Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth just swung a wrecking ball through the Pentagon’s old guard—and it’s about time. In a sweeping move that left no room for ambiguity, Hegseth officially terminated the service of every single member sitting on the Department of Defense’s advisory committees. You could practically hear the swamp draining from across the Potomac.
The now-defunct panels, according to archived information from the Pentagon’s own website, were littered with names you’d expect: Obama loyalists, Bush-era neoconservatives, and career bureaucrats who never got the memo that elections have consequences. People like Janine Davidson, Michèle Flournoy, Colin Kahl, Susan Rice, and even Bush-era relics like Eric Edelman and Jon Huntsman Jr. It was basically a roster of the people who’ve been running America’s foreign policy into the ground for the last 30 years.
Hegseth’s move wasn’t just bold—it was necessary. After a 45-day internal review, it became clear that these advisory boards were bloated, ineffective, and politically out of sync with the new priorities under President Donald Trump’s leadership. Translation: too many deep-staters hanging around, whispering in the wrong ears, and possibly leaking like a sieve to their friends in the media.
And it gets better. The Pentagon didn’t just quietly reshuffle the deck—they scrubbed the entire online roster of these advisory boards, right after former DOD aide Dan Caldwell went on Tucker Carlson’s show to call out the anti-Trump hostility festering inside the Pentagon’s ranks. Caldwell, who was later fired amid a leak investigation, made it clear that many of these so-called “advisors” were more focused on undermining Trump than serving the country.
Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell put it bluntly in a statement Thursday night: “Changes are needed to support the new strategic direction and policy priorities of the department and to ensure departmental resources are used efficiently.” That’s putting it mildly.
Former Chief of Staff Joe Kasper outlined the follow-up: by April 25, every advisory committee sponsor must formally notify their members that their service has ended, and within 30 days, they can propose new members—subject to fresh review and approval. No more automatic seats for swamp creatures.
Bottom line: Pete Hegseth just sent a crystal-clear message. The Pentagon belongs to the American people, not to a bunch of unelected bureaucrats who think they’re above democracy. Under Trump’s renewed leadership, it’s America First—even inside the Pentagon. Finally.
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