Garrett Graff: “We spend $800-billion-a-year on defense—but the US stockpiles barely lasted through a six-week-war.”

Washington Post: “House Republicans on Thursday threw their support behind Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and lamented the recent ouster of the service’s top general, making a rare public break with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after his repeated clashes with senior Army leaders.”

“House Democrats offered some similar sentiments, but the plaudits from conservative lawmakers at a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee’s panel on defense appeared intended to buttress Driscoll’s standing in the Republican Party.”

“The Trump administration wants automakers and other American manufacturers to play a larger role in weapons production, reminiscent of a practice used during World War II,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Some House Republicans pushed back on President Donald Trump’s request to supercharge the military’s annual budget at a meeting with Pentagon officials, spelling trouble for a cornerstone of his fiscal policy,” Bloomberg reports.

“Trump’s most recent budget request called for $1.5 trillion in base funding for the Pentagon. The Office of Management and Budget called for most of that funding to be enacted in bipartisan appropriations legislation while moving another $350 billion with just Republican votes through the budget reconciliation process.”

Julia Ioffe looks at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempt to make life difficult for Army Secretary Dan Driscoll — during the middle of a war, no less.

“Driscoll, as I’ve reported, has been Hegseth’s enemy number one at the Pentagon for almost as long as he’s been in his role. In part, that’s because Driscoll became an early fixture in coverage of the administration—getting overwhelmingly positive press as the walking embodiment of affable competence. Between his boyish looks; his aw-shucks, nice-guy attitude; and his headline-grabbing attempts to transform the Army into a futuristic force, it was easy to see why Driscoll was getting far kinder treatment than the ragey, abrasive Hegseth. (That, and his staff worked hard for it.) By the fall, much of Washington was abuzz with the rumor that Hegseth was not long for the top job and Driscoll would be taking his place.”

“This, of course, is said to have infuriated Hegseth. But Driscoll had top cover that made him unfireable: He was a close friend of J.D. Vance, his pal from Yale Law. Usha Vance occasionally swung by the Pentagon for lunch with him. So Hegseth quickly learned how to make Driscoll’s life miserable without firing him outright: He would dismantle Driscoll’s inner circle and replace them with his own people.”

USA Today: “Eligible men will be automatically registered into the U.S. military draft pool by December in an effort to streamline the existing self-registration process, according to the agency that oversees the system.”

“The new automatic registration process was approved by Congress under the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026, which President Donald Trump signed into law in December 2025.”

Washington Post: “Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has no plans to resign or otherwise leave his role at the Pentagon… after a series of internal clashes with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that have caused other U.S. officials to question how long the two senior political appointees can coexist.”

“Driscoll’s statement follows last week’s abrupt ouster of the Army’s top officer, Gen. Randy George, and two other senior military leaders — and as Hegseth’s top spokesman, Sean Parnell, has privately told colleagues that he is interested in Driscoll’s job should it become open.”

The Pentagon Pizza Index says an increase in pizza orders to the Pentagon is a leading indicator for major events and is “supported by historical anecdotes and modern traffic data.”

“Spikes frequently coincide with elevated watch or major news. Like any single indicator, it’s best read in context with other signals.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked the American people to pray “every day, on bended knee” for a military victory in Iran “in the name of Jesus Christ,” the New York Times reports.

Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S.-born pontiff, has a starkly different take on what should be done in Jesus’s name.

In a homily during a Mass on Thursday morning before Easter, the pope said that the Christian mission has often been “distorted by a desire for domination, entirely foreign to the way of Jesus Christ.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s “paranoia” about Army Secretary Dan Driscoll taking his job fueled the firing of the Army’s top general, the New York Post reports.

Said one administration official: “This is all driven by the insecurity and paranoia that Pete has developed since Signalgate. Unfortunately, it is stoked by some of his closest aides who should be trying to calm the waters.”

Tom Nichols: “The United States is in the middle of a major war, but that didn’t stop Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday from firing General Randy George, America’s most senior Army officer. George was the Army’s chief of staff, and he was cashiered along with another four-star general, David Hodne, and Major General William Green Jr., the top Army chaplain, in what has been a rolling purge by Hegseth of senior officers—particularly those close to the secretary of the Army, Dan Driscoll.”

“Why were these men fired while U.S. forces are fighting overseas? The Defense Department has given no official reason for their dismissals, but likely they are the latest victims of Hegseth’s vindictive struggles with the Army, which he feels treated him poorly—the service ‘spit me out,’ he said in his 2024 book—as he struggles in a job for which he remains singularly unqualified.”

The Atlantic: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the Army’s top officer, and the White House is discussing the potential departure of the Army secretary in what together would be the biggest wartime military shake-up in decades.”

“The White House Office of Management and Budget is preparing to send Congress a $1.5 trillion fiscal year 2027 defense budget request that relies on $350 billion in mandatory funding outside the traditional appropriations process, aiming for about $760 billion in total weapons procurement and modernization,” Inside Defense reports.

Washington Post: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday asked the Army’s top officer to step down and retire, an extraordinary move amid the war with Iran and the latest in a series of clashes between the Pentagon chief and the service’s senior leadership.”

“Gen. Randy George had been expected to hold the job of Army chief of staff until fall 2027, completing a typical four years in the post. But Hegseth has decided to go in another direction, Hegseth’s team said in brief written statement confirming the shake-up.”

“Donald Trump has privately asked cabinet officials in recent weeks whether he should replace his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, venting frustration that she shielded a former deputy who undercut his rationale for war with Iran,” The Guardian reports.

New York Times: “The Pentagon is considering sending a powerful anti-drone laser system to the military base in Washington where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reside.”

Tom Nichols: “The term virtue signaling refers to an annoying moral peacocking that has less to do with politics than with self-gratification. It’s the dinner guest who feels compelled to comment on the climate impact of every course. It’s the guy who annoys his colleagues during meetings with constant bits of civic guidance…”

“But Donald Trump and his administration have embraced the Mirror Universe version of virtue signaling. They’ve pioneered the practice of ‘vice signaling,’ or saying insulting or odious things both as attention-seeking behavior and as a way of showcasing their supposedly transgressive political views. They aim to demonstrate strength by being willing to appall other people, much as schoolyard bullies insult their classmates to gain the approval of other bullies. It’s the same peacocking, but with uglier feathers.”

“Few people besides the president himself have done more to advance the cause of vice signaling than Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, a man who honed his communication skills at Fox News, where the hosts routinely say outrageous things as a way of showing their viewers how eager they are to own the libs.”