Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
“Lt. Gen. Kruse will no longer serve as DIA Director,” a senior defense official told the Washington Examiner.
The official did not elaborate about why Kruse was dismissed, but a spokesperson for the DIA confirmed his removal and said Deputy Director Christine Bordine has assumed the role of acting director.
Under Kruse’s watch, the DIA came up with a preliminary assessment of the U.S. military’s strikes targeting three of Iran’s nuclear facilities in June that indicated they were less effective than Hegseth or President Donald Trump said. The DIA assessment suggested with limited confidence that the three facilities were not “obliterated,” as Hegseth and Trump declared.
“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. General Kruse is a career military officer with decades of distinguished, non-partisan service to our nation, making this ouster all the more troubling,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.
Bordine’s career in the intelligence community includes roles with the CIA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the DIA, and the National Security Agency.
Kruse is the latest in a long line of senior military leaders who have been removed from their position before the end of their service under the current administration.
“It is perhaps unsurprising that General Kruse’s removal as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency comes on the heels of a DIA assessment that directly contradicted the president’s claim to have ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear program,” Warner continued. “That kind of honest, fact-based analysis is exactly what we should want from our intelligence agencies, regardless of whether it flatters the White House narrative. When expertise is cast aside and intelligence is distorted or silenced, our adversaries gain the upper hand and America is left less safe.”
In the first month or so of the Trump administration, Gen. Charles Q. Brown, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Adm. Lisa Franchetti, former chief of naval operations; Adm. Linda Fagan, former Coast Guard commandant; and Gen. James Slife, former vice chief of staff of the Air Force, were fired.
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Earlier this week, Gen. David Allvin, the Air Force’s chief of staff, announced his intent to retire about two years into a four-year term due to pressure from Hegseth.
In April, Trump also fired Gen. Timothy Haugh, former head of the National Security Agency, and his deputy, Wendy Noble. MAGA-adjacent activist Laura Loomer advocated for Trump to fire them and has continued to identify government officials she claims are trying to sabotage the president’s agenda.
