U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed three senior military leaders, including Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, according to three U.S. officials who spoke with Reuters. The move marks the latest shake-up under President Donald Trump’s administration, which has increasingly targeted Pentagon and intelligence officials viewed as disloyal.
It remains unclear why Kruse was fired. Alongside him, Hegseth also ordered the removal of the chief of U.S. Naval Reserves and the commander of Naval Special Warfare Command, one official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Senator Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, criticized the move, saying:
“The firing of yet another senior national security official underscores the Trump administration’s dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country.”
The dismissals were first reported by the Washington Post.
This is not the first high-profile firing. In April, Trump removed General Timothy Haugh as director of the National Security Agency in a purge that affected more than a dozen staff members at the White House National Security Council. Earlier in February, Hegseth dismissed Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along with five other admirals and generals in what was described as an unprecedented shake-up of U.S. military leadership.
The firing of Kruse comes shortly after a leaked preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency assessment suggested that U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites in June only delayed Tehran’s program by a few months—contradicting Trump’s claim that the facilities had been “obliterated.” The leak, which Reuters also reported on, sparked outrage from Trump and the White House, which called the assessment “flat out wrong.”
The administration has framed the wave of dismissals as part of an effort to reduce federal spending and counter what it calls the “politicization or weaponization” of intelligence.
The shake-up coincided with an announcement from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who confirmed she had revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former intelligence officials at Trump’s direction. Gabbard also announced a sweeping reorganization of her office, slashing personnel by more than 40% by October 1, a move she said would save more than $700 million annually.
