{"id":2412,"date":"2026-06-28T22:13:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T22:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2412"},"modified":"2026-06-28T22:13:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T22:13:52","slug":"trump-chief-accused-of-petty-grudge-driving-major-military-firings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2412","title":{"rendered":"Trump chief accused of petty ‘grudge’ driving major military firings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Trump Pentagon has been rocked by controversy over a recent spate of firings and blocked promotions, and now, one lawmaker has accused President Donald Trump’s defense chief of being motivated by a petty “grudge” as he causes significant damage to the military.<\/p>\n

Read more GOP explodes into \u2018extraordinary feud\u2019 over \u2018virtually unknown\u2019 Trump appointee<\/a><\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has come under significant fire over the course of his tenure for removing several respected and experienced officers and blocking others from receiving promotions. He most recently took flak for the latter after the already-approved promotions of several Naval officers, most of them being either women or people of color.<\/p>\n

Critics have put forward various theories for what could be driving this trend, including a desire to punish or remove officers who took part in past diversity initiatives, or a plot to remove non-loyalists who might stand in the way of a 2028 “auto-coup” to keep Trump in power.<\/p>\n

During a Sunday appearance on CBS News’s Face the Nation<\/em>, Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, put forward another theory of what is driving Hegseth: “personal” revenge for his own time in the armed services. Kaine specifically touched on the recent ouster of General Chris Donahue, a highly respected officer whose departure even caused alarm among conservatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you pushing out the truth tellers to surround yourself by yes-men? And in particular, it looks like the secretary is coming down hardest\u2026 on the Army,\u201d Kaine told CBS host Margaret Brennan. <\/span>\u201cHe served in the Army, he felt like he wasn\u2019t treated well by the Army, that\u2019s a grudge he\u2019s carried that he\u2019s described publicly.”<\/p>\n

Read more Trump is sleeping in public and possibly on experimental drugs\u2014but the media is silent<\/a><\/p>\n

Kaine added: \u201cAnd so, when you see Army officers forced out, you got to wonder, is this a personal thing, or is it really what\u2019s best for the nation?\u201d<\/p>\n

“Donahue, the commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, submitted his paperwork to retire earlier this week after a little over a year in his role, according to a Pentagon official,” The Hill detailed in a report about Kaine’s remarks. “Donahue’s departure is the latest in a lengthy list of military leaders Hegseth has either removed or pushed out. That includes Gen. CQ Brown Jr., the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Navy\u2019s chief of naval operations, Adm. Lisa Frachetti; the commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Linda Fagan; Gen. Randy George, the Army\u2019s chief of staff; and Gen. James Mingus, the vice chief of staff of the Army.”<\/p>\n

Donahue’s ouster drew criticism from GOP lawmakers as well.<\/p>\n

“Strong leaders are not threatened by accomplished commanders,” Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina wrote in a social media post. “Weak ones are. [Hegseth’s] paranoid micromanagement of senior military leaders and promotion lists is pure insecurity dressed up as reform.”<\/p>\n

Read more Grammy-winning artist exposed for performance at Trump \u2018MAGA millionaire club\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump Pentagon has been rocked by controversy over a recent spate of firings and blocked promotions, and now, one lawmaker has accused President Donald Trump’s defense chief of being motivated by a petty “grudge” as he causes significant damage to the military.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump chief accused of petty 'grudge' driving major military firings - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2412\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump chief accused of petty 'grudge' driving major military firings - 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