The Army Mixed Up Trump’s Executive Order. Chaos Ensued.

The Army rushed to satisfy President Donald Trump’s executive orders this week, sparking so much confusion that top officials directed a halt on new contracts and then walked it back — the latest muddled response to a series of chaotic actions by the White House.

Top officials misinterpreted Trump’s order on diversity, equity and inclusion and set an Army freeze on deals for new weapons. The Pentagon clarified on Tuesday that it wasn’t going to issue a pause. The move upended the defense industry and signaled a broader uncertainty around the president’s sweeping actions.

It also reinforced the challenges to Trump’s quick-decision approach to governance — such as recent orders to freeze certain federal funding and foreign military aid — that has sent agencies scrambling. Such tension is particularly acute at the Pentagon, where questions about the impact of Trump’s executive orders threaten to slow down high-dollar programs and rock the defense industry.

“What kind of signal does this send to the defense industrial base, which is already plagued with a number of challenges?” said Becca Wasser, a former Army official and current senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. “A lot of that stems from a very unclear demand signal from the U.S. government.”

Pentagon officials are bracing for more orders alongside an untested Pentagon chief eager to prove his worth.

“We're going to hold people accountable,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Monday as he arrived at the Pentagon for his first day of work. “The lawful orders of the president of the United States will be executed inside this Defense Department swiftly and without excuse.”

But this week’s confusion shows the challenges to making fast moves in the government’s largest federal agency.

“It was not communicated to us directly; it was leaked to us,” a defense industry executive, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, said about the ordeal. “We are interpolating based on memos that are government-to-government and attempting to turn that into useful information.”

Breaking Defense previously reported details about the chaotic situation, which left executives desperately trying to figure out what was impacted. The Army said Tuesday there was no blanket pause on contracts.

“Army contracting activities continue to move forward,” Army spokesperson Ellen Lovett said in a statement. “As is customary, the Army is currently conducting a review of existing solicitations and awards of contracts to ensure that our programs are aligned with the incoming leadership’s policies and directives.”

One defense official with knowledge of the situation attributed the Army reaction to trepidation about the scope of Trump’s orders and unease about big personnel changes.

The Air Force also walked back decisions this week, including removing a training that mentioned the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of Black pilots who fought in World War II. Some Pentagon officials worried actions explicitly mentioning race could run afoul of the White House’s stance denouncing “woke” diversity initiatives.

The Air Force quickly reinstated the training after Hegseth said the removal was unnecessary.

Some service members also are concerned that Trump’s team will purge officers who are not deemed loyal enough. The president last week dismissed Adm. Linda Fagan, the Coast Guard’s commandant. A Homeland Security official credited her firing to program delays and an “excessive focus” on diversity and inclusion efforts.

The General Services Administration announced last week that it would immediately suspend enforcement of all diversity-related contract language, in line with Trump’s executive orders to "restore merit-based opportunity."

The Army’s staff director, Lt. Gen. Laura Potter, then ordered the Army’s acquisition chief to “identify and recommend freezing or suspending” contract bid requests involving diversity, equity and inclusion. She also flagged contracts related to “critical race theory," climate change, and transgender and abortion policies for potential suspension.

The directives sent shock waves through the Army bureaucracy. It prompted officials to “put a hold on all of their contracts,” according to a congressional aide, granted anonymity to speak about internal discussions.

Officials within the Army, which has a nearly $186 billion annual budget, started scrambling to find out how a freeze of new contracts could impact their programs.

“We are working with leadership to get additional direction as to the timeframe and may come back to you for impacts to your mission,” said an Army email obtained by POLITICO.

Then Pentagon acquisition officials clarified there was no such freeze. So the Army reversed the action.

Army leaders wrote to the House Armed Services Committee to explain that there had been a mix-up — and that Army contracting was continuing as usual.

“We learned over the weekend that a contracting review directed by our incoming leadership was being interpreted as everything up to and including a complete procurement freeze by people who were acting conservatively in a period of transition,” said an excerpt of the message viewed by POLITICO.

By that time, defense industry executives had spent days trying to understand the implications for their businesses.

“At a time when China is publicly announcing the acquisition of a million low-cost drones, for us to be essentially kneecapping ourselves at that moment, goodness gracious,” the defense industry executive said.

A pause on Army contracts would have a significant impact on the industry, especially small companies with thinner profit margins. The Army’s contracting command carried out $84.5 billion in contracts in 2022, including $3.5 billion to replenish the service’s stockpiles that had been depleted in Ukraine.

“Many of the companies in new and innovative spaces, on the bleeding edge, it's a huge gut punch to all of those,” the executive said.

Paul McLeary and Connor O'Brien contributed this report.