Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has again started pushing for deferred resignations and early retirements among Defense Department civilian workers as he seeks to slash 50,000 to 60,000 jobs -- 5% to 8% of a workforce that includes thousands of veterans.

Hegseth signed a memo Friday to restart a deferred resignation program that emerged out of billionaire Elon Musk's "Fork in the Road" email, which went out to all federal employees in late January and offered them a chance to walk away from their jobs while still getting paid until October.

The memo said the Defense Department, the largest federal agency, was giving those employees the chance to voluntarily leave instead of being fired later. The resignation offers are meant "to maximize participation so that we can minimize the number of involuntary actions that may be required to achieve the strategic objectives," Hegseth wrote in the memo that was publicly released Monday^[1].

Read Next: House Republican Pushing for Tax Exemption for Military Bonuses to Be Included in Trump Agenda Bill^[2]

Musk, the world's richest man, and President Donald Trump have spent the first months of his administration firing huge swaths of federal employees -- including Department of Veterans Affairs^[3] workers, IRS personnel, weather forecasters and health care workers -- and dismantling agencies across the federal government without the consent of Congress. The moves have caused chaos, public outrage and a deluge of lawsuits.

The defense secretary has been focused on cutting jobs in the Pentagon from his first days in office and, until recently, was personally involved in some of the decisions surrounding which employees could stay or go.

"As the secretary made clear, it is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission-critical," Darin Selnick, the man who was performing the duties of the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a February memo announcing an effort to fire 5,400 probationary employees^[4]. Selnick has since become Hegseth's deputy chief of staff.

The Trump administration's mass firings of probationary employees at the Pentagon and elsewhere were temporarily halted by the courts^[5], which found legal issues with the terminations and ordered that the employees return to work.

With mass firings on hold, the Pentagon has begun focusing on voluntary resignations to dramatically reduce the number of civilian employees, who provide a wide range of services across the department.

Two weeks ago, a senior defense official told reporters that -- between the firings, a hiring freeze also ordered by Hegseth, and the resignation program -- resignations were far and away the most successful at getting employees off the Pentagon's books.

The official told reporters that, at the time, the department had "approved more than 20,000 ... nearing 21,000 of the applications from employees that volunteered."

By contrast, the firings and hiring freeze have not only raised legal challenges but become a source of constant scrutiny for the Pentagon as it has laid off or fired employees who turned out to be necessary.

Military.com was the first to report that, as part of these cost-cutting and firing efforts, the Pentagon halted programs that administered the military recruiting exam^[6] -- a key step in getting people into the military -- at remote locations and inside high schools.

A week later, on March 14, the military reversed its decision^[7] and brought all the impacted civilians who ran the programs back off furlough.

A memo, written by Selnick's successor, just days after that about-face, specifically exempted jobs at military entrance locations^[8] from the hiring freeze. However, despite these carveouts, services across the military have continued to be impacted.

Last week, Hill Air Force Base^[9] in Utah was forced to close one of its two day care centers^[10] as a result of the hiring freezes, despite the fact that child care center staff were exempted from the job cuts.

By returning to a program that incentivizes resignations, it seems that Hegseth is hoping to find thousands more employees willing to leave their jobs, enabling officials to then simply close those positions once they are vacant.

Hegseth will then use the funding from those jobs to offer "increased resources in the areas where we need them most." Neither Hegseth nor the Pentagon has disclosed what positions they deem unnecessary; what areas are in need of more resources; or which employees are leaving, despite promises to be transparent.

The offer to civilians did not seem to address any specific areas or jobs in the department, meaning there appeared to be no effort at targeted reductions. The memo released Monday noted that both the deferred resignation and early retirement offers were available to all Defense Department civilians -- about 760,000 civilian employees total^[11] -- and "exemptions should be rare."

The latest memo also claimed the effort is "not about a target number of layoffs," even though Selnick's statement in late February that kicked off the job cuts said that the goal was to reduce the number of civilian employees by 5% to 8%.

Pentagon officials have also not offered any response to the job cuts disproportionately affecting veterans -- more than 30,000^[12] are employed by the Pentagon.

"Within the military, there are times where you see that individuals will leave service when their services are no longer directly in the nation's interest," the senior official told reporters two weeks ago. "The same thing is true in the civilian side, and some of those people will be veterans that served in uniform previously."

