Hegseth fires general whose agency's intel assessment of damage from
Iran strikes angered Trump
[August 23, 2025]
By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN, MARY CLARE JALONICK and MICHELLE L.
PRICE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired a general
whose agency’s initial intelligence assessment of U.S. damage to Iranian
nuclear sites angered President Donald Trump, according to two people
familiar with the decision and a White House official.
Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse will no longer serve as head of the U.S. Defense
Intelligence Agency, according to the people, who spoke Friday on
condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it
publicly.
Hegseth also fired Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, who is chief of the Navy
Reserve, as well as Rear Adm. Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who
oversees Naval Special Warfare Command, another U.S. official said.
No reasons were given for their firings, the latest in a series of steps
targeting military leaders, intelligence officials and other perceived
critics of Trump, who has demanded loyalty across the government. The
administration also stripped security clearances this week from
additional current and former national security officials.
Taken together, the moves could chill dissent and send a signal against
reaching conclusions at odds with Trump’s interests.
Trump decried agency's initial findings on US strikes on Iran
Kruse's firing comes two months after details of a preliminary
assessment of U.S. airstrikes against Iran leaked to the media. It found
that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months by the
military effort, contradicting assertions from Trump and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Republican president, who had pronounced the Iranian program
“completely and fully obliterated," rejected the report. His
oft-repeated criticism of the DIA analysis built on his long-running
distrust of intelligence assessments, including one published in 2017
that said Russia interfered on his behalf in the 2016 election.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence — which is
responsible for coordinating the work of 18 intelligence agencies,
including the DIA — has been declassifying years-old documents meant to
cast doubt on those previous findings.
Following the June strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites, Hegseth
lambasted the press for focusing on the preliminary assessment but did
not offer any direct evidence of the destruction of the facilities.
“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want
to call it obliterated — choose your word. This was a historically
successful attack,” Hegseth said at a news conference at the time.
Democrats raise concerns about implications of key firing
While the Pentagon has offered no details on the firings, Democrats in
Congress have raised alarm over the precedent that Kruse's ouster sets
for the intelligence community.
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Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency,
speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Thursday, May 2, 2024, in
Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
“The firing of yet another senior national security official
underscores the Trump administration’s dangerous habit of treating
intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our
country,” said Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, vice chairman of the
Senate Intelligence Committee.
Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House
Intelligence Committee, called on the administration to show why
Kruse was fired or “otherwise, we can only assume that this is
another politically motivated decision intended to create an
atmosphere of fear” within the intelligence community.
Trump has a history of removing government officials whose data and
analysis he disagrees with. Earlier this month, after a lousy jobs
report, he fired the official in charge of the data. His
administration also has stopped posting reports on climate change,
canceled studies on vaccine access and removed data on gender
identity from government sites.
Trump administration makes series of military and intelligence
changes
The new firings culminate a week of broad Trump administration
changes to the intelligence community and new shake-ups to military
leadership.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence announced this
week that it would slash its staff and budget and revoked more
security clearances, a tactic the administration uses against those
it sees as foes. The Pentagon also said the Air Force’s top
uniformed officer, Gen. David Allvin, planned to retire two years
early.
Hegseth and Trump have been aggressive in dismissing top military
officials, often without formal explanation.
The administration has fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the Navy’s top
officer, the Air Force’s second highest-ranking officer, and the top
lawyers for three military service branches.
In April, Hegseth dismissed Gen. Tim Haugh as head of the National
Security Agency and Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, who was a senior
official at NATO.
No public explanations have been offered by the Pentagon for any of
the firings, though some of the officers were believed by the
administration to endorse diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Trump has demanded government agencies purge DEI efforts.
The ousters of Kruse, Lacore and Sands were reported earlier by The
Washington Post.
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