Toward the end of an unsettling speech to the nation’s generals and admirals in late September, when he made the case that, in essence, testosterone is the key to modern warfare, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered an unsubtle message.
“If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” the beleaguered Pentagon chief said.
It was a pointed reminder that Hegseth is not exactly open to engaging with military officials whose views differ from his own. On the contrary, he’s proved himself eager to purge the armed forces of those he deems unworthy — a campaign that’s ongoing. MS NOW reported:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, removing the Army’s top officer in the latest shake-up of military leadership amid the war in Iran.
Hegseth asked George to step down and retire immediately, a Department of Defense official confirmed Thursday to MS NOW. Christopher LaNeve, a former Hegseth military aide, is expected to serve as acting chief of staff. CBS was the first to report the ousting. The Pentagon confirmed George’s departure Thursday in a social media post, without further detail.
George was not exactly a controversial figure. When the Senate confirmed the highly decorated general and combat veteran in 2023, the vote was 96-1.
Hegseth pushed him out anyway and then kept going. MS NOW confirmed that two other Army generals were fired alongside George: Gen. David Hodne, the head of Army Transformation and Training Command, and Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the 26th chief of chaplains.
The Defense Department did not elaborate as to what prompted these developments, though The New York Times reported, “The tension with Mr. Hegseth was not rooted in substantive differences over the direction of the Army, military officials said. Rather it is the product of Mr. Hegseth’s long-running grievances with the Army, battles over personnel and his troubled relationship with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, the officials said.”
These developments come on the heels of Hegseth forcing out Col. Dave Butler, who worked closely with George, which came after the defense secretary parted ways with three-star Lt. Gen. Joe McGee, which came just two weeks after the public learned about Adm. Alvin Holsey resigning as head of the U.S. Southern Command, reportedly at Hegseth’s request.
Complicating matters further is the sheer volume of U.S. military leaders who have left Hegseth’s Defense Department, through firings or resignations. Just days before Holsey stepped down at USSOUTHCOM, the Pentagon chief fired Navy chief of staff Jon Harrison. (His ouster roughly coincided with two high-profile military retirements — Gen. Bryan Fenton, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, and Gen. Thomas Bussiere, a top Air Force commander — though it’s unclear whether their departures had anything to do with Hegseth.)
There was no ambiguity, however, when in late August the defense secretary fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Rear Adm. Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversaw the Naval Special Warfare Command.
Four days earlier, Gen. David Allvin, the chief of staff of the Air Force, was also shown the door.
The broader purge also includes Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, who was both the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the National Security Agency; Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. James Slife, former vice chief of staff of the Air Force; Adm. Linda Fagan, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard; Adm. Lisa Franchetti; Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short; Lt. Gen. Joseph B. Berger III, the Army’s top military lawyer; Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer, the Air Force’s top military lawyer; and Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO’s military committee.
Political scientist Caitlin Talmadge, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who specializes in foreign policy and military operations, noted via social media, “Firing senior officers for cause is one thing. Firing them repeatedly on this scale and with no explanation is unprecedented in our nation’s history.”
The consequences matter: There are growing concerns that a scandal-plagued former Fox News host is destabilizing the U.S. military.
In fact, the New York Times reported in November that Hegseth had fired or sidelined dozens of officials “with little explanation,” creating “an atmosphere of anxiety and mistrust” within the department. Politico published a similar report the month before, noting that the secretary’s firings have “injected a fresh wave of fear into the Pentagon over the cost of speaking up and who might be next.”
About a year ago, five former defense secretaries, including retired Gen. Jim Mattis, Donald Trump’s first defense secretary, condemned the pattern of firings as “reckless.” Their joint letter, addressed to Congress, asked the House and Senate to hold “immediate hearings to assess the national security implications” of the dismissals. Hegseth and the administration appear to have ignored those concerns; the purge is still going on; and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill have scheduled no such hearings.
Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who served as a Marine officer in Iraq and now serves on the House Armed Services Committee, spoke to Politico about Hegseth’s purges, which the congressman described as politically motivated.
“That’s a recipe not just for a politicized military, but an authoritarian military,” Moulton said. “That’s the way militaries work in Russia and China and North Korea.”
The Massachusetts Democrat made those comments last May. The problem is far worse now.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
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