Related: Pentagon Pushes Ahead on Cutting 60,000 Civilian Workers Using Firings, Resignations and Hiring Freeze^[13]

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has again started pushing for deferred resignations and early retirements among Defense Department civilian workers as he seeks to slash 50,000 to 60,000 jobs -- 5% to 8% of a workforce that includes thousands of veterans.

Hegseth signed a memo Friday to restart a deferred resignation program that emerged out of billionaire Elon Musk's "Fork in the Road" email, which went out to all federal employees in late January and offered them a chance to walk away from their jobs while still getting paid until October.

The memo said the Defense Department, the largest federal agency, was giving those employees the chance to voluntarily leave instead of being fired later. The resignation offers are meant "to maximize participation so that we can minimize the number of involuntary actions that may be required to achieve the strategic objectives," Hegseth wrote in the memo that was publicly released Monday^[1].

Read Next: House Republican Pushing for Tax Exemption for Military Bonuses to Be Included in Trump Agenda Bill^[2]

Musk, the world's richest man, and President Donald Trump have spent the first months of his administration firing huge swaths of federal employees -- including Department of Veterans Affairs^[3] workers, IRS personnel, weather forecasters and health care workers -- and dismantling agencies across the federal government without the consent of Congress. The moves have caused chaos, public outrage and a deluge of lawsuits.

The defense secretary has been focused on cutting jobs in the Pentagon from his first days in office and, until recently, was personally involved in some of the decisions surrounding which employees could stay or go.

"As the secretary made clear, it is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission-critical," Darin Selnick, the man who was performing the duties of the under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a February memo announcing an effort to fire 5,400 probationary employees^[4]. Selnick has since become Hegseth's deputy chief of staff.

The Trump administration's mass firings of probationary employees at the Pentagon and elsewhere were temporarily halted by the courts^[5], which found legal issues with the terminations and ordered that the employees return to work.

With mass firings on hold, the Pentagon has begun focusing on voluntary resignations to dramatically reduce the number of civilian employees, who provide a wide range of services across the department.

Two weeks ago, a senior defense official told reporters that -- between the firings, a hiring freeze also ordered by Hegseth, and the resignation program -- resignations were far and away the most successful at getting employees off the Pentagon's books.

The official told reporters that, at the time, the department had "approved more than 20,000 ... nearing 21,000 of the applications from employees that volunteered."

By contrast, the firings and hiring freeze have not only raised legal challenges but become a source of constant scrutiny for the Pentagon as it has laid off or fired employees who turned out to be necessary.

Military.com was the first to report that, as part of these cost-cutting and firing efforts, the Pentagon halted programs that administered the military recruiting exam^[6] -- a key step in getting people into the military -- at remote locations and inside high schools.

A week later, on March 14, the military reversed its decision^[7] and brought all the impacted civilians who ran the programs back off furlough.

A memo, written by Selnick's successor, just days after that about-face, specifically exempted jobs at military entrance locations^[8] from the hiring freeze. However, despite these carveouts, services across the military have continued to be impacted.

Last week, Hill Air Force Base^[9] in Utah was forced to close one of its two day care centers^[10] as a result of the hiring freezes, despite the fact that child care center staff were exempted from the job cuts.

By returning to a program that incentivizes resignations, it seems that Hegseth is hoping to find thousands more employees willing to leave their jobs, enabling officials to then simply close those positions once they are vacant.

Hegseth will then use the funding from those jobs to offer "increased resources in the areas where we need them most." Neither Hegseth nor the Pentagon has disclosed what positions they deem unnecessary; what areas are in need of more resources; or which employees are leaving, despite promises to be transparent.

The offer to civilians did not seem to address any specific areas or jobs in the department, meaning there appeared to be no effort at targeted reductions. The memo released Monday noted that both the deferred resignation and early retirement offers were available to all Defense Department civilians -- about 760,000 civilian employees total^[11] -- and "exemptions should be rare."

The latest memo also claimed the effort is "not about a target number of layoffs," even though Selnick's statement in late February that kicked off the job cuts said that the goal was to reduce the number of civilian employees by 5% to 8%.

Pentagon officials have also not offered any response to the job cuts disproportionately affecting veterans -- more than 30,000^[12] are employed by the Pentagon.

"Within the military, there are times where you see that individuals will leave service when their services are no longer directly in the nation's interest," the senior official told reporters two weeks ago. "The same thing is true in the civilian side, and some of those people will be veterans that served in uniform previously."

