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Report: Biden Pentagon Hid Costs, Injuries Of Failed Gaza Pier

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Former President Joe Biden’s Pentagon deployed a floating pier off the coast of Gaza for “humanitarian aid” last year. According to a new report, the pier was more of a failure than his administration would publicly admit.

The floating port to aid Hamas-controlled Gaza was estimated to cost $320 million, as The Federalist previously reported, but was fraught with issues from the start. High winds and rough seas soon tore the pier apart — costing $22 million. As for the aid that successfully made it to shore, only some reached its intended destination, as looters ransacked and stole many of the delivery trucks.

Army Sgt. Quandarius Stanley died in October 2024 “after being critically injured” earlier during the mission, dubbed Operation Neptune Solace. The Department of Defense inspector general released a report on May 2, revealing that 62 U.S. personnel were injured over the course of the operation.

After several redacted lines, the report admitted the operation damaged 27 watercraft and pieces of equipment — which required “repair and maintenance” costs of “approximately $31 million.” It pointed to various weaknesses in the military’s “joint logistics over‑the‑shore” (JLOTS) operations.

“[T]he Army and Navy did not meet Service-level standards for equipment and unit readiness, nor did they organize, train, and equip their forces to meet common joint standards,” the report reads. “Insufficient manning, training, and materiel readiness at the Military Service level, coupled with the lack of integration and the interoperability … reduced the DoD’s effectiveness by repeatedly encountering known challenges and inefficiencies in JLOTS operations and exercises, including Operation Neptune Solace in Gaza.”

(Read more from “Report: Biden Pentagon Hid Costs, Injuries Of Failed Gaza Pier” HERE)

Hegseth Orders Purge of Senior Commanders, Cutting 20% of Four-Star Generals and Admirals

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Pentagon to cut 20% of four-star generals and admirals.

The high number of senior generals and admirals has been a source of criticism among both analysts and President Donald Trump, who has portrayed it as a symptom of a bloated and inefficient military. On Monday, Hegseth announced the promised cut of four-star generals and admirals, detailing the move in a memo obtained by the Washington Examiner. (Read more from “Hegseth Orders Purge of Senior Commanders, Cutting 20% of Four-Star Generals and Admirals” HERE)

Ousted Pentagon Adviser Says Hegseth ‘Consumed’ by Leaks as Trump Predicts He’ll ‘Get It Together’

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A top Pentagon official who was ousted in a dramatic purge earlier this month has criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for being preoccupied with disclosures to the press — while President Trump stood by the former Fox News personality and predicted that “he’s gonna get it together” in an interview published Monday.

“He was very focused on the leaks, and I think it’s kind of consumed the team a little bit,” Colin Carroll, former chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, told podcaster Megyn Kelly of Hegseth in a lengthy interview released Friday. “If you look at a pie chart of the secretary’s day, at this point, 50% of it is probably [the] leak investigation.”

“That’s a bad thing for America, it’s a bad thing for the president’s objectives,” added Carroll, 40, who was placed on leave April 16 and later dismissed along with senior adviser Dan Caldwell and deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick.

Around the same time, former top spokesman John Ullyot parted ways with DOD and penned a scathing Politico op-ed predicting Hegseth would soon be out of a job.

The White House has publicly stood by the defense secretary, with Trump telling The Atlantic magazine: “I think he’s gonna get it together. I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him.” (Read more from “Ousted Pentagon Adviser Says Hegseth ‘Consumed’ by Leaks as Trump Predicts He’ll ‘Get It Together’” HERE)

New Pentagon Chairman: U.S. Lacks Ability to Deter Adversaries

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The new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has warned that the U.S. military currently is unable to deter China and other adversaries and called for urgent defense reforms.

Gen. Dan Caine, who was sworn in as chairman on Monday, stated in recent Senate testimony that the weaknesses include an inability of the military system to support and respond rapidly to a conflict.

“The U.S. does not have the throughput, responsiveness, or agility needed to deter our adversaries,” Gen. Caine stated in written answers to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The disclosure comes as the U.S. military is facing potential conflict with China in the Taiwan Strait where the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has said China has been rehearsing for large-scale military operations against a key U.S. partner, Taiwan.

Adm. Sam Paparo, the commander, told a Senate hearing last week that China is engaged in “unprecedented aggression” against Taiwan. (Read more from “New Pentagon Chairman: U.S. Lacks Ability to Deter Adversaries” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Senate Confirms Elbridge Colby To Top Pentagon Post

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In a 54-45 vote, the U.S. Senate voted on Tuesday to confirm Elbridge Colby to be the next under secretary of defense for policy at the Pentagon. Several Democrat senators joined Republicans in supporting Colby, including Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Elisa Slotkin of Michigan, and Mark Kelly of Arizona. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was the lone Republican to vote against the nominee’s confirmation.

Colby’s nomination was advanced to the full Senate following a vote by the Senate Armed Services Committee last week. The committee did not release a final vote tally, only saying in a press release that Colby’s nomination was reported “favorably” in a roll call vote.

As under secretary of defense for policy, Colby will play a significant role in facilitating President Donald Trump’s policy priorities throughout the Defense Department. According to the Congressional Research Service, the position’s office “leads the development of the National Defense Strategy (NDS), routinely represents the Department of Defense (DOD) to interagency and international partners, and has a key role in preserving civilian control of the military.”

