Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is sacrificing military readiness for his conservative culture war—and he’s getting away with it.
In his resignation, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll laid out his concerns that Hegseth was blocking efforts to modernize the military by removing the generals spearheading those efforts, a source familiar told CNN Wednesday. One person familiar with the matter told Politico that Hegseth thwarted Driscoll’s efforts “at every turn.”
Multiple sources told CNN that they agreed that Hegseth was firing the leaders behind modernization efforts, and instead focusing on culture war issues.
“It’s conflicting because yeah he put out a memo saying this is important, but … he’s talking about muscles, dudes in dresses, testosterone,” a defense official in Europe told CNN. “We don’t see a change at that level.”
Unlike Driscoll and his deputy Army Undersecretary Dave Fitzegerald, who also resigned, Hegseth was more focused on the way things looked, not with long-term strategic priorities, one source familiar with their relationship told CNN. “Driscoll and Fitzgerald were focused on the modernization issues and less the social,” the source said.
Sources also pointed to the removal of three other army officials focused on the future: Army Chief of Staff Randy George; General Chris Donahue, the former head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, who was working to learn drone warfare from the Ukrainians; and General David Hodne, former commander of the U.S. Army Transformation and Training Command.
“It’s critical that you have key leaders that understand technology and have the temperament to deal with industry and turn that into the formation,” a former senior Army official said. “When you fire these guys for arbitrary reasons, it creates confusion and a void … the Army is enduring turbulence right now.”
Meanwhile, Hegseth positioned his senior military assistant General Christopher LaNeve into position to serve as acting chief of staff after George’s removal. One defense official told CNN that LaNeve’s “whole schtick is that he’s a ‘back to basics’ guy.”
Since his appointment, Hegseth has been consumed with the project of remaking the U.S. military in his own image. The secretary was quick to install new rules for how soldiers should look—no beards or bellies—and recently introduced mandatory testosterone screenings. He’s repeatedly thwarted the advancements of Black and female DOD personnel, and overseen a ban on new transgender and nonbinary soldiers.
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