Navy admiral fired by Hegseth advances in South Carolina Democratic House primary

Lacore lost her job the same day Hegseth fired Lt Gen Jeffrey Kruse, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, for writing a preliminary analysis of US military strikes on Iran in June 2025 that Donald Trump claimed “obliterated” the country’s nuclear sites.

In a report leaked to the media, Kruse’s agency determined the action had set back Iran’s nuclear program only by a few months. It prompted an angry response from Hegseth, who assailed the media at a press conference for reporting it.

“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated – choose your word. This was an historically successful attack,” Hegseth said at the time.

No public explanation was given for the dismissal of Lacore, or a slew of other military leaders axed by the Pentagon in previous months, including Gen Tim Haugh, head of the National Security Agency, and Vice Adm Shoshana Chatfield, a senior official at Nato.

But under Hegseth’s direction, the military has eliminated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and numerous officers perceived as too “woke” have been let go.

“For too long, we’ve promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons – based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts,” Hegseth claimed during a keynote meeting of military commanders in Virginia in September.

“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies.”

Lacore, at her campaign launch in January, said although she was no longer in uniform, she was not leaving public service. “I still have more to give, more to fight for, more work to do – and I am not done serving,” she wrote on X.