For the past 18 months, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has remade the top ranks of the U.S. military — dismissing or sidelining many whose rise he believes was aided by D.E.I. and replacing them with officers who fit his definition of merit. In the process, many argue he’s prioritizing loyalty to him and his ideas over loyalty to the military itself. Today, Greg Jaffe, a New York Times reporter who covers the Pentagon and the U.S. military, takes us inside the hiring and firing for a single job that has become a case study for Hegseth’s approach. Guest: Greg Jaffe (https://www.nytimes.com/by/greg-jaffe) , a reporter covering the Pentagon and the U.S. military for The New York Times. Background reading:  • Before he was picked to lead the Navy, Adm. Daryl Caudle found ways to signal his support for Mr. Hegseth’s anti-diversity goals (https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/us/politics/caudle-navy-hegseth-parlatore-promotion.html) . • Mr. Hegseth fired the Navy’s top officer, Adm. Lisa Franchetti (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/us/politics/hegseth-navy-lisa-franchetti.html) , who spent roughly half of her 40-year career at sea, commanding a destroyer, two carrier strike groups and the U.S. Sixth Fleet. Photo: Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily (http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily) . Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts (http://nytimes.com/podcasts) or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.