US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has forced out four-star General Chris “C.D.” Donahue, the Delta Force legend famously photographed as the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan and the man widely considered the Army’s next chief of staff.
“These allies, they put America’s sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, at risk,” Hegseth said. Credit: X
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has forced out one of the most decorated generals in American military history, a Delta Force commander, the man famously photographed as the last US soldier to board a plane out of Afghanistan, and senators from both parties are now openly accusing him of acting on a deeply personal grudge rather than any credible military rationale.
Four-star General Chris “C.D.” Donahue, 56, who as the Army’s chief official in Europe and Africa had been instrumental in helping Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion, filed to retire and will leave his post within days. He had once been tipped to run the entire Army. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia put it plainly on CBS News’s Face the Nation: “He served in the Army. He felt like he wasn’t treated well by the Army. That’s a grudge he’s carried that he’s described publicly. And so, when you see Army officers forced out, you’ve got to wonder, is this a personal thing, or is it really what’s best for the nation?”
Axed for Kabul?
The theory that Donahue was punished for his role in the Afghanistan withdrawal is not fringe speculation; it is the dominant explanation circulating among senior military officials and congressional sources. Hegseth launched a new investigation in May 2025, calling the withdrawal “disastrous and embarrassing,” despite multiple prior investigations reaching no adverse findings against Donahue. Pentagon watchers believe Donahue was forced out simply because he had been in charge of the mission.
Brett McGurk, a former special presidential envoy who led the campaign against Islamic State under multiple presidents, told CBS that “there are few people more responsible for the defeat of ISIS than Chris Donahue” and that “he is among the most consequential commanders of his generation.”
‘This Is Not a War on Woke, This Is a War on Warriors’
The reaction inside the military has been one of barely contained fury. “It’s interesting that the guy who says he wants to bring back the warrior culture is expunging the biggest warriors in the Army ranks,” one retired service member told The Atlantic. “This is not a war on woke. This is a war on warriors.”
Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, rarely given to public outbursts, did not hold back. “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,” Tillis wrote on X, adding that Hegseth “is more interested in purging people he perceives as insufficiently loyal than empowering proven patriots who can actually lead.”
Former top officers told the Financial Times that an increasingly paranoid Hegseth has fostered an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that has reached the highest ranks at the Pentagon.
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