Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived on Monday for his first full day main the Pentagon, vowing to help President Trump’s priorities to seal the U.S. border with Mexico, use navy planes to deport undocumented migrants and enhance the navy’s fight readiness.
The Pentagon final week rushed 1,500 active-duty Marines and Military troopers to the southwestern border, becoming a member of 2,500 troops already there, and Mr. Hegseth predicted that extra forces can be on the way in which quickly.
“Whatever is needed at the border will be provided,” Mr. Hegseth advised reporters after he stepped out of his automobile on the Pentagon. “This is a shift. It’s not the way business has been done in the past.”
He added that the Protection Division supported “the defense of the territorial integrity of the United States of America at the southern border, to include reservist National Guard and active duty, in compliance with the Constitution, the laws of our land and the directives of the commander.”
Mr. Hegseth additionally stated that the Pentagon will “absolutely continue” to make use of navy plane to deport undocumented migrants from the US. The navy’s participation in these flights began final week; up to now, that they had been carried out by business and constitution flights.
On Sunday, beneath threats from Mr. Trump that included steep tariffs, President Gustavo Petro of Colombia relented and agreed to permit U.S. navy planes to fly deportees into the nation, after turning two transports again in response to what Mr. Petro known as inhumane remedy.
Mr. Hegseth was greeted on the Pentagon’s River Entrance at about 9 a.m. on Monday by Gen. C.Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees. Mr. Hegseth has advised that Basic Brown, a four-star fighter pilot with many years of navy expertise, ought to be fired. However when requested if he would do this, Mr. Hegseth patted Basic Brown on the shoulder. “We’re in capable hands,” he stated.
“Our job is lethality and readiness and for fighting,” stated Mr. Hegseth who has vowed to convey a “warrior ethos” to the U.S. navy however has but to supply particulars. “We’re going to hold people accountable.”
