Defense minister Pete Hegseeth said on Tuesday that the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) ‘is welcome in the Pentagon’, Reporters in Stuttgart, Germany, during his first overseas journey at the helm that the Ministry of Defense (DOD) will also assess the worldwide attitude to account to keep with various “strategic assumptions” between President Donald Trump and former President Joe Biden.
Upon arrival at the headquarters of the American European Command and Africa Command, HegseTh Push-ups, Dead Lifts and other PT exercises with the 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces (Airborne)-A gesture, a combat wan himself, said, said was intended to communicate and hear about their missions directly with the troops, rather than only communicating through four -star generals.
Hegseeth, who sworn to restore the “Warrior Ethos” in the Pentagon, then has questions from reporters. Called NATO members To spend 5% of their GDPs on defense. Asked if the US should also spend that amount, HegseTh said that he and Trump share the view that the American defense expenditure should not go under 3% GDP, adding that the current administration should spend more than the Biden administration.
Hegseeth says that Fort Bragg is coming back, but with a turn
Defense secretary Pete Hegseeth talks to the media during his visit to the head office of the American European Command and Africa command at the Africa Command in Kelly Barracks in Stuttgart Germany, on Tuesday 11 February 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
HegseTh accused the Biden government of “Historical undervestment in the capacities of our army”, adding that Trump is committed to “rebuilding the US Army by investing.”
Asked whether He expects Elon Musk To start unilateral defense programs, Hegseeth described the doge leader as a “big patriot interested in promoting the first agenda of America” ​​who knows “Trump Got 77 million votes in a mandate from the American people, and part of it brings an actual business efficiency to the government. “Hegseeth spoke about a” partnership “with Doge to reduce Pentagon waste and correspond to the assessment of Musk that it could be about to” billions “dollars.
But the secretary emphasized that the expenditure in the Pentagon was not equal to the “globalistic agendas” that were pursued by the American Agency for International Development (USAID).
“As I said on social media We welcome doge On the Pentagon, “said Hegseeth.” And I hope to welcome Elon in the Pentagon soon. And his team works in collaboration with us. ”
Hegseeth said: “There are waste transferring and workforce in the head office that needs to be tackled. There is no doubt. Change, solving the global thermostat. We are busy putting on and winning wars.”
Defense secretary Pete Hegseeth participates in PT with the 1st battalion, 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), a battalion of the US Army in Stuttgart, Germany. (Defsec Hegseeth on X)
“There are plenty of places where we want the sharp eye from Doge, but we will do it in coordination,” he added, pointing to possible changes in weapon assignments programs. “We are not going to do things to the detriment of American operational or tactical capacities … President Trump strives to deliver the best possible army.”
“The Ministry of Defense is not USAID,” said Hegseeth. “USAID has many problems I was talking about with the troops – the pursuit of globalistic agendas that first have no connection with America. That is not the Ministry of Defense. But we are also not perfect either. So where we can find billions of dollars , and he is right to say billions within the Ministry of Defense, every dollar that we save, there is a dollar that goes to war fighters. ”
Hegseeth was also asked if there were plans to move American troops from Europe to the Indo-Pacific to concentrate on the Chinese threat.
“There are no plans in the making at the moment to cut something,” said Hegseeth. “There is a concept that we will assess the position of power around the world.”
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“The planning acceptance of President Trump are different in many ways, or at least strategic assumptions than those of Joe Biden,” he said. “We certainly do not want a plan on the back of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. And what happened on October 7 and the war that was released in Ukraine. You have to manage and soften those things by getting and sharing next to your friends and sharing and To share and share their defense and the peaceful resolve in Ukraine, but they should not determine how we orientate.
About his decision to return Biden’s 2023 renamation of Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg, HegseTh said: “It means that Bragg is back. It means the inheritance of an institution that have mobilized and served generations of Americans.”
“I never called it Fort Liberty because it was not a Fort Liberty. It is Fort Bragg. And so I was honored to be able to put my signature on it,” said Hegset. The original namesake of the North Carolina -Basis was Gen. Braxton Bragg, a southern general, but Hegseeth said it would now be named after PFC. Roland L. Bragg, a hero from the Second World War who earned the Silver Star and the Purple Heart for his courage during the Battle of the Bobbel.
