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The Army confirmed that one of its most prominent generals would soon be retiring, ending his career and leaving his current job long before expected. It is the latest example of senior officers leaving the military early, or being fired, under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Nick Schifrin discussed more with Jim McPherson, the Under Secretary of the Army during the first Trump administration.
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
Amna Nawaz:
Today, the Army confirmed that one of its most prominent generals would soon be retiring, ending his career and leaving his current job long before expected.
It's just the latest example of senior officers leaving the military early or being fired under Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Nick Schifrin has that story.
Nick Schifrin:
When the U.S. military needed to respond to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, it deployed General Chris Donahue and the unit he commanded to Europe to coordinate U.S. assistance.
When, the year before, the military needed to withdraw quickly from Afghanistan, it also turned to Donahue and his unit, and he became the last American soldier to leave Kabul after 20 years of war. For years before that, Donahue led the Army's most elite troops during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Today, the Army said he would be retiring and leaving his current job as the top Army officer in Europe early, the sixth Army three- and four-star officer to announce early retirement just in the last year-and-a-half.
To talk about this, I'm joined by Jim McPherson, the undersecretary of the Army during the first Trump administration.
Jim McPherson, thanks very much. Welcome back to the "News Hour."
Rear Adm. James McPherson (Ret.):
Thank you.
Nick Schifrin:
What's your response to C.D. Donahue, as he was known, announcing this early Retirement?
Rear Adm. James McPherson (Ret.):
It's a continuation of a very distressing pattern, where senior officers are asked to resign or they are fired or they are reassigned to a command that would require them to be a lower rank, and they tender their resignation.
And we don't know why. There's no explanation. And so we're left to conjecture as to why these officers were let go. And, unfortunately, that conjecture turns to politics. Maybe they were let go because they weren't in line with the current administration's politics, which is a sad commentary.
Nick Schifrin:
But doesn't the secretary, doesn't his staff have the authority to reject officer candidates, to choose their own military leaders?
Rear Adm. James McPherson (Ret.):
They do. By law, they review the promotion list that comes out, and they can remove names from that promotion list. But, historically, that's never been done for just pure political reasons.
An individual would be removed from a promotion list for cause, and they would be notified as to what that cause is and have an opportunity to respond to it, whether it's alleged misconduct or whatever it may be. This administration seems to have departed from that historical perspective and is just firing people, and we don't know why.
Again, there's no explanation given whatsoever. I think we go back to February of last year, in which four former secretaries of defense wrote to Congress and expressed their concern over what they saw as the beginning of this when the president fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the C.O., and others. And they said it was reckless.
They said it undermined the all-volunteer force, and it put at peril our national security. Here we are 16 months later, and that trend is continuing.
Nick Schifrin:
I want to put a point on something you have been saying, which is the lack of explanation.
I asked the Pentagon for an explanation for why General Donahue was leaving early, and the office of the secretary referred me to the Army, whose statement did not provide any reason. So, just again, what is the impact of a lack of public explanation, especially when it comes to someone who internally was so respected like General Donahue?
Rear Adm. James McPherson (Ret.):
You're absolutely right, internally so respected.
I mean, one of the things that Secretary Hegseth has said many times is, he wants to make us more warrior-like. He wants to make warriors. Well, there's no more warrior than there was General Donahue, as you outlined in the introduction.
I think this goes to two things. One is the morale of the senior officers. They don't know what's in store for them. Is the administration going to go back and look at something they said or did when they were much lower rank years ago? That seems to be what's happening.
But there's also an aspect here that is very concerning, and that's civil-military relations. That's the relationship that the civilian community has with their military. And the foundation of that relationship is, the military is apolitical. They don't get involved in politics at all.
Well, now we see this administration involving senior officers in politics. And that erodes the trust that the civilian community has in their military. It impacts that civilian-military relationship.
Nick Schifrin:
I talked to a lot of former senior officials today who weren't willing to speak for the record. But one of them said this, a former three-star.
The three-star said to me: "It would be OK if generals were being relieved for cause, but relief without cause only leads to speculation about the secretary's motives and undermines trust within the officer corps."
Does that sound right to you?
Rear Adm. James McPherson (Ret.):
I couldn't agree more. And I was part of the process when I was on active duty in the Navy that reviewed promotion lists and those names to determine, are any of those names, has there been alleged misconduct in their past?
We don't even get that explanation from this administration now. It just happens, and we are left to speculate as to why, and that speculation turns to political reasons.
Nick Schifrin:
And one former four-star who knew Donahue for decades told me this, that, when all of those Army officers have been fired over the last year-and-a-half, he received calls from colonels, from lieutenant colonels, and they questioned whether they should stay in the military and — quote — this person told me: "The military is losing talent left and right."
What message does his removal send to the next generation of officers?
Rear Adm. James McPherson (Ret.):
It sends just that message, Nick. It sends the message that you can't trust the civilian leadership of this administration, because they're going to want to have individuals promoted who think like them, who believe as they believe, which is not what the military is all about.
And I'm sure that there are a number of captains and colonels now who are wondering whether or not they should remain in or take advantage of that job offer they just received for more money, and they get to spend more time with their families, a tough decision.
Nick Schifrin:
Jim McPherson, thank you very much.
Rear Adm. James McPherson (Ret.):
Thank you.
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Nick Schifrin Nick Schifrin
Nick Schifrin is PBS News Hour’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent and serves as the host of Compass Points from PBS News.
Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi
Zeba Warsi is a foreign affairs producer, based in Washington DC. She’s a Columbia Journalism School graduate with an M.A. in Political journalism. She was one of the leading members of the NewsHour team that won the 2024 Peabody award for News for our coverage of the war in Gaza and Israel.
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