{"id":5002,"date":"2026-06-24T18:34:46","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:34:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5002"},"modified":"2026-06-24T18:34:46","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:34:46","slug":"hegseth-thwarted-internal-efforts-to-extend-top-army-generals-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5002","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth thwarted internal efforts to extend top Army general\u2019s career"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Gen. Christopher Donahue, left, at a media event in Poland in 2022. (AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stonewalled a behind-the-scenes effort within the Army and on Capitol Hill to extend the career of an influential general, people familiar with the matter said, leading to that officer submitting retirement paperwork and preparing to step down.<\/p>

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Gen. Christopher Donahue, head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, will leave his role on July 2 after an unusually brief 18-month tenure, these people said, some speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. Hegseth\u2019s move has exasperated some Army officials, considering Donahue\u2019s background as a highly regarded Special Operations commander and the secretary\u2019s stated focus on making the military more lethal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s singularly our best warfighter at every level,\u201d one retired senior Army officer said of Donahue.<\/p>\n

The general\u2019s expected departure makes him the latest apparent casualty in Hegseth\u2019s purge of senior military leaders whom the secretary has deemed insufficiently loyal to the Trump administration or branded \u201cwoke\u201d for their past defense of diversity initiatives.<\/p>\n

Through a spokesman, Donahue declined to comment. A spokesman for Hegseth, Joel Valdez, referred questions to the Army. A spokeswoman for the Army, Cynthia Smith, acknowledged in a statement on Wednesday that Donahue will step down but did not address why.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, deputy commander, U.S. Army Europe and Africa will perform the duties of the commanding general,\u201d Smith\u2019s statement said. \u201cThe Army thanks Gen. Donahue for his leadership of U.S. Army Europe and Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donahue submitted retirement paperwork after months of uncertainty about his future and as Hegseth\u2019s team plans to downgrade his role and many others across the services<\/a> to three-star commands. The general left the door open to taking another position, but no next assignment has been offered, three people familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n

The general\u2019s pending retirement was first reported<\/a> by the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confers with military officials last week during a White House ceremony. (Ken Cedeno\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Advocates for Donahue have made the case that he would be a good fit to replace George as the Army\u2019s chief of staff or become its No. 2 officer if Hegseth elevates Gen. Christopher LaNeve, a former top military aide to the defense secretary who became vice chief in February, people familiar with the situation said. LaNeve was nominated for that position after Hegseth forced another officer, Gen. James Mingus, into early retirement last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some also saw Donahue as a candidate to take over Army Transformation and Training Command, an organization that oversees efforts to train and prepare soldiers for war. Its commander, Gen. David Hodne, was fired by Hegseth in April along with George. Top Army leaders had considered Hodne a contender to become chief of staff, officials said.<\/p>\n

Donahue had long been seen within the military as a transformative leader and a potential future chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or Army chief of staff.<\/p>\n

As commander of the elite Delta Force, he played a key role in leading operations against the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria. He went on to serve as a top Special Operations commander in Afghanistan and lead the 82nd Airborne Division and 18th Airborne Corps before taking his current role in Germany in December 2024.<\/p>\n

But Donahue became a political target after the chaotic and deadly U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan under the Biden administration, even though he was dispatched there as commander of the 82nd Airborne Division days after the U.S.-backed government collapsed and the Pentagon decided that reinforcements were necessary as Taliban fighters swept into the capital.<\/p>

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Donahue\u2019s soldiers arrived at the airport in Kabul with weapons drawn, people familiar with the matter said. He met with Taliban leaders as U.S. military officials sought to get control of the airfield and issued them a pointed warning, he later told military investigators who examined the episode, according to documents first reported on by The Washington Post in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told them that we would control the gates and they would push people out,\u201d Donahue told investigators. \u201cWe expressed that they will comply, because if they fight us on this we would be able to kill more of them than they would ever hope to kill of us. After that their tone changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirteen U.S. troops and about 170 Afghans were killed in an Islamic State suicide bombing near the end of the evacuation effort. Four days later, the U.S. military departed the airfield. The Pentagon released a widely publicized photograph of Donahue stepping onto an aircraft as the last American service member to exit the war, elevating the general\u2019s profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Then-Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue boards a cargo plane in Kabul on Aug. 30, 2021, the last American service member to depart Afghanistan. (Master Sgt. Alexander Burnett\/Army\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

At that time, critics argued that someone needed to be held accountable for how the Afghanistan war ended. Among them was Anthony Tata, a retired Army general who now serves as the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.<\/p>\n

\u201cAren\u2019t commanders accountable?\u201d Tata wrote on social media then. \u201cUnder Chris Donahue\u2019s command, 13 servicemen and women were killed with dozens of others grievously wounded, not to mention the hundreds of civilians. Many reports show the intel was there to prevent or mitigate the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tata added in his post that hundreds, if not thousands, of U.S. citizens were left behind and that Donahue had \u201creaped the accolades for being the last boots on the ground, as evidenced by the staged photo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this what success today looks like?\u201d Tata wrote.<\/p>\n

Donahue\u2019s advocates have argued that he did not have control of the airport\u2019s Abbey Gate, where the suicide bombing occurred, and brought a measure of order and security in what became a weeks-long crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did everything he could,\u201d said one supporter who served with him. \u201cThis is someone who carried out their duty, even if they disagreed with the policies behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, Donahue was seen as a potential nominee to become the head of U.S. European Command, which oversees all American military operations in Europe. But he was bypassed by Hegseth<\/a>, who nominated then-Air Force Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich.<\/p>\n

Hegseth has raised the Afghanistan photograph of Donahue in some private discussions about that decision, people familiar with the matter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re focused on people, war-fighting, and making sure that we\u2019re prepared for the next fight,\u201d he said in 2023. \u201cThere ain\u2019t no \u2018woke\u2019 here.\u201d<\/p>

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It\u2019s unclear whether those remarks played any role in Hegseth bypassing Donahue.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gen. Christopher Donahue, seen as a top warfighter, is the latest apparent casualty in a purge of senior military leaders by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nHegseth thwarted internal efforts to extend top Army general\u2019s career - Moving Insider USA<\/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:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5002\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hegseth thwarted internal efforts to extend top Army general\u2019s career - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gen. 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