Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Monday that the U.S. military will soon be seeing a dramatic reduction in the number of general officers across all branches. 

He called the reduction a ‘historic’ move to fulfill President Donald Trump’s commitment to ‘achieving peace through strength.’ 

‘We’re going to shift resources from bloated headquarters elements to our warfighters,’ said Hegseth. 

According to Hegseth, there are currently 44 4-star and flag officers across the military, making for a ratio of one general to 1,400 troops, compared to the ratio during World War II of one general to 6,000 troops. 

Hegseth, who has pledged to transform the military into a ‘leaner, more lethal force,’ issued a memo to senior Pentagon personnel on Monday in which he ordered the reductions to be carried out in two phases. 

In the first phase, Hegseth ordered a ‘minimum’ 20 percent reduction of four-star generals and flag officers in the active-duty component as well as a 20 percent reduction in the National Guard. 

In phase two, the secretary is ordering an additional 10 percent reduction in general and flag officers across the military. 

The secretary called the reductions part of his ‘less generals, more GIs policy.’ 

In a video announcing the change, he said the reductions will be done ‘carefully, but its going to be done expeditiously.’ 

He noted that ‘this is not a slash and burn exercise meant to punish high-ranking officers’ but rather a ‘deliberative process, working with the joint chiefs with one goal: maximizing strategic readiness and operational effectiveness by making prudent reductions.’ 

‘We got to be lean and mean. And in this case, it means general officer reductions,’ said Hegseth. 

Congress sets the number of general officers allowed in the military. The total number of active-duty general or flag officers is capped at 219 for the Army, 150 for the Navy, 171 for the Air Force, 64 for the Marine Corps, and 21 for the Space Force.

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Monday said she is leading a coalition of 20 states in suing the Trump administration over its cuts to public health funding and the Department of Health and Human Services, describing the efforts in a press conference as the most ‘sweeping and unlawful assault on public health’ in U.S. history.

The lawsuit, filed by James and other state attorneys general, accuses the Trump administration of violating ‘hundreds’ of laws and regulations in attempting to dismantle the Department of Health and Human Services, both by firing thousands of HHS employees in an effort to slash its overall workforce by 20,000 people and shuttering crucial health programs across the U.S.

‘This administration is not streamlining the federal government; they are sabotaging it,’ James said Monday. 

She used a press conference to highlight the risks these cuts pose for Americans in New York and across the country.

‘When you fire the scientists who research infectious diseases, silence the doctors who care for pregnant people and shut down the programs that help firefighters and miners breathe or children thrive, you are not making America healthy; you are putting countless lives at risk,’ James said. 

‘This is not how government is supposed to work. These actions are dangerous, cruel and illegal. They defy Congress’s authority and they violate federal law. And that is why today I am leading a lawsuit joined by Democratic attorneys general across the country to stop this administration from tearing down our public health infrastructure.’

The plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court in Rhode Island, are asking the court ‘to halt the unlawful dismantling of HHS, to stop the mass firings, and to restore the life-saving programs that millions of Americans depend on,’ James said.

New York is joined in the lawsuit by the attorneys generals of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia.

Their lawsuit accuses the Trump administration in the lawsuit of erasing ‘decades of public health progress’ and leaving HHS ‘unable to execute many of its most vital functions.’

Such actions, they argue, are ‘in violation of Congress’s instructions, the U.S. Constitution, and the many statutes that govern the Department’s programs and appropriate funds for it to administer.’

These actions included terminating 10,000 full-time employees, collapsing 28 agencies into 15, and closing half of HHS’s 10 regional offices. 

James cited many of these issues directly in the press conference Monday, taking aim at the administration for systematically depriving HHS of the ‘resources necessary to do its job.’

The government has ‘all but stopped testing for measles in the middle of an unprecedented measles outbreak,’ James said. 

New York’s Wadsworth Center, she noted, is one of the ‘only labs in the country still equipped to detect rare infectious diseases’ and is ‘scrambling to fill the void left by a hollowed-out CDC.’

Her remarks come after HHS announced thousands of layoffs in March and April, including at the FDA, the CDC and NIH. The reductions were in keeping with a Department of Government Efficiency-led push for agencies to slash the size of the federal workforce and trim government spending, prompting criticism from Democrats and some Republicans.

These cuts included terminating HHS employees tasked with determining SNAP and Medicaid eligibility for low-income or disabled Americans; the firing of the CDC’s entire maternal health team; and the gutting of mental health and substance abuse services and personnel.

‘None of these layoffs were necessary to accommodate a funding shortfall – Congress’s appropriations have remained steady, or in many cases, grown in recent years,’ the plaintiffs said in their lawsuit.

‘All told, 20,000 full-time employees – almost twenty-five percent of HHS headcount – would be terminated in a few months to save, by Defendants’ own estimate, less than one percent of HHS expenditures.’

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit asked to halt HHS efforts to dismantle the HHS-led agencies and programs that were cut as a result of the reorganization. States are also seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent what they described as the ‘unconstitutional and illegal dismantling of the Department.’

The lawsuit is not the first time James, a longtime foe of the current president, has sparred with Trump since the start of his second presidential term.

