Former secretaries of defense call for congressional hearings on recent Pentagon firings
Five former secretaries of defense penned a letter to Congress. They’re asking for hearings related to President Trump’s removing senior military officers from their positions. These former secretaries claimed that Trump’s dismissals raise troubling questions, they hinted that Trump was politicizing the military, and they suggested that Trump’s actions undermine the all-volunteer force and weakens national security. These former secretaries also claimed that Americans would be less likely to want to serve if they felt that they would be held to a political standard.
From AP News:
The letter — signed by William Perry, Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel, Jim Mattis and Lloyd Austin — said there were no real justifications for the firings because several of the officers had been nominated by Trump for previous positions. And it said they had exemplary careers, including operational and combat experience.
“We, like many Americans — including many troops — are therefore left to conclude that these leaders are being fired for purely partisan reasons,” said the letter, adding that “we’re not asking members of Congress to do us a favor; we’re asking them to do their jobs.”
In the meantime, they said, senators should refuse to confirm any new Pentagon nominations, including retired Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, who Trump has said should be the next joint chiefs chairman.
Trump’s choice of Caine is unusual. Caine, who is widely respected in the military, would have to come back onto active duty but he does not meet the legal requirements for the top post. According to law, a chairman must have served as a combatant commander or service chief. The president can waive those requirements.
Hagel is a Republican and Mattis, an independent, was Trump’s first defense chief. The other three are Democrats. Four of the five served in the military, including two — Mattis and Austin — who were four-star generals.
“The House and Senate should demand that the administration justify each firing and fully explain why it violated Congress’ legislative intent that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff complete a four-year term in office,” the letter said.
The chairman has a four-year term, and Brown had served a bit less than 17 months.
Additional Reading:
Baldor, L. C. (2025). Former defense chiefs call for congressional hearings on Trump’s firing of senior military leaders. AP News. Link.
Category: Donald Trump, Military issues, Pentagon
Typical response to people who’s entire professional career was in government/military. These people have been exposed to failing up that takes place. I’ve worked/consulted at several Fortune 500 companies (UPS, Coke, MetLife, Citigroup) and whenever there is change at the top of the firm/division/department/business line the new boss always brings in people that share their vision. POTUS & SECDEF are changing out the DEI/CRT enablers that they may have promoted because the military is shifting away from that shit. You change out the leaders to send a message to the rank & file we’re going in a new direction. Trump isn’t making the same mistake of having DC Swamp creatures subjugating his authority and vision. Besides, the establishment goes bat-shit crazy for EVERYTHING that’s not part of the establishment way of doing things. These guys need read the room and know why Trump was reelected.
I think all the screeching is exactly what President Trump wants to hear… it tells him he is going in the right direction.
This letter really shows how out of touch these people are. “…former secretaries also claimed that Americans would be less likely to want to serve if they felt that they would be held to a political standard”. Recruiting sucked for the years of the Biden Admin. After the election (immediately as in December 2024) number suddenly jumped. What those former secretaries were doing was weakening the military, what President Trump is doing is putting it back on course to be the military the world relies on to protect it!
Sounds like a letter similar to the former Intel Chiefs trying to cover up evidence. We should definitely investigate all of them!
Exemplary careers? Operational and combat?
How many wars have they won? How many audits have they flunked?
These SecDefs were failures just like the garbage Trump is taking out.
Precisely.
By my calendar, the U.S. hasn’t won a war in 83 years.
It’s all good though: the NDAA of 2024 requires the DoD to pass an audit by 2028.
Did you miss the Persian Gulf War, Just Cause and Urgent Fury? Because those all achieved their stated war goals. Not crazy about the idea of belittling the soldiers that fought in those conflicts.
Or do you believe we haven’t fought in any wars in 83 years as there have been no declarations?
I stand corrected. Wasn’t my intention to appear to belittle or minimize those who participated or were lost during those conflicts.
Soooooo…. Their argument is that kiddes don’t want to serve because of this eh? Did they get this idea from Commissar? Because whelp, if you guessed highest recruiting numbers in January since 2010 you have won a new 32″ TV. And that was in the middle of that god awful recession.
https://www.newsweek.com/army-recruitment-breaks-15-year-record-its-not-enough-2026238
This comes on the heels of ten year high numbers in December. Maybe, just maybe, the kids are little smarter than several former SoDs. Maybe they like the idea of having someone in the WH on their side who isn’t going to ship them off to a meat grinder to line the pockets of defense contractors like, I don’t know, Mattis: Head of the Board of General Dynamics. Most of the rest of them are so old they are probably in diapers.
“…former secretaries also claimed that Americans would be less likely to want to serve if they felt that they would be held to a political standard”.
Absolutely true. But not in the way they think. Trump is de-politicizing the military and the establishment just can’t have that. Obama worked to hard to build that over three terms.
Ain’t nothing wrong with writing letters and “signifying”.
Did they write one butt hurt letter and all sign it or are there five pitiful letters from irrelevant relics of the democratic socialist occupation period?
Domestic terrorists and subversives can no longer hide themselves. Like queers and vegans, they just can’t keep it to themselves.
Firat they noted that the Hunter Biden laptop was clearly Russian Disinformation.
Amazing to see just how blithe they can be.
General Stanley McChrystal was unavailable for comment.
Last time I checked, The POTUS was The Commander in Chief and could pretty much hire and fire whom ever he wanted to. Did I miss something? Sounds like, to me, we have a case of Sewer Kritters trying to protect Sewer Kritters.
Funny how nobody on the left or in the DC Insider crowd said shit when B. Hussein 0bama went on a firing spree in the DoD!
A collection of failed very political SecDefs criticizing a sitting President they tried to undermine justifies what the President is doing.
It’s funny maddening, not funny haha that all five of these chuckleheads served in a position at the whim of a president. For Mattis and Austin, they spent their entire military careers serving at the whim of president’s.
Now, they want investigations? For a presidential decision?
How about NO.
Or if they want to fund the investigation out of their collective retirement pay.