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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has confirmed the military is cutting about 20% of its generals and admirals, calling it “accountability” for top officers he says clung to a “woke” culture.

Getting into it: Addressing junior officers and enlisted troops at Quantico in his second annual “State of the Force” address last week, Hegseth said about 10% of generals and admirals have been fired and that he has ordered the services to cut another 10% of general officer positions, bringing the total reduction to 20%, double last year’s 10% cut. The cuts to roughly 800 positions are set to be finished by Jan. 1, 2027. More than two dozen senior military leaders have been fired or forced out since President Donald Trump returned to office, among them the Joint Chiefs chairman and the heads of the Army, Navy and Air Force.

“The number crunchers say we fired 10% of the generals and admirals across the force, and that number sounds about right,” Hegseth said. “So yes, 20% reduction across the board. Now the media calls that a purge. I call it accountability, and long overdue.”

Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and former Navy combat pilot, said Hegseth is “purging a generation of great leaders of the military, and it’s going to take a generation to recover from it,” while Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota said there “may be some validity” to trimming a “very heavy top” but that he wants to see the reasoning first.

This all comes as Hegseth also repeated his attacks on diversity in the military, saying, “We are no longer the woke department or the weak department,” and listing types of people he said are no longer welcome, including “fatties,” “beardos,” “weirdos,” “trannies,” and “wimps.”