In his May 5 memorandum intended for senior Pentagon leadership, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unveiled his plan to scale back the number of general and flag officers serving in the military.
Maintaining his focus on the lethality of the U.S. military, Hegseth called it “a critical step” necessary to “optimize and streamline leadership.”
Introducing the “Less Generals More GIs Policy.” pic.twitter.com/bQLRL2MqSC
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) May 5, 2025
WorldNetDaily spoke to Air Force Col. (Ret.) Rob Maness, who didn’t mince words: “Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth just dropped a bombshell on the Pentagon’s bloated bureaucracy.” He added, “Hegseth’s move to cut the brass and redirect funds to the rank-and-file is a ‘less generals, more GIs’ strategy I’ve been screaming about for years.”
The former bomber squadron commander who served the U.S. military for more than 30 years told WND, “His plan to slash 20% of four-star generals and 10% of general officers is the kind of gut punch the military needs to get back to its warfighting roots.”
For example, Maness points out, “We’ve got 44 four-star flag officers today, compared to just 17 when we had 12 million troops in World War II.” He adds starkly, “That’s not leadership, [but] a top-heavy mess sucking up resources that should be arming our grunts and flyboys.”
Calling out the Air Force specifically, the former bomber squadron commander suggested, “If the Air Force’s generals won’t ditch their rainbow agendas, fire them all and start fresh.” That is the position he has maintained for months, pointing to a January 2025 X post.
I suggest we replace the entire General officer corps in the @usairforce if they don’t publicly reverse this crap @POTUS @PeteHegseth @realDonaldTrump https://t.co/T06AIQwQz5
— Col. Rob Maness ret. (@RobManess) January 26, 2025
According to Maness, “Too many of these careerist stars have been playing political games, protecting their institution instead of the Constitution.” Many went along with “the unlawful COVID ‘vaccine’ order and hurting their troops, pushing woke nonsense like DEI quotas or climate change programs.” Rather, he said, these senior officers should have been focused on what really matters: “killing the enemy and winning wars.”
Maness praised Trump’s Defense chief for “finally swinging the axe, [saying] it’s about damn time.” But he warned, “Let’s not get carried away popping champagne just yet.” The coming reductions, he said, need to be “surgical” and “not a blind hack job.”
Hegseth, he said, must “target the dead weight – those Biden-era officers who’ve turned the Pentagon into a social experiment lab and following unlawful orders – while keeping the battle-hardened leaders who live for the mission.”
On May 6, Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. took to X to post his objection to Hegseth’s new directive, claiming it could “cripple the military.”
We need efficiency at the Dept. of Defense. But personnel decisions should be based on facts & analysis, not arbitrary percentages. Eliminating the positions of many of our most experienced officers without justification could cripple the military. pic.twitter.com/L9rVa7LwWj
— Senator Jack Reed (@SenJackReed) May 6, 2025
For Maness, “Senator Reed’s whining about ‘crippling’ the military isn’t entirely baseless, [as] arbitrary cuts without a clear plan could kneecap our readiness.” That’s why, he said, “Hegseth needs to root out the disloyal, the incompetent and the agenda-driven, replacing them with merit-based warriors who’ll put America first.”
“If he pulls this off,” Maness argued, “we’ll have a military that’s not just smaller but stronger – focused on crushing threats, not chasing diversity metrics.” He trusts that Hegseth is “serious about a leaner, meaner force, but it has to be done right.”
