The Pentagon shake-up under Trump has not ended, as on Thursday Pete Hegseth has dismissed Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, asking him to step down into early retirement.
The move is unusual, given this is the head of the Army and the United States is past the one-moth mark in Trump’s Operation Epic Fury. A reason hasn’t been given as to what amounts to Gen. George being effectively fired.
CBS writes, “One of the sources said Hegseth wants someone in the role who will implement President Trump and Hegseth’s vision for the Army.”
A top defense official has also said: “We are grateful for his service, but it was time for a leadership change in the Army.”
The chief of the Army is typically a four-year term, and already there’s speculation over who will be the likely candidate to lead next:
The current vice chief of staff of the Army, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who was formerly Hegseth’s military aide, will likely be considered as a replacement. He previously served as the commanding general of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division from 2022 to 2023.
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point posted photos on social media on Thursday of George, saying he “shared experience-driven guidance with cadets preparing to lead” during a visit.
There’s been some serious background controversy over the last weeks among top command ranks regarding the Trump admin’s preferences:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals, a highly unusual move that has prompted some senior military officials to question whether the officers are being singled out because of their race or gender.
Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consists of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, senior military officials said.
Mr. Hegseth had been pressing senior Army leaders, including Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, for months to remove the officers’ names, military officials said. But Mr. Driscoll, citing the officers’ decades-long records of exemplary service, had repeatedly refused.
As for Gen. George, he was commissioned as an infantry officer out of US Military Academy in 1988 and saw deployments in Operation Desert Shield, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom. He later served as vice chief of staff of the Army from 2022 to 2023, before being nominated by Biden to become Army chief of staff.