To date, she’s joined Democrat attorneys general in more than a dozen other lawsuits challenging his early actions.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed President Donald Trump while discussing the recent chaos at Newark Liberty International Airport, saying he had ‘decimated the FAA.’

During a press conference on Monday, Jeffries took a reporter’s question about the recent delays at Newark Airport.

‘Well, it’s certainly something that I think we’re all invested in looking into, as it relates to the ability of the American people to be able to travel in an efficient way,’ the Democrat began, before turning his attention to Trump.

‘We do know that the Trump administration has decimated the FAA in a variety of different ways, and they’ve been doing this from the very beginning,’ he added. ‘They are breaking the federal government.’

Jeffries added that the Trump administration is ‘breaking the FAA.’

‘And whether the specific situation at Newark Airport has anything to do with that remains to be seen,’ he continued.

‘But it’s my expectation that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will look into this situation, and we should get some answers to figure out how to get it turned around.’

The conference came days after the massive delays and cancellations at the New Jersey airport began.

On Thursday, more than 500 flights in and out of Newark were delayed and at least 200 others were canceled, and chaos followed throughout the weekend. As of Monday afternoon, 172 flights have been delayed and 76 have been canceled on Monday.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the situation on poor technology in an X post on Friday.

‘The technology that we are using is old. That’s what is causing the outages and delays we are seeing at Newark,’ Duffy wrote.

The House Rules Committee has advanced a bill to permanently rename the Gulf of America.

Formerly the Gulf of Mexico, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that upended that as part of his America First agenda.

But without congressional action, the name could be reverted by a future administration – which spurred Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to introduce a bill enshrining the name in federal law.

The measure advanced through the House Rules Committee in a party-line vote on Monday evening, teeing it up for a chamber-wide vote sometime this week. The House Rules Committee acts as the final gatekeeper for most bills before they hit the House floor.

Democrats had attempted to derail the measure with several protest amendments, including one that would have limited oil and gas drilling permissions in the area. 

None of those passed along with the final bill, however, as expected. 

Democrats ripped the legislation as a meaningless attempt to score political points with Trump.

Republicans, however, called it a ‘historic’ move for America First and an  ‘important symbol of that effort and a step in the right direction.’

‘Throughout our country’s history, presidents have changed the names of America’s lands and waters. The change we are discussing today signals to the world that America is standing tall, and that we are proud of our country,’ Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., said in support of the bill.

‘It is nearly impossible to overstate the Gulf of America’s critical role in achieving not only American energy independence, but dominance. President Trump has made it a priority of his administration to reassert America’s role as a global leader in energy production, and the Gulf of America is a critical part of that agenda.’

She pointed back to Republicans’ 2024 electoral sweep, ‘The American people support these policies, and we must deliver on the promises that we have made.’

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., a member of the House Rules Committee, said during her opening statement during the panel’s debate on the measure, ‘Ever since the beginning of Trump’s term, House Republicans have been tripping over themselves to find new and more embarrassing ways to suck up to the president and indulge his peculiar obsessions.’

‘This bill to rename the Gulf of Mexico is a stupid, unserious waste of time and taxpayer dollars. It’s an embarrassment to the nation that it was ever introduced, let alone that it’s being brought to the floor for a vote,’ Scanlon said.

Fox News Digital is told a House-wide vote on the bill is expected Thursday morning.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox News Digital of the Democrats lodging protest amendments to the bill, ‘Democrats are so overtaken with Trump Derangement Syndrome and obsessed with obstructing the President’s agenda that they will always put America Last. As President Trump said, the Gulf of America has long been an integral asset to our nation. All future generations should be able to recognize this beautiful body of water as a sign of American greatness.’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Monday that the U.S. military will soon be seeing a dramatic reduction in the number of general officers across all branches. 

He called the reduction a ‘historic’ move to fulfill President Donald Trump’s commitment to ‘achieving peace through strength.’ 

‘We’re going to shift resources from bloated headquarters elements to our warfighters,’ said Hegseth. 

According to Hegseth, there are currently 44 four-star and flag officers across the military, making for a ratio of one general to 1,400 troops, compared to the ratio during World War II of one general to 6,000 troops.

Hegseth, who has pledged to transform the military into a ‘leaner, more lethal force,’ issued a memo to senior Pentagon personnel on Monday in which he ordered the reductions to be carried out in two phases. 

In the first phase, Hegseth ordered a ‘minimum’ 20% reduction of four-star generals and flag officers in the active-duty component as well as a 20% reduction in the National Guard. 

In phase two, the secretary is ordering an additional 10% reduction in general and flag officers across the military. 

The secretary called the reductions part of his ‘less generals, more GIs policy.’ 

In a video announcing the change, he said the reductions will be done ‘carefully, but it’s going to be done expeditiously.’ 

He said ‘this is not a slash-and-burn exercise meant to punish high-ranking officers’ but rather a ‘deliberative process, working with the joint chiefs with one goal: maximizing strategic readiness and operational effectiveness by making prudent reductions.’ 

‘We got to be lean and mean. And in this case, it means general officer reductions,’ said Hegseth. 

Congress sets the number of general officers allowed in the military. The total number of active-duty general or flag officers is capped at 219 for the Army, 150 for the Navy, 171 for the Air Force, 64 for the Marine Corps and 21 for the Space Force.