For the past 18 months, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has remade the top ranks of the U.S. military — dismissing or sidelining many whose rise he believes was aided by D.E.I. and replacing them with officers who fit his definition of merit. In the process, many argue he’s prioritizing loyalty to him and his ideas over loyalty to the military itself.
Today, Greg Jaffe, a New York Times reporter who covers the Pentagon and the U.S. military, takes us inside the hiring and firing for a single job that has become a case study for Hegseth’s approach.
Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/greg-jaffe" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Greg Jaffe</a>, a reporter covering the Pentagon and the U.S. military for The New York Times.
Background reading: 
<ul>
 <li>Before he was picked to lead the Navy, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/us/politics/caudle-navy-hegseth-parlatore-promotion.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Adm. Daryl Caudle found ways to signal his support for Mr. Hegseth’s anti-diversity goals</a>.</li>
 <li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/us/politics/hegseth-navy-lisa-franchetti.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mr. Hegseth fired the Navy’s top officer, Adm. Lisa Franchetti</a>, who spent roughly half of her 40-year career at sea, commanding a destroyer, two carrier strike groups and the U.S. Sixth Fleet.</li>
</ul>
Photo: Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times
For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily" rel="noopener noreferrer">nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 
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