GOP senators, blindsided by Hegseth, demand notice, transparency

Key Republican senators say they were blindsided by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announced 20 percent reduction of the U.S. military’s general and admirals, and they’re voicing concerns about the lack of consultation with Congress and the possibility that qualified senior officers were sacked for political or ideological reasons.

Senior Republicans on Capitol Hill are questioning whether too many experienced and highly qualified generals and admirals are being pushed out because of politics and what impact it might have on military readiness in the future.

“I wouldn’t have made that a priority if I had been asked,” said Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who said he was only informed of the 20 percent reduction shortly before it was announced.

“I didn’t get a long lead,” he said when asked if he got a heads up before Hegseth’s announcement Wednesday.

Wicker didn’t have many details about the significant reduction in senior ranks. “I think he’s probably interested in cutting out bureaucracy at the top level,” he speculated.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is handling the Pentagon’s request for an emergency supplemental spending package as well as the annual defense spending bill, said the sudden and large reduction of generals and admirals raises questions and concerns.

Collins said she didn’t get advanced notice of the steep reduction in military leadership ranks.

She noted she told Hegseth at a hearing earlier this year that his ouster of senior military officials was “deeply troubling” and risked “depriving us” of the “talent, dedication and patriotism” of women and people of color who were disproportionately pushed out.

On Wednesday, Collins reiterated her argument that “our system for promoting officers has always been an example of one of the greatest meritocracies that we have.”

“I think that we should adhere to a system that has served us well,” she said. “There may be a need to reduce the overall number of flag officers at the Pentagon, but this approach seems to be targeted on ideology.”

“It also disturbs me that there’s a disproportionate number of Blacks and females who are not being promoted,” she added.

GOP senators say Hegseth’s failure to consult with them is part a broader, troubling trend of making big decisions with little or no input from key members of Congress — or even without giving lawmakers sufficient advanced notice.

“Too much time has passed, and he’s failed to respect Congress. He’s never really given us fulsome briefings,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who served eight years on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“When you’re the head of the Department of Defense or any agency, you at least engage your committees,” he said. “When you hear Sen. Wicker and other people express frustration — we’re his stakeholders. We control his purse strings, and he’s almost treating us like we’re some line workers down in the manufacturing facility that he doesn’t want to spend time with.”

“It’s a huge problem, and I think he’s the face of the problem,” he said.

A Pentagon official dismissed claims that promotions and forced retirements were based on identity politics.

“It is untrue that Secretary Hegseth is basing promotion decisions on race and sex, and we have said so repeatedly,” the official told The Hill.

Hegseth last week defended the reduction in senior officers’ ranks as promoting “accountability” and “long overdue.”

“You can’t change a culture with the same people who enabled it. Personnel is policy at every single level,” he declared at the State of the Force address at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va., and confirmed a 20 percent reduction in generals and admirals “across the board.”

Hegseth also reported that recruiting and retention rates are setting records.

“Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force, National Guard, reserves, pilots, Special Forces, all setting decades-long recruiting records,” he said.

But the ouster of many experienced and highly qualified officers with little input from Congress has alarmed GOP lawmakers on key committees.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Hegseth did not consult with Republican or Democratic senators on the key oversight and appropriations committees before moving forward with his plan to slash U.S. military leadership roles.

She confirmed that GOP senators were surprised by the move.

“What I want to see is a plan. I’m not going to say a 20 percent reduction is not warranted. The problem is that the secretary did not come and explain this to us before acting on it, much like a lot of the firings that we’ve seen with military personnel,” she said.

“Are these positions that need to be modernized or collapsed? I want to know that, what’s the reason is behind it?” she said.

Ernst said Hegseth also needs to look at the “civilian population at the Department of Defense” if the goal of pushing out generals and admirals is to reduce bureaucracy.

“We should look at both military and nonmilitary people, but I do have concerns,” she said.

Ernst said reductions in senior military positions need to be justified by evolving military needs and readiness requirements.

She said the departures of high-profile Black and female leaders have created an appearance that they may have been “targeted” for political reasons, namely Hegseth’s high-profile effort to root out “woke” policies or efforts to promote diversity, equality and inclusion.

Hegseth assured the audience during his address at Quantico that the Pentagon remains “colorblind, gender-neutral and merit-based,” but parts of his speech only further raised concerns among GOP lawmakers.

“We are no longer the woke department of the weak department,” he declared in the address. “Simple translation of that: No fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals — just warriors, just tough, ready committed troops.”

Media outlets reported earlier this year that Hegseth intervened to stop the promotion of several Army officers, including two Black men and two female officers who had been on track to become one-star generals.

In June, The New York Times reported that Hegseth blocked the promotion of nine Navy officers who had been selected by a board of senior admirals.

President Trump caused an uproar among Democrats when he fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. — who was only the second Black general to serve as chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — in February of last year.

Hegseth defended the decision at the time, calling Brown “not the right man for the moment.”

Hegseth fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as chief of Naval Operations, in February of last year, a move that was criticized by Democratic lawmakers.

He thanked her for her “service and dedication to our country” and praised her career as “distinguished” but made clear that Trump wanted “new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars.”

The building tension between Hegseth and Republican senators comes as Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is grappling over how to fund the Defense Department before the end of the year in the face of staunch Democratic opposition to the military conflict in Iran.

Senate Republicans also face the challenging task of filling senior vacancies in military leadership created by Hegseth’s ouster of key officials, such as Navy Secretary John Phelan. Hegseth sacked Phelan in April.

GOP sources say that Trump’s nominee to replace Phelan, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao, faces a roadblock to confirmation because he needs a special congressional waiver given his recent active service. The waiver needs 60 votes and the support of at least seven Democrats.

Federal law requires a seven-year waiting period before a former military officer can take a top-ranking civilian leadership role at the Pentagon.