Related: Pentagon Pushes Ahead on Cutting 60,000 Civilian Workers Using Firings, Resignations and Hiring Freeze^[13]

President Donald Trump's choice to be his top military adviser and the nation's top general vowed Tuesday to serve in the role apolitically, denying a tale Trump has told repeatedly that suggested he is a loyal political supporter of the president.

At his confirmation hearing to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Lt. Gen. Dan Caine denied that he has ever worn a "Make America Great Again" hat, despite the president repeatedly claiming he did so when they met during Trump's first term.

"For 34 years, I've upheld my oath of office and my commitment to my commission, and I have never worn any political merchandise," Caine told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Read Next: House Republican Pushing for Tax Exemption for Military Bonuses to Be Included in Trump Agenda Bill^[1]

"I went back and listened to those tapes, and I think the president was actually talking about someone else," Caine added later when pressed whether any part of Trump's story was true.

Caine was nominated by Trump to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs after the president fired the previous chairman^[2], Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown, about a year and a half into a four-year term.

Trump did not give a reason for firing Brown, but the general, who is Black, was hated by conservatives for speaking positively about diversity in the military. Prior to becoming Pentagon chief, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was among those who called for Brown's firing over diversity issues.

Trump also repeatedly clashed with one of the chairmen from his first term, Gen. Mark Milley, whom Trump soured on after Milley apologized for appearing with him in uniform for a photo op after law enforcement forcibly cleared the area around the White House of racial justice protesters in June 2020. More recently, Milley has called Trump a fascist, and Trump has suggested Milley should be executed for being a traitor.

By contrast, Trump has painted Caine as a loyalist who gushed over him when they first met in Iraq in 2018.

Trump has added details over the years, but in general, Trump claims that Caine, while serving as deputy commander of a special operations^[3] task force fighting the Islamic State, gave him a plan to defeat the terrorist group quickly as other officers offered cautious advice.

In recounting the story during a speech last year, Trump also claimed the Caine lavished praise on him during that encounter.

"'Yes, sir. I love you, sir. I think you're great, sir. I'll kill for you, sir,'" Trump said Caine told him. "Then he puts on a Make America Great Again hat. You're not allowed to do that, but they did it."

In light of that story, the unusual circumstances of his nomination and Trump's history of lashing out against military officers who disagree with him, Caine was pressed repeatedly on Tuesday about whether he would remain apolitical as chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

In response to those questions, Caine vowed to provide his best military advice even if it contradicts Trump's viewpoint.

"Candor has gotten me here today, and candor will continue to allow me to do my job," Caine said.

He also assured senators he is willing to be fired rather than violate the Constitution.

Caine served in the Air National Guard^[4] and retired from service last year. Caine, who was commissioned through the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at the Virginia Military Institute, or VMI, started as an F-16 Fighting Falcon^[5] pilot and held numerous Guard assignments throughout his three-decade career, according to a copy of his service biography. His last assignment before retiring was as the associate director for military affairs at the CIA.

In addition to needing to be brought back onto active duty in order to be chairman, Caine does not meet the statutory requirements for the job.

By law, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff must have previously served as vice chairman, chief of staff of one of the military branches, or commander of a combatant command -- none of which Caine ever did. But the law also allows the president to waive those requirements if he decides doing so "is necessary in the national interest."

Despite Caine lacking the key requirements enshrined in law, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., pushed back on the idea that Caine is unqualified.

"The driving force behind Goldwater-Nichols was to inspire and in some cases require jointness," Wicker said, referencing the law that established the qualifications for chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Caine "began his career as an Air Force^[6] fighter pilot in 1992. By the time he was done, Gen. Caine had operated in every domain and he had developed relationships with every service."

For his part, Caine acknowledged that he is an "unconventional" nominee, but added that "these are also unconventional times."

Democrats bristled Tuesday at Brown's firing. But they also suggested they do not blame Caine for the circumstances of his nomination, indicating he will likely receive bipartisan support to be confirmed as Joint Chiefs chairman.

"I share comments that some of my colleagues have made about the unfortunate circumstances with Gen. Brown, but you didn't have anything to do with that," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told the nominee. "And I know, from our conversations and my own due diligence, VMI's very proud of you, and folks who've worked with you in the past who I hold in high regard are very proud of you. And a lot of the questions that have been asked trying to really drill into your ability to give the best candid advice, I think your career has demonstrated to my satisfaction that you will do so."

Related: Joint Chiefs Nominee's Ties to Trump Family Raise Concern About Ethics, Influence^[7]