Republican senators say confidence is waning in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership of the U.S. armed forces as the war with Iran drags on without an end in sight.
Some GOP lawmakers are questioning the administration’s failure to anticipate the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which has caused oil and gas prices to rise dramatically since February, or its failure to anticipate Iran’s willingness to strike neighboring allies like Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The conflict’s expansion into the Red Sea, where Iran-backed Houthi militants have targeted Saudi oil shipments, is another development some Republicans believe caught the Pentagon off guard.
“I don’t have any confidence in him anymore. I think he’s all over the place, he’s accelerating the retirement or forcing out some of the most distinguished leaders in the DOD that we have,” Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina told The Hill, referring to the Department of Defense.
“I think he’s got a massive insecurity complex, he has a lack of experience in large organizations, he micromanages too much. He’s lost my confidence.” Tillis, who cast the deciding vote to confirm Hegseth last year and has grown increasingly critical of the administration since announcing he won’t seek re-election, said there’s a growing crisis of confidence in Hegseth’s leadership within the Senate GOP conference.
One Republican senator close to defense policymakers, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, said Hegseth is losing support within senior military ranks. “I have heard out of the Pentagon that there’s a loss of confidence, within the Pentagon. And of course then everyone here on the Hill hears those same concerns,” the lawmaker said.
Some GOP senators were particularly alarmed by the forced retirement earlier this month of Chris Donahue, the top U.S. Army commander in Europe. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, of Maine, criticized the departures of senior military officials during Hegseth’s testimony before her panel. “I find this deeply troubling,” Collins said.
“These are men and women who volunteered to serve our country and swore an oath to support and defend our Constitution.” She said afterward she wanted “more information” on “the strategy and endgame for the war.”
Frustration is also building over the war’s staggering price tag despite Trump’s projection in early March that it would last only four or five weeks. “I do think that the American public’s growing weary,” Senator Shelley Moore Capito, of West Virginia, said. Hegseth put the cost at $37.5 billion last week, though independent analysts at Moody’s Analytics project it has cost at least $132 billion. “Collectively those of us in Congress are worried about the costs associated with the Department of War and the transparency,” said Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Tillis also questioned whether the leadership turnover under Hegseth has hurt strategic planning, arguing that departed generals might have warned the administration about Iran’s ability to stymie shipping through Hormuz or mobilize the Houthis. “Everybody knows about some of the Game of Thrones stuff going on with some of the other service secretaries and Hegseth. It seems like he wants to run the whole place,” Tillis said.
“When you’re a leader, you better damn sure have people smarter than you in the room. You’re supposed to be air traffic control for all these brilliant people and he’s undermining the DOD’s success by undermining these brilliant people who spent their career in uniform.”
It comes after Hegseth has blocked the promotion of female senior Navy officers without explaining his rationale. Hegseth, the Fox News host turned self-styled “war” secretary, wrote in his 2024 book, The War on Warriors, that the “woke mob” would “not stop until trans-lesbian Black females run everything.”
Five of the people he’s blocked from making two-star admiral are women or people of color, The New York Times reported, marking the first time in a decade no active-duty female Navy officer is likely to be promoted to admiral. