OK. I got to ask you about this rumored list of people that you allegedly put together that were all going to be cleaned out.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insists President Donald Trump ’s abrupt firing of the nation’s senior military officer amid a wave of dismissals at the Pentagon wasn't unusual, brushing aside outcry that the new administration is openly seeking to inject politics into the military.

President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of U.S. military leadership.

Elon Musk escalated DOGE's efforts to overhaul the federal government by singling out a Defense Department official's directive on Sunday to disregard an Office of Personnel Management email demanding workers account for their work.

U.S. officials say Department of Government Efficiency staffers were at the Pentagon on Tuesday and receiving lists of the military's probationary employees.