US President-elect Donald Trump and his Conservative team of military advisers have been drawing up a list of “woke” leaders at the Pentagon to fire.
During the election campaign, Trump vowed to fire “woke” generals and those responsible for the humiliating US pullout from Afghanistan.
Trump’s opponents say his sole purpose is to eliminate anyone on his path who is opposed to his policy ways.
Media reports said Trump’s team is drawing up a list of military officers to be fired.
Two anonymous sources familiar with the matter said the targeted officers are in senior positions and linked to General Mark Milley, the highest-ranking military officer in the United States, who retired last September.
Since then, Milley, who had been Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been denounced as a turncoat by Conservatives.
In the book “War” by Bob Woodward, published in October, Milley was quoted as calling Trump a “fascist to the core”.
“Every single person that was elevated and appointed by Milley will be gone,” one of the sources said. “There’s a very detailed list of everybody that was affiliated with Milley. And they will all be gone.”
The sources added that the number of slashes planned by Trump and his team will be unprecedented at the Pentagon.
News of Trump’s plans to fire senior military leaders at the Pentagon comes a day after the president-elect picked Pete Hegseth, a Fox News commentator and veteran who has signalled a willingness to clean house, as the Pentagon chief.
In his book “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published in June, Hegseth claimed that lots of senior brass in the US military needed to be fired.
“The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired.”
Despite Trump’s notorious unpredictability, experts said the possible shake-up at the Pentagon indicates his plans to once again reshape US foreign policy based on his “America First” approach.
During the election campaign, Trump promised radical shifts on multiple fronts to resolve what was left unfinished during his first tenure.
Trump repeatedly said he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine “in a day”. He also promised to bring “peace” to the Middle East. Military experts have doubted his claims.
Regarding China, the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, Trump said he would order Washington to launch another trade war targeting Chinese products.
Trump said he would impose “paralyzing” tariffs on Chinese imports.
