

"They care just like we do, to find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities — the DEI, the woke, the climate change B.S., that's not core to our mission, and we're going to get rid of it all," Hegseth said.

_Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report._

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"John is, of course, correct," the defense secretary wrote. "The @DeptofDefense does not do  crap. We do training and warfighting."

DOGE, which is being led by billionaire Elon Musk, and the DOD have been working together to slash wasteful spending, DOD spokesman Sean Parnell said in a video posted to social media last week.

He listed some of the initial findings flagged by DOGE, which consisted of millions of dollars given to support various diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, including $1.9 million for holistic DEI transformation and training in the Air Force and $6 million to the University of Montana to "strengthen American democracy by bridging divides."

Also, among the findings was $1.6 million to the University of Florida to study the social and institutional detriment of vulnerability in resilience to climate hazards in Africa.





"The stuff is just not a core function of our military," Parnell said. "This is not what we do. This stuff is a distraction from our core mission."

"We believe these initial findings will probably save $80 million in wasteful spending," he added.

Hegseth said his agency would work with DOGE, which has conducted reviews of the Treasury, Labor, Education and Health departments, as well as at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of Personnel Management and Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

He added that many DOGE workers are veterans, and it is a "good thing" that they will find deficiencies.

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