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Republican lawmakers are divided over the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s ouster of Gen. Chris Donahue, the U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander.
Some GOP lawmakers hammered Hegseth, who served in the National Guard and fought in Iraq, accusing him of rankling the ranks at the Pentagon and pushing out an experienced and well-respected military officer, while others were reluctant to weigh in, arguing all of the facts about the development should come out first.
Regardless, all Republicans heaped praise on Donahue, who was widely seen as a rising star in the Army and who spent decades in the military special operations realms, where he was an Army Ranger and part of Delta Force, rising later to commander of the elite unit.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has ramped up his criticism of the Trump administration since announcing his retirement at the end of the term, hammered Hegseth for making another “unforced” error and accused him of leading the Pentagon with “bro-culture bravado rather than restraint, humility and careful stewardship of the finest fighting force in the world.”
“Strong leaders are not threatened by accomplished commanders. Weak ones are. His paranoid micromanagement of senior military leaders and promotion lists is pure insecurity dressed up as reform. He is more interested in purging people he perceives as insufficiently loyal than empowering proven patriots who can actually lead,” Tillis, who is familiar with Donahue’s service during his time in North Carolina, wrote Thursday on social platform X.
“This is not reinvigorating the warrior ethos. This is not a leader prioritizing merit. It’s sophomoric. It’s unserious,” Tillis said. “And it’s bringing great harm to our Department of Defense. Our military deserves steady, serious civilian leadership. Right now, it’s getting the opposite.”
But Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), who sits on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), urged caution when asked about Donahue’s retirement. He argued that all of the facts should surface first and that people should “accept” that the chain of command made a decision.
“I don’t automatically presume some improper decision was made by chain of command when somebody is let go and removed from a chain of command that was unexpected. I don’t automatically doubt the integrity of that decision,” Higgins said in an interview with The Hill on Thursday.
Since taking over the Pentagon last year, Hegseth has removed or pushed out more than two dozen senior military leaders, including Gen. CQ Brown, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Navy’s chief of naval operations, Adm. Lisa Franchetti; Adm. Linda Fagan, Coast Guard commandant; Gen. Randy George, the Army’s chief of staff; Army Gen. James Mingus, the vice Chief of Staff of the Army and others.
All were removed with little to no explanation, as Hegseth and his allies have said the senior ranks have become way too bureaucratic. Hegseth also has sought to downsize the number of flag and general officers, and blocked promotions of officers in the Army, Navy and Air Force, arguing the Biden administration unfairly promoted some officers and left out others who were more qualified.
The dismissals have prompted worries from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and legislators are pushing for more transparency. Earlier this month, HASC adopted a provision in the annual National Defense Authorization Act that would demand the Pentagon inform Congress, in writing, why senior military officers were fired or dismissed within five days.
Higgins said that some of the military officers who were promoted in prior years should have been removed instead of moved up the chain.
“It’s been far easier within the Pentagon culture to promote than it is to fire. Like we’d rather take a guy that’s giving us trouble and actually put him in another position and give him a promotion just to get him out of this office, so we moved that problem along, because they didn’t want to fade the heat of removing them,” he said. Now you have seen your chain at the Pentagon as courageous enough to make those decisions.”
Donahue, who was the commander of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and who aided in evacuating Afghanistan allies from Kabul airport during the chaotic and deadly U.S. withdrawal from the country, submitted his paperwork to retire after about a year-and-half in the role. He will relinquish command on July 2 and Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, his deputy, would perform the duties of the commanding general.
Donahue had wide support in Congress in both parties. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll advocated for Donahue to Congress, the White House and Joint Staff, to become the Army’s chief of staff after George was ousted by Hegseth, according to a U.S. official.
Driscoll was open to having Donahue be the Army’s vice chief of staff after Mingus was removed by the defense secretary, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel matters, told The Hill late Thursday.
George and Donahue had a close working relationship and the ex-army chief of staff was “essentially grooming” Donahue for the top leadership role in the Army, with the official describing the Army commander as having “boundless energy, crushing PT [physical training] all the time” and was willing to share wisdom with younger soldiers.
Donahue’s retirement was directly directed by Hegseth and the verbal order was issued shortly after George was fired by the Pentagon chief on April 2, according to the official.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, praised the general as a “very good” man. He said he has “a lot” of respect for him and expressed puzzlement over his ouster.
Donahue was the head of the 18th Airborne Corps, overseeing the formation of a partnership that provided intelligence and weapons to Ukraine, aiding them in their effort to defend against Russia’s invasion.
“He was in Afghanistan when it fell. He set up the Army Depot to get logistics into Ukraine from Poland,” McCaul told reporters on Thursday.
“I don’t understand why Mr. Hegseth is firing him and as a result, we’re going to lose a very talented general from the Pentagon,” McCaul said.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) said he would comment on the ouster after lawmakers get an intelligence readout on Thursday.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said his “bandwidth is not that wide,” but added that the decision is up to Hegseth and Trump.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), who is also on HASC, said Hegseth did not address Donahue’s ouster during his meeting with the Republican Study Committee (RSC) on Wednesday, but lauded the Army commander as a great leader.
“Unfortunate. I have mad respect for that guy. I don’t know the details, so I’m not going to continue to talk about it, because I don’t know, I don’t know him personally, but I have mad respect for the guy. He’s earned that – great leader,” McCormick told reporters on Wednesday.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a retired Air Force Brigadier General and another HASC member, who has disagreed with Hegseth on some Pentagon personnel moves, said lawmakers do not appreciate when senior defense officials are ousted without explanation.
“We have probably about 20 generals and admirals [that] have been fired for no reason. I know many of them and they’re very good. That is concerning,” Bacon told reporters Wednesday after the RSC meeting. “It’s not decent when you fire people with no explanation.”
Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), a former Army Ranger who retired as a lieutenant colonel, said he spoke with Donahue last week. He praised the Army commander, who helped form the Eastern Flank Deterrence Initiative, which leverages unmanned systems supported by live data to speed up decision-making and deter adversaries’ advancements.
“Chris Donahue is one of the studs of the United States Army. He was a Delta commander. Just to give you a clue, you remember the Venezuela operation? He said, ‘When I was Delta commander, we did four of those,’’ Self told reporters on Wednesday.
When asked if this was a bad decision by Hegseth, Self said “you serve at the pleasure of the president when you’re a four-star general, so you know that’s a given.”
“I think he was a very talented, capable, competent four-star general,” he said.
The Pentagon did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
Kevin Carroll, a retired Army reserve colonel who served in the offices of secretary of Defense and on the Joint Staff, said Donahue was “perhaps” the most respected officer in the Army and his retirement will be “demoralizing” to the service branch.
“Any individual officer is replaceable, but cumulatively, the damage Hegseth is doing to the armed forces by sacking so many of its top leaders in just a year and a half is serious,” Carroll told The Hill on Thursday, adding that appears the defense secretary wants “‘yes men’ who will do bad things, instead of leaders of high character such as Donohue and the other general and flag officers he has cashiered.”
Donahue’s unexpected retirement was panned outside the halls of Congress.
Conservative commentator Erick Erickson said Wednesday morning that Hegseth is “purging the American military at a faster rate than [Chinese President] Xi Jinping is purging the Chinese military and refilling the ranks with political apparatchiks.”
Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, who has a direct line to President Trump, said Thursday morning Donahue’s retirement was a “huge loss for the U.S., equating it to “losing Tom Brady in prime of career!!”
Sudiksha Kochi contributed to the report.
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