Top General Sounds Alert over Pentagon Pete’s Unending Purge

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s purging of military officials who do not toe the MAGA line threatens irreversible damage to the military, a top ex-general warns.

The former Fox News host has created an atmosphere of “anxiety and mistrust” in the Pentagon, which has been gutted of those who express dissent, said over a dozen current and former military officials who spoke to The New York Times.

The politicized nature of the Pentagon has “forced senior officers to take sides and, at times, pitted them against one another,” the paper reports. It also noted that the mass firing of generals this year is unprecedented in the United States.

Anonymous military officials told the Times that “Hegseth’s moves have fed the impression the military has pro-Trump and anti-Trump generals.”

Multiple experts warn that such an atmosphere in the upper echelons of the military is a recipe for disaster. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who led elite special operations troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for years, is among those ringing warning bells.

“The U.S. military’s long history of remaining apolitical has always depended upon a norm in which the military avoided politics while civilian leadership respected and protected those in uniform from the political fray,” he told the Times. “Recent months have challenged the paradigm, at significant risk. Once lost, the legitimacy of a military that reflects and represents all Americans will be difficult to recover.”

galleries/2010/12/07/year-in-hubris/year-in-hubris---stanley-mcchrystal_nxtrvo — Former Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal said he fears Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is doing irreparable damage to the U.S. Military. Alex Wong / Getty Images

Kori Schake, a defense specialist and a former George W. Bush adviser, told the Times that Hegseth is “squandering an enormous amount of talent.”

Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA officer who analyzed foreign militaries, said Hegseth is running the Pentagon like autocracies do elsewhere in the world.

“The places where we’ve looked at these kinds of things are places like China,” she said this week. “I used to work on Iraq. They would do the same thing.”

17 General Officers have been removed or have retired in nine months. I’m a former CIA officer – if I saw this in a foreign military, we would call that a purge. pic.twitter.com/GLLctwSdcS

— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) November 3, 2025

Democratic Rep. Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger, said he fears politics will seep into the military’s lower ranks.

“The message being sent to those younger soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines is that politics can and should be part of your military service,” he said. “It’s a dangerous message.”

The Pentagon’s top spokesperson, Sean Parnell, sent a statement to the Daily Beast that accused the Times of peddling Democratic talking points.

“Left-wing outlets like The New York Times peddling Democrat talking points have clearly forgotten that officers, including flag officers, were fired during the Obama Administration,” he said. “Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth’s leadership, our military has never been more unified thanks to the dismantling of the previous administration’s divisive DEI agenda and renewal of the warrior ethos. The department will continue to elevate those in our ranks who are committed to warfighting and meritocracy.”

Parnell left the military after six years, retiring at the rank of captain, then ended a bid to run for the Senate in Pennsylvania when a judge ruled he had been abusive to his first wife during their marriage. Hegseth was a National Guard officer and Fox News weekend host before becoming Secretary of Defense.

Gen. C.Q. Brown, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was among the first military leaders to be axed by the Trump administration this year. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag

Among the officials axed this year were General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the U.S. Navy as Chief of Naval Operations; General David Allvin, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force; and Admiral Linda Fagan, head of the Coast Guard.

Dozens of other military officials have been let go by the Trump administration.

Hegseth, 45, has boasted about the firings—something he has deemed necessary to return a “warrior ethos” to the military.

“The new compass heading is clear,” Hegseth told officers who gathered to hear him speak in Virginia in September. “Out with the Chiarellis, the McKenzies, and the Milleys.”

Hegseth was referring to Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the former Army vice chief of staff; Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., a former head of Central Command; and Gen. Mark A. Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff whom Trump loathes.

The post Top General Sounds Alert over Pentagon Pete’s Unending Purge appeared first on The Daily Beast.

Top General Sounds Alert over Pentagon Pete’s Unending Purge

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