Top General’s Early Exit Shows Hegseth’s ‘Paranoia,’ Tillis Says

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis lambasted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over reports that the Pentagon chief is forcing the retirement of Gen. Christopher “C.D.” Donahue, calling the move an example of the Cabinet member’s “paranoia” and “inexperience.”

Tillis told NOTUS that pushing out one of the Army’s most celebrated and senior commanders would damage morale across the military. The North Carolina lawmaker suggested Hegseth — a former Fox News host who served in the National Guard — was uncomfortable with a straight-talking former commander of the Army’s elite Delta Force in his orbit.

“Honestly,” Tillis said in an interview, “Pete Hegseth couldn’t carry his bag.”

Tillis, who’s gotten louder about his displeasure with the Trump administration since announcing he would retire at the end of the term, has stepped into the role of Hegseth’s chief Republican critic. He recently told NOTUS he regretted casting the deciding vote to confirm Hegseth, who’s made decisions that, to Tillis, showed the Pentagon leader is out of his depth in the job.

Tillis was among lawmakers from both parties who criticized what appeared to be the unexplained dismissal of yet another general officer under Hegseth’s leadership. Donahue, the commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, is among more than a dozen senior officers who have been forced out or sidelined by the administration.

“It’s just another example of Hegseth’s paranoia, where having people more capable than him around him is a problem,” Tillis said of Donahue’s imminent departure. “Executives have their best, most capable people around them instead of throwing babies out with the bathwater.”

Donahue has submitted his retirement paperwork and is due to relinquish command on July 2, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. His planned retirement date isn’t expected until later this summer, which means that he could still be given a new military role before then.

A Pentagon official disputed reports that Donahue was forced out and said the general made the decision to retire.

Under Hegseth, the Trump administration forced out Joint Chiefs Chair CQ Brown, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and other top officers with little explanation. Hegseth has also, to an unusual degree, removed officers from promotion lists who had already been vetted and approved by their peers.

Hegseth has argued that the military’s senior ranks have become bloated and overly bureaucratic and has moved to reduce the number of general and flag officers. He ordered cuts to four-star billets and said he wants to shift authority and resources away from headquarters staff and toward front-line soldiers.

However, Tillis called Hegseth’s “tinkering” in personnel decisions “all just hallmarks of inexperience.”

Donahue, a decorated special forces officer and former commander of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, became widely known as the last American service member to leave Afghanistan in August 2021. More recently, he led U.S. Army Europe and Africa, a command at the center of efforts to bolster NATO’s eastern front. NOTUS was first to report that the Pentagon’s plans to downgrade the command raised questions about whether Donahue would be granted another role.

Hegseth and Donahue had few interactions and never personally clashed, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Still, Tillis, who has known Donahue for years through his service at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, speculated that Donahue’s well-known candor may have somehow alienated Hegseth.

“The public should care because of the message it sends to other aspiring general officers,” Tillis said. “I think it has the effect of reducing the quality of our leadership.”

Lawmakers are pushing for more oversight of senior military dismissals. The House’s 2027 defense policy bill includes language to mandate the Pentagon to notify Congress within five days whenever a four-star general or admiral is removed from a top position. The Pentagon would have to provide a written explanation detailing the reasons for the officer’s dismissal.

Rep. Austin Scott (R-Georgia), a House Armed Services Committee member who supported the legislation, criticized Hegseth’s removal of George, and said Donahue’s imminent departure marked a “bad decision.”

“I’m very disappointed, and it is a bad decision on the part of the Pentagon,” Scott told NOTUS. “C.D. is one of our greatest warriors. He has tremendous value to our troops, to our country.”

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska), a House Armed Services member and former Air Force officer, called the broader wave of dismissals of generals and admirals, without transparency to Congress, “unacceptable.”

“What we don’t like is that there’s no explanation,” Bacon said. “We have probably about 20 generals and admirals been fired for no reason. I know many of them, and they’re very good, so that is concerning. It’s not decent when you fire people with no explanation.”

He also said the moves are bad for troop and officer morale.

“People have worked out their careers, see this happening, and when there’s no explanation given, it’s bad,” he said, adding that when Hegseth fires “the best of the best,” it undermines his credibility.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), an Iraq War veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised Donahue but stopped short of directly criticizing the reported ouster.

“I hate to see him go,” she told NOTUS. “He’s got so many decades of extraordinary service to our country. He is an absolute warrior, and he is the epitome of everything every American soldier should aspire to be.”

Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), a former member of the Army Special Forces and Army Rangers who recently met with the outgoing general, said the move was within the authority of the executive branch. But that doesn’t mean he wants to see Donahue depart. “Chris Donahue is one of the studs in the United States Army,” Self said.

Democrats and former national security officials have also rallied to Donahue’s defense.

“I’m very scared that we’re pushing out some of the best and brightest generals and up-and-coming generals and admirals in the name of whether it’s trying to stop DEI or just trying to pay political retribution, but I think it happened with Donahue,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona), an Iraq War veteran, told NOTUS.

“When you do that, you end up getting a bunch of yes men and yes women, and that’s when you end up losing wars like we’re about to lose this war in Iran,” he added.

Robert Greenway, a National Security Council official during the first Trump administration, posted on X, that Donahue is a “warrior” and “one of the best officers I’ve had the honor to serve with.”

Some lawmakers were personally familiar with Donahue through their work to bolster Ukraine’s defenses, including Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, the top Democrat on the defense appropriations panel.

“General Donohue [sic] is a true patriot, involved in some of our military’s finest moments in recent memory, all the way through to our support for Ukraine,” Coons posted on X. “Trump once claimed he’d hire ‘only the best people.’ Instead, he and Secretary Hegseth keep purging them from the Pentagon.”