On Thursday, Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo to announce the Trump administration’s cutting of over $5 billion in “wasteful Defense Department contracts.”
The memorandum lists some of the cuts, which includes: $1.8 billion in consulting contracts to various private sector firms from the Defense Health Agency, $1.4 billion enterprise cloud IT services contract given to a software reseller, and a $500 million Navy contract for business process consulting.
“We’re also terminating in the DEI front 11 more contracts for DEI, climate, COVID-19 response and related non-essential activities across the department,” Hegseth explained. “We are committed to rooting out DEI — root and branch — throughout this department … [And] I’m going to keep looking,”
BREAKING!🚨 Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breaks down 5.1 BILLION in wasteful DoD spending uncovered and cut as a result of @DOGE efforts.
“We’re also terminating in the DEI front 11 more contracts for DEI, climate, COVID-19 response and related non-essential… pic.twitter.com/6CAeR1KvGI
— America First News (@RealAmFirstNews) April 11, 2025
As the DOD website reports:
He also announced cuts on the academic front, saying that DOD would be pausing over $500 million in funding to a pair of universities that “tolerate antisemitism and support divisive DEI programs.” This is in addition to the $70 million already cut in funding at three other colleges in the past weeks.
Today’s announcement follows Hegseth’s initial March 20, 2025, announcement that the department would be cutting $580 million in programs, contracts and grants.
“If you’re keeping score at home, today’s cuts bring our running total to nearly $6 billion in wasteful spending over the first six weeks of the Department of Government Efficiency effort here at the Defense Department,” Hegseth continued.
Not only did the secretary note the cutting of wasteful spending, but he also stressed just how important it is to take care of our United States veterans and their families. He declared, “We need this money to spend on better healthcare for our war fighters and their families instead of $500/hr business process consulting.”
This comes as a result of the DOD DOGE efforts to root out waste and “drive that back into war-fighting capabilities here at the Defense Department.”
Hegseth first announced that DOGE would be working within DOD during a recorded, on-camera address he made Feb. 20, 2025, regarding cutting excess and refocusing the department’s budget.
“We’re excited to make these cuts on behalf of you, the taxpayer and the warfighters here at the department,” he concluded.