Hegseth held talks with U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey, before a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Hegseth's predecessor, former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin,

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wound down his European tour Friday in Poland, praising the country as an exemplary NATO partner and saying he would welcome having more American troops in the country.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during his first trip to Europe as Pentagon chief that the U.S. does not believe Ukraine’s membership to NATO “is a realistic outcome.”

Pentagon head Pete Hegseth defended Trump’s Ukraine negotiations with Putin and urged allies to ‘make Nato great again’.

The Defense Department says it’s cutting 5,400 probationary workers starting next week and will put a hiring freeze in place.

Two percent is a start, as President Trump has said, but it’s not enough, nor is 3%, nor is 4% — more like 5%,” the defense secretary said in a speech in Brussels.

As part of the Trump administration's wide-ranging overhaul of the US Pentagon, between 5-8% of probationary civilian workers will be fired.

US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said there are no discussions about Ukraine's accession to NATO at the moment. He emphasized that he is waiting for Europe to step up its efforts, according to CNN White House correspondent Alaina Trinh.

Trump fired the Kennedy Center’s leadership upon his return to the Oval Office and put MAGA loyalist Richard Grenell in charge of the famed institution. In the week that followed the decision ticket sales halved, Kennedy Center staff members told The Washington Post anonymously for fear of reprisals.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Pentagon did not push same "globalist agendas" as USAID but welcomed DOGE "partnership" to find billions in waste.

Pete Hegseth, the new US Secretary of Defense, has stated that his previous remarks about Ukraine's NATO membership being unrealistic did not mean that Ukraine could not join the Alliance in the future.