In a continued drive to reduce federal spending, the US Department of Defense announced on Friday that it will cut its civilian workforce by at least 5% starting next week.
This decision is part of President Donald Trump’s broader initiative to trim the government payroll—a process that has already seen thousands of federal workers on probation let go. The planned cuts will also target newly hired employees.
Darin Selnick, performing the duties of Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, stated, “We anticipate reducing the department’s civilian workforce by 5-8% to produce efficiencies, refocus the department on the president’s priorities, and restore readiness in our force.” He added that approximately 5,400 probationary workers are expected to be released in this initial phase, after which a hiring freeze will be implemented while further assessments of personnel needs are conducted. With the Defense Department employing over 900,000 civilians, a 5% reduction translates to more than 45,000 job cuts.
A day before the announcement, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth emphasized in a video message that “it is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission critical.” He explained that common sense dictates beginning with underperformers among the probationary employees. Hegseth also noted that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would have “broad access” to root out remnants of the previous administration’s programs from the Pentagon. He went on to say that DOGE would work to “find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities — the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), the woke, the climate change BS — that’s not core to our mission, and we’re going to get rid of it all.”
Musk, known as the world’s richest person and one of Trump’s largest donors, has spearheaded similar efforts to reduce the federal workforce, although his actions have sparked various legal challenges. On Tuesday, a US judge declined a request to temporarily block Musk and DOGE from firing federal employees and accessing agency data, with Judge Tanya Chutkan stating that the plaintiffs had not sufficiently demonstrated “imminent, irreparable harm.” Additionally, on Thursday, Judge Christopher Cooper denied a union bid to halt the sacking of federal workers temporarily, citing a lack of jurisdiction.
These latest cuts underscore the Trump administration’s persistent push to streamline federal operations by focusing on non-essential personnel, aiming to realign the Defense Department with its core mission and achieve greater operational efficiency.
