Hegseth welcomes DOGE's "keen eye" to massive Pentagon budget
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Hegseth (center left) tours AFRICOM with Gen. Michael Langley (center right) and his leadership team. Photo: Courtesy of the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
STUTTGART, GERMANY — The Pentagon plans to welcome Elon Musk and "the keen eye of DOGE" to scrutinize its spending "very soon," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Axios on his first overseas trip since taking office.
Why it matters: At more than $890 billion, the Pentagon's budget is a behemoth — accounting for roughly half of the U.S. government's discretionary spending this fiscal year.
- It's also a black box: The sprawling Defense Department has failed its annual audit seven years in a row, including this past December.
- Contrary to DOGE's downsizing goals, President Trump actually wants to increase defense spending — but believes Musk and his team can help salvage and redirect "billions of dollars" of inefficiencies in the military.
What they're saying: "There is waste, redundancies, and headcounts at headquarters that need to be addressed. There's just no doubt," Hegseth told Axios outside U.S. Africa Command here on Tuesday.
- A fierce proponent of "getting back to basics," Hegseth pointed to spending on dealing with climate change — prioritized as a national security threat by the Biden administration — as a clear target for cost-cutting.
- "The Defense Department is not in the business of ... solving the global thermostat. We're in the business of deterring and winning wars," the former Fox News host and Army combat veteran told Axios.
Between the lines: Neither Trump nor Hegseth have acknowledged public concerns about letting Musk — whose companies have billions of dollars in Pentagon contracts — into the heart of the military-industrial complex.
- But Hegseth did downplay the notion that Musk would exercise unilateral authority at the Pentagon, as critics allege the billionaire has done at other agencies targeted by DOGE.
- "We'll do it in coordination. We're not going to do things that are to the detriment of American operational or tactical capabilities," Hegseth said.
- "The Defense Department is not USAID," he added, referring to the foreign aid agency crippled by DOGE. "USAID's got a lot of problems ... pursuing globalist agendas that don't have a connection to America First."
Zoom in: Hegseth, who served as an infantry officer in the Army National Guard, began his first full day in Europe by joining an early-morning physical training session with Special Forces soldiers.
- He later encountered a small crowd of protesters — mostly military families and teachers who booed and chanted "DEI" — before his meetings at U.S. European Command. Hegseth, following Trump's lead, has targeted diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the Pentagon.
- At an AFRICOM town hall, Hegseth was grilled by service members on Trump's executive order banning trans people from the military and pausing gender reassignment procedures. This week he directed the military to stop recruiting trans people.
Hegseth, 44, was upbeat and defiant as he ended his day celebrating the restoration of Fort Bragg — now renamed after World War II hero Roland L. Bragg, rather than the Confederate general. During the Biden administration in 2023, the fort's name had been changed to Liberty.
- "We're honoring a private first class. And I'm proud that we have a Marine corporal as the vice president of the United States," Hegseth told reporters with a smile, referring to JD Vance.
- "Junior enlisted have never seen better days."
What to watch: On Wednesday, Hegseth will become the first senior Trump official to visit NATO headquarters, where defense ministers are anxiously waiting to hear the administration's plans for ending the war in Ukraine.