Colby previously served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development in the first Trump administration. (Read more from “Senate Confirms Elbridge Colby To Top Pentagon Post” HERE)

The Pentagon Purges Are About to Begin

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The Pentagon is preparing to trim the fat. Liberals have been perennial whiners about the Defense Department’s budget—watch them complain about the thousands of layoffs that are being planned right now. The Pentagon purge is about to begin, with at least 5,000 layoffs (via WaPo):

The Pentagon said Friday it will fire about 5,400 civilian employees beginning next week in an “initial” purge to its workforce, as President Donald Trump’s hastily issued orders to shake up the Defense Department faced new scrutiny and officials scrambled to understand how such actions could affect national security.

The announcement followed a day of uncertainty, as administration officials paused a plan to begin firings now while evaluating requests to retain thousands of other employees deemed essential. A senior Pentagon official, Darin Selnick, said in a statement late Friday that the Trump administration intends to cull its workforce by between 5 and 8 percent. With more than 900,000 civilian employees in the Defense Department, tens of thousands of people could be forced out eventually.

Echoing a pronouncement made earlier by Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, Selnick said in his statement that “it is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission-critical.”

[…]

The cuts will come after Trump administration officials, coordinating with billionaire Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service, have slashed thousands of employees elsewhere in the government as part of the president’s broad effort to dismantle the federal bureaucracy.

The Defense Department’s civilian worker purge is beginning with probationary employees, those who have one to three years of experience or who recently were promoted, according to officials familiar with the matter, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. That pool of people numbers between 50,000 and 55,000, officials said.

After deliberations over the last day, the Pentagon has settled on firing about 10 percent of the probational employees, a defense official familiar with the effort said. A hiring freeze is expected to take hold next week, and administration officials plan to spend two to three months analyzing who else could be ousted, the official said.

(Read more from “The Pentagon Purges Are About to Begin” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Pentagon’s Liberal Agenda Is Already Taking A Massive Beating

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Left-wing initiatives and programs that were once a crown jewel of the Biden Pentagon are rapidly being thrown overboard as the Trump administration moves to aggressively revamp America’s defense capabilities.

In the span of a few weeks, former President Joe Biden’s push for Pentagon-subsidized sex-change surgeries was effectively rendered dead while deeply embedded diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have begun to be systematically rooted out. The new administration also reversed military discharges for service members who objected to the COVID-19 vaccine.

President Donald Trump’s commitment to breathing new life into the Pentagon comes as the armed forces grapple with recruiting challenges and low morale.

“The United States military has a clear mission: to protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force,” the White House said in a Jan. 27 statement announcing an executive order on “restoring” the military. “Success in this existential mission requires a singular focus on developing the requisite warrior ethos, and the pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas or other ideologies harmful to unit cohesion.”

On Feb. 7, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth halted all sex change operations for service members, directing senior Pentagon officials to enforce compliance with Trump’s executive order forbidding personnel with a “‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex.” (Read more from “Pentagon’s Liberal Agenda Is Already Taking A Massive Beating” HERE)

Pentagon Boots NBC, NPR, NYT, and Politico from Offices

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The Department of Defense ordered a handful of news media outlets to vacate their offices inside the Pentagon so that they may be replaced by some conservative press organizations.

In a memo issued on Friday, Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense John Ullyot said the Pentagon wanted to “broaden access to the limited space of the Correspondents Corridor to outlets that have not previously enjoyed the privilege and journalistic value of working from physical office space in the Pentagon.”

It was not clear what if any role Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth played in the decision.

The department’s “new Annual Media Rotation Program” will begin on Feb. 14, and will require The New York Times, NBC News, National Public Radio, and Politico to vacate “their physical office space effective” on that date. (Read more from “Pentagon Boots NBC, NPR, NYT, and Politico from Offices” HERE)

General Milley Portrait Removed From Pentagon Hours After Trump Sworn In

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A recently unveiled portrait of retired General Mark Milley was taken down at the Pentagon just two hours after President Donald Trump was sworn into office for the second time, according to reporters.

Milley, who was preemptively pardoned by former President Joe Biden just hours before his presidential term came to an end on Monday, apparently had his recently unveiled portrait removed at the Pentagon.

The portrait of the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and retired general had been unveiled at the Pentagon just ten days earlier, during the Biden administration.

A U.S. official said “the White House” ordered the removal of the portrait but declined to provide any further details, according to a report by the New York Times.

As Breitbart News reported, Milley left behind a military that is less trusted than when he first became the chairman and facing a historic recruitment crisis. (Read more from “General Milley Portrait Removed From Pentagon Hours After Trump Sworn In” HERE)

Nobody In The Biden Admin Wants To Explain How 1,100 More US Troops Appeared In Syria — Or If The President Knew

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The increased force presence has “been going on for a while,” with Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder estimating that the troops have been there “at a minimum, months.” But he stressed the extra troops are supporting the counter-ISIS mission and were unrelated to the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s regime two weeks ago.

The new figures are particularly notable as the Pentagon in recent days and weeks has been asked repeatedly about its troop presence in Syria, with the stark increase never disclosed.

A “core 900” U.S. service members are in the country as part of an official nine to 12 month deployment, with another 1,100 troops there on a temporary basis for 30 to 90 days “to address shifting mission requirements,” Ryder told reporters. He added that Army conventional and special operations troops make up most of the extra forces.

Pressed on why the Pentagon did not reveal the updated numbers until now, Ryder said he had only learned of the new figure earlier Thursday and cited “sensitivity from a diplomatic and operational security standpoint.” . . .

It’s also unclear as to whether President Biden was aware of the extra forces, as Ryder said he would not speak for the White House. (Read more from “Nobody In The Biden Admin Wants To Explain How 1,100 More US Troops Appeared In Syria — Or If The President Knew” HERE)