Lt. General Jeffrey Kruse (Credit: public domain)
The firing follows a June preliminary assessment from the DIA — the Pentagon’s main intelligence wing — of the Iran military strikes, which prompted vicious backlash from the Trump administration.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the latest senior military or intelligence officer to lose his position in a wider purge of national security agencies’ top ranks, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, didn’t immediately cite a reason for the dismissal other than “loss of confidence,” a catchall term Hegseth has used to justify the sacking of other senior military officers this year.
The firing follows a preliminary assessment from the DIA — the Pentagon’s main intelligence wing — of the military strikes on Iran’s three main nuclear sites in June, which prompted vicious backlash from the Trump administration after it was first reported by CNN and the New York Times.
That preliminary report assessed that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been set back only a matter of months, in contrast to Hegseth’s and President Donald Trump’s statements that the capabilities had been “obliterated.”
The Pentagon and the Defense Intelligence Agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since entering office, Hegseth has fired a slate of America’s most senior military officers, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles “C.Q.” Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife.
Last week, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin announced he would step down in November, after being forced out of his position.
The Trump administration has simultaneously purged a number of spy agency heads, whose roles, like the military’s, are supposed to be apolitical.
In
April, Trump
fired the head of the powerful National Security Agency, which conducts electronic and digital eavesdropping. Gen. Timothy Haugh and his deputy, Wendy Noble, were dismissed after far-right activist Laura Loomer advocated for their ouster.
In
May, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard
removed the acting chair of the National Intelligence Council, Michael Collins, and his deputy. The move came after the NIC, a respected
analytic hub, wrote an assessment that contradicted Trump’s rationale for invoking the Alien Enemies Act and deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process.
(Washington Post, 8/22/2025) (Archive)
