Hegseth headed for clash with GOP senators as frustrations grow
The Hill · C · trust 39/100
Comments: by Alexander Bolton - 09/03/26 6:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Alexander Bolton - 09/03/26 6:00 AM ET Comments: Link copied NOW PLAYING Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is on a collision course with GOP senators as key lawmakers have major concerns about the turnover of senior staff, the lack of a clear plan for ending the Iran war, and the failure of the administration to reach out to Democrats to build support for funding priorities.
Hegseth has been a controversial figure throughout his leadership of the Pentagon, but the growing tensions between him and senior GOP lawmakers will come to a head this fall when the administration makes a push for more than $70 billion in emergency national security spending to cover the growing costs of the Iran war.
Senate Republicans will demand more information about the departures of senior military officials, such as Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, who resigned this week, and about the conduct of the military conflict with Iran, which has now stretched for more than six months.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a former member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Wednesday accused Hegseth of “inept management” of the Pentagon and called on President Trump to fire him.
“I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country. He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force,” Tillis posted on social platform X.
Tillis urged Trump “to find a new leader at the Pentagon who will retain and empower our military talent rather than diminish it.”
The Defense Department declined to respond to Tillis’s comments.
GOP senators have grown increasingly concerned over the forced departures of several experienced and well-respected senior military officials, such as Gen. Randy George, former Army chief of staff, and Gen. Christopher Donahue, the top Army commander in Europe, during Hegseth’s tenure.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was “disappointed” to learn of Driscoll’s resignation.
“I was disappointed. I think he’s been a pretty solid guy. So disappointed,” he said.
Rounds said Driscoll was “frustrated with some of his top generals being released.”
“That’s not the first time I’ve heard that. I think that points to questions we’re going to be asking when we get back in terms of where’s the leadership at,” Rounds said.
“We’ve had some very good generals that are no longer there that we respected and that had a huge amount of foundational knowledge in terms of moving us forward as far as the changing capabilities that we need to incorporate into the overall fighting force,” he said.
A former senior Republican Armed Services staffer said many GOP lawmakers want to see a shake-up at the Pentagon and view Hegseth as a political liability heading into the Nov. 3 election but are leery about confronting Trump over a prominent member of his Cabinet.
“Hegseth has treated the Pentagon like his own personal playground in the culture wars. He’s driven out over two dozen senior leaders, including Driscoll, and ignored the chain of command by intervening personally in official investigations,” the former GOP aide said.
The former staffer said Hegseth is “an absolute train wreck for Republicans headed into the midterms but they are too scared to do anything about it,” noting they are relying on Trump to turn out voters and spend big on behalf of GOP candidates.
“If they had a spine, instead of wringing their hands and holding closed-door hearings, the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees would say on the record what just about every voter knows, which is that Hegseth is unqualified for the job and never should have accepted the position when President Trump offered it to him,” the source added.
Asked if he still has confidence in Hegseth’s leadership, Rounds said “it’s a matter of whether the president” is confident in his secretary of Defense.
“The president chooses who he wants for his key leaders. I think they’re trying. We want to see results,” he said.
House Armed Services Committee Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) told reporters Tuesday that he’s concerned about the turmoil among the senior ranks.
“I’m tired of all the churn. I want to see some stability,” he said.
Several of the departed generals who are highly regarded by GOP lawmakers, including George and Donahue, clashed with Hegseth over the creation of a special Unmanned Assault Battalion in Europe to study new drone-intensive tactics developed during the four-year war in Ukraine.
Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the acting Army chief of staff, ordered the battalion last month to refocus on its core mission as an airborne infantry battalion.
Both Tillis and Rounds questioned the decision to phase out the intensive program to experiment in drone warfare, which some GOP lawmakers view as the future of military conflict.
“Our understanding and assumptions of warfare are being challenged in places like Ukraine and Iran, and Dan [Driscoll] understands the old way of doing business no longer applies. He and General George began a transformative period of innovation in how we array our forces and equip our soldiers,” Tillis said.
Some Republicans warn the turnover of senior officials raises broader questions about the management of the Defense Department at a time the United States is mired in a conflict with Iran that has stretched far beyond the four or five weeks that Trump initially projected.
One Republican senator told The Hill in July that Hegseth was losing support within senior military ranks, which has, in turn, raised red flags for some GOP policymakers on Capitol Hill.
“I have heard out of the Pentagon that there’s a loss of confidence — within the Pentagon. And of course then everyone here on the Hill hears those same…
Read the original at The Hill →
Open in TruthVane →