Key events

Hegseth slams Ivy League universities as 'DEI worshipping woke factories' while announcing new college partnerships

Hegseth’s ‘State of the Force’ address also includes an announcement about partnering with a new group of higher education institutions.

The defense secretary took aim at Ivy League universities and liberal arts colleges – which the Trump administration has targeted routinely – as “DEI worshipping woke factories”. Hegseth said the department would now partner with other institutions– some of which are known for conservative values, such as Liberty University and Hillsdale College.

Other schools joining the partnership are Louisiana State University, Mississippi University and Tuskegee University.

It’s worth remembering that Hegseth attended and graduated from Princeton and Harvard – both Ivy League universities.

Hegseth announces new Pentagon project to 'study warfare' with Elon Musk, Palmer Lucky and Newt Gingrich

The defense secretary announced a new Pentagon project which will see Elon Musk, Palmer Lucky – a top Trump donor and ally – and Newt Gingrich, the former US House speaker, work with department to study the “future of warfare”.

“Their work will be focused on discovering, developing, and fielding the weapons and systems that our children and our grandchildren will need in their lifetimes,” Pete Hegseth said, noting the project’s findings would be completed and submitted within 120 days, culminating in a full public rollout.

If Palmer Lucky’s name sounds familiar to you, that might be because the Guardian has reported extensively about how his company, Anduril Inudstries, a major military contractor, has received billions in government contracts over the last year.

The first of six announcements the defense secretary made today was the development of a top-level joint military organization, led by four-star generals, to scale autonomous and robotic capabilities.

“The pace of war is changing faster than the process to support it,” Hegseth said. “The autonomous robotic revolution has enormous implications for equipment, doctrine, organization and the assumptions that have governed warfare for decades.”

Per my last post, Hegseth went on to boast about the retention rates in the US military, claiming they are at “record rates” – including “80% of the force on the USS Abraham Lincoln on their historic mission”.

Hegseth appeared to downplay the ongoing mental health crisis in parts of the US military, particularly after eight navy personnel assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln attempted suicide since the start of their lengthy deployment.

Nonetheless, the defense secretary disparaged the media, again, and insisted that there are “disingenuous headlines about deployment lengths, patently false claims of low troop morale or flat-out propaganda, as if it’s written by our adversaries”. It’s worth noting that Hung Cao, the acting US navy secretary, confirmed the suicide attempts in a letter to the US senator Kirsten Gillibrand earlier this month.

The crew of the Lincoln, which was at sea for 286 days, disembarked on 1 September in a Thai resort city. The crew had been scheduled to wrap their deployment in May, but it was extended amid the unresolved war.

Hegseth announces 20% cuts to generals and admirals across the US military

As we noted earlier, Pete Hegseth officially announced 20% cuts to generals and admirals “across the board” in the US military.

The defense secretary added that the generals “who clung to the woke department or seemed to think civilian control of the military is simply a suggestion, well, they no longer work here”.

As has become customary, Hegseth disparaged the press during his address.

“As usual, what the media levels as an accusation, I wear as an accomplishment,” he said. “You can’t change a culture with the same people who enabled it.”

'No beardos, no weirdos, no wimps': Pete Hegseth summons military members for 'State of the Force'

Ariana Baio

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is providing an update on the US military at his second “State of the Force” address, in Quantico, Virginia, one year after he berated “fat troops” and condemned the military’s “woke” policies.

Addressing lower-ranking troops at the Marine Corps Base, Hegseth began his announcements by again boasting about his anti-diversity policies.

“The only focus, as you know, in your formations should be training, readiness, accountability, discipline, and lethality,” Hegseth said. “And when you pursue those things, you don’t have to walk on eggshells … the complainers, the ideologues, and the poor performers are no longer in the driver’s seat.”

The defense secretary added: “But it’s worth saying again, so the fake news understands it. We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. Simple translation of that: no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors,” Hegseth said.

Federal Reserve watchdog finds no criminal violations for building renovation cost overruns

An internal watchdog said the Federal Reserve mismanaged costs associated with a $2.4bn renovation of its Washington DC headquarters, but noted that no criminal violations occurred, according to a report released Wednesday.

For over a year, Donald Trump has centered his attacks against the Fed and former chair Jerome Powell around the renovations, including a months-long Department of Justice criminal probe that was dropped in April.

The report said that the Fed’s board of governors “has not effectively managed” the construction project and “repeatedly deviated from its cost-management provisions”, but noted that the mismanagement was not criminal and that it did not find any administrative misconduct in its evaluation.

“At no point during our evaluation did we find reasonable grounds to believe that a violation of federal criminal law had occurred,” the report said.

Over the course of renovations, construction costs have gone from an initially budgeted $921m in February 2020 to $2.018m by December 2024. Construction was supposed to be completed in mid-2024 but is not slated to go until December 2027.

The renovations have been a key part of the tension between the White House and the Fed, which by law is supposed to be nonpartisan and independent. Trump has long been trying to pressure the Fed into lowering interest rates, to no avail.

Trump latched onto the Fed’s ongoing renovations as an attack point against Powell in June 2025, suggesting that it amounted to corruption. He suggested that renovations included elaborate features like a VIP dining room and a garden terrace.

In response, the Fed posted a video tour of the ongoing construction, noting that two buildings have not undergone renovations since the 1930s.

Trump visited the Fed’s headquarters to highlight the expenses that July. Donning hardhats in the bowels of the construction site, Trump and Powell had a spat over budget figures.

“It looks like it’s about $3.1bn,” Trump said at the time. “It went up a little bit or a lot.”

The typically reserved Powell became visibly annoyed. “I am not aware of that,” he said.

During his White House event today, Trump spoke to his need for Republicans to secure the Hispanic and Latino vote in the upcoming midterms.

“I loved you right from the beginning. I loved you for many years before I ever decided to do this political thing,” the president said. “You also know when I build a wall, I’m building a wall to keep bad people out. And you want, and you want those bad people kept out more than anybody.”

This appeal comes after Trump won a record number of Hispanic votes for a Republican president in the 2024 election, but there is concern that the community is now fractured in its support for GOP candidates because of the administration’s immigration crackdown and the cost of living. More than 65% said they are unhappy with the president’s job performance, and 78% said they would prefer to see the Democratic party in control of Congress, according to a recent poll from the New York Times/Siena University.

The president falsely claimed that “more oil has come out” of the strait of Hormuz in the past three days than at “any time in history”. While the transport of oil has rebounded in recent weeks, climbing close to prewar levels according to analysts, it has not exceeded that.

The increase in flow through the vital waterway is encouraging, according to those tracking the movement, but it hasn’t yet been reflected in the price. The international benchmark for crude oil still sits just below $100 per barrel.

Trump also welcomed the Pentagon’s news today that the US has finally completed its withdrawal from Iraq.

“This day is a victory for the United States. It’s a victory for Iraq, and a decisive victory over Isis, which has been completely decimated,” the president said. “I decimated them and took them out in my first administration. So I don’t know what took them so long to be making the announcement that I’m making today.”

Speaking at the White House today to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, Donald Trump told those attending that they would be among the first to see and walk around the new ballroom when he opens the East Room doors after the event.

Donald Trump speaks as he hosts a Hispanic Heritage Month reception in the East Room at the White House, 30 September 2026. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters