Trump's clear-out at the Pentagon

It hasn't taken long. Everything I predicted in an analysis piece in The Times last month has now happened: the purge of employees has begun wholesale and two key military chiefs have been sacked, General Charles Q Brown, the chairman of the Joint Ciuefs of staff, and Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to be Chief of Naval Operations. Sacked for being too woke because they built up efforts to improve diversity and gender equality. With Pete Hegseth as defence secretary obeying every wish of his president, there is no one inside the Pentagon able to withstand the mighty purge now underway. Hegseth has announcnd an eight per cent cut in the $850 billion budget which apparently he hopes to achieve by removing waste, duplication and what they call legacy weapon systems which are no longer needed for his aim to build a ready fighting force to take on China. General Brown was a good guy and a highly respected military commander but Trump thought he was too keen to push diversity. Likewise Admiral Franchetti. And woke in all its aspects is the enemy to Trump. So, anyone connected to these same efforts, as well as weapons platforms, like warships powered by alternative energy fuels - green warships - might get the chop. The Pentagon doesn't know what is going to come next.