Pete Hegseth orders Pentagon cuts (2025)

On Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum which indicated his department plans to "realign" the size of its civilian workforce and "restructure" it to "supercharge our American warfighters."

The document, titled Initiating the Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative, reopens an early retirement scheme for most civilian Pentagon employees and calls for a new "future-state organizational chart" to be presented to the secretary no later than April 11.

The Department of Defense declined to comment beyond its online statement when contacted for comment by Newsweek.

Why It Matters

According to the DOD, it currently has around 950,000 civilian employees, so cuts have the potential to impact a significant number of people.

Shortly after his inauguration, President Donald Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), under the leadership of tech billionaire Elon Musk, to cut what they deem to be wasteful government spending and reduce the national debt. According to Treasury Department figures, the U.S. national debt in January 2025 was more than $36.2 trillion.

What To Know

Friday's memo instructs the DOD to "realign the size of our civilian workforce and strategically restructure it to supercharge our American warfighters."

It calls for bureaucracy to be cut, duplicative efforts removed and more technical solutions found, adding: "The net effect will be a reduction in the number of civilian full-time equivalent positions and increased resources in the areas where we need them most."

Specifically, the memo instructs the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness to reopen a deferred resignation program for nearly 900,000 full-time DOD employees, allowing them to resign with full pay and benefits until September 30.

This essentially replicates a scheme which DOGE oversaw, via the Office of Personnel Management, from January 28 that offered most federal employees full pay and benefits for several months in exchange for tendering their resignations.

According to the DOD, around 21,000 of its civilian employees volunteered to participate in this scheme.

Referring to eligibility, Hegseth said: "Exemptions should be rare. My intent is to maximize participation so that we can minimize the number of involuntary actions that may be required to achieve the strategic objectives."

The memo also instructed senior DOD officials to produce a "proposed future-state organizational chart" for each of their respective departments no later than April 11, including proposals for savings.

However, the memo does not say how many DOD civilian staff it would like to lose, in contrast to February when the department indicated cuts of between 5 and 8 percent to its civilian workforce, meaning up to 76,000 people.

What People Are Saying

The Department of Defense memo stated that its proposals are needed "to put the department on ready footing to deter our enemies and fight for peace," adding it aims to create "a force structure that is lean, mean and prepared to win."

The Trump administration has already fired thousands of federal employees who were still in their one-year probationary period, including some at the DOD.

However, the move has sparked a legal battle with U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruling that the mass firings were unlawful and should be reversed.

What Happens Next

It is unclear how many civilian DOD employees will accept the new deferred resignation program, and to what extent it will be enough to avoid compulsory job losses.

Update, 3/31/25, 4:29 a.m. ET: This story has been updated to note the Department of Defense declined to comment.