The saga of the firing of Army General Christopher Donahue continues apace, becoming the "Gunsmoke" of general officer dismissals for its longevity. When last I posted on this melodrama (see The Reaction to GEN Donahue's Firing Indicates Hegseth's Action Was Correct and Timely – RedState), my conclusions were that the volume of quotes attributed to retired Admiral William H. McRaven indicated that it was he and his network of retired general officers/flag officers who were pushing the story. And:
- President Trump gets to pick his team; Hegseth is the general manager.
- The ranks of GOFOs are so salted with the debris of the Obama and Biden years that they need a culling on the order of the one General George C. Marshall gave to the U.S. Army pre-World War II.
- He who smelt it, dealt it. The source of this hit and who is pushing it tells you all you need to know about the motive.
- The graveyard is full of indispensable men, and everyone moves up one place.
I thought the furor would die down over the weekend, but I was wrong.
SecDef fires another a 4-star, this time... a former Delta Force commander... and MAGA thinks it's because their "set aside" (fired, really) NG Major knows better.
— Admiral Mike Franken (@FrankenforIowa) June 29, 2026
How do you think the active duty military sees this?
The Stars and Stripes, of all outlets, ran a stunningly one-sided story supporting Donahue headlined, "Departure of trailblazing US Army in Europe and Africa chief sparks sharp criticism of Hegseth."
John Vandiver’s piece on Gen. Donahue’s departure is a textbook example of one sided framing.
— Eric Schwalm (@Schwalm5132) June 29, 2026
It quotes Sen. Thom Tillis, Adm. William McRaven, and Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, all of whom have records of defending the institutional status quo and opposing the current push to reduce… https://t.co/xAGroIqMgK
John Vandiver’s piece on Gen. Donahue’s departure is a textbook example of one sided framing.
It quotes Sen. Thom Tillis, Adm. William McRaven, and Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, all of whom have records of defending the institutional status quo and opposing the current push to reduce general officers. Even the one voice from Fox News is used to criticize the decision.
What’s missing is any serious discussion of why these removals are happening in the first place. There’s no examination of cronyism, risk aversion, or the lack of accountability that built up at the top over the last two decades. The article treats the old guard as untouchable and presents any attempt to clean house as reckless.
If the military truly had no problems with how senior leaders were selected and protected, these changes wouldn’t be necessary.
What is curious is that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has dismissed approximately 25 senior officers, including the chiefs of staff of the Army and Air Force and the chief of naval operations, and none of them have drawn the spittle-flecked outrage that has accompanied the dismissal of Donahue.
lolol. More like 1 year of experience 900 times
— streiff (@streiffredstate) June 29, 2026
There has to be a reason.
One part of it has to be the Afghanistan experience. As we've reported at RedState and as other outlets have reported, the whole "last man out of Afghanistan" dog-and-pony show has a distinctly self-serving air about it. Other factors, such as denying American passport holders entry into the evacuation area, bumping refugees from a military aircraft to make room for a war trophy, and leaving behind an undetermined number of U.S. Army working dogs probably didn't raise his charisma score a lot. Donahue directed security operations at the aerial port of embarkation for the last two weeks, and it is hard to imagine that an unbiased, unscrubbed investigation of the evacuation will view that period favorably.
That motive would explain why Hegseth removed him. Still, it wouldn't explain why prominent leftist and anti-Trump retired GOFOs are rabid over Donahue being put out to pasture and using every tool in the garage to prevent Hegseth from prevailing.
CAVEAT: What follows is moderately informed speculation, and remember the difference between a conspiracy theory and a fact is about two weeks.
I suspect that the bolsheviki who are blowing up what should have been a high-profile but otherwise routine personnel action are less interested in Donahue than they are in the demolition of Donahue's influence in the Army.
General officers don't retire. When they leave active duty, they have seeded the military with their proteges. Yes, they may be drawing a nice seven- or eight-figure salary sitting on the board of a defense contractor or in a think-tank C-suite, but when they talk, people on active duty listen.
And another thing.
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) June 26, 2026
Most civilians do not understand just how much influence retired senior generals and admirals have on serving generals and admirals (generals and admirals = general officers/flag officers = "GOFO").
It's that control that this "greybeard" GOFO cohort exerts… https://t.co/4emZS230dU
And another thing.
Most civilians do not understand just how much influence retired senior generals and admirals have on serving generals and admirals (generals and admirals = general officers/flag officers = "GOFO").
It's that control that this "greybeard" GOFO cohort exerts on the current GOFO population that is deeply concerning.
The serving GOFOs follow the direction of that greybeard group, as the greybeards control the serving GOFO's future both in uniform and out. (How else do you think a retiring GOFO gets that cushy position on the Raytheon board of directors?)
In that regard, the greybeards hold more power than the chain of command up to SecWar.
At least they used to.
Now the greybeards are getting loud as that control for the first time is seriously threatened as these Hegseth removals are happening outside of their control, despite their behind the scenes work to keep the military version of the Deep State afloat.
We live in interesting times.
Sidelining Donahue in a way that makes it clear he is persona non grata to the War Department removes everyone who had hitched themselves to his star from the playing field.
Selection to general officer and promotions as a general much more resemble applying to an elite social club than anything else. An officer must have a champion to vouch for him, and the champion must have clout. If you picked the wrong guy's coattails to ride, it is game over.
A second part of that goes to Hegeth's bugbear, DEI.
The long march through the institutions has successfully captured the U.S. military by the time Trump 2.0 hit the scene.
In the field and afloat, white male commanders learned to be very circumspect in disciplining wayward black, female, or gay troops, because it was just too easy to be labeled a “racist” or a “misogynist” or a “homophobe” in career-ending fashion.
Good order and discipline broke down.
Combat effectiveness declined as a result.
All thanks to politics—the politics of DEI.
And the retired admirals and generals you hear moaning today to Goebbelsesque propaganda rags like The Atlantic? Not only did they not object, they embraced it because that is how these wholly political officers were able to advance. Now that Pete Hegseth is purging our hallowed military halls of the diseased, racist, misandrist, bigoted, hate-mongering, Christophobic, intolerant, diversity-destroying, inequitable, exclusionary, expressly political doctrines of DEI, these political animals are OUTRAGED. They see their Brutalist, Marxist spiritual edifice in tatters, and they don’t much like it, so they lie and say it’s all “political.”
DEI is the worst thing that has happened to the U.S. military in any of our lifetimes. It was the ultimate expression of a political acid test shoved down the throats of everyone serving in a U.S. uniform. It was Marxism on a massive scale, specifically designed to polarize the ranks and make our military less combat effective.
DEI was and is an abomination.
And Pete Hegseth has unraveled this monster in a mere two years. We are rebuilding our military on top of the ruins of the failed DEI experiment.
One gets the feeling that Donahue must've been part of that team. What more do you need to shepherd in all manner of mediocrity than to have as your promotion board champion a guy with multiple tours in Delta?
The fact that the most loathsome of the retired GOFOs are screaming bloody murder over the retirement of Donahue shows me that Hegseth has eliminated a guy who was central to their plan to "rule from below" and outlast his war on Marxism in the military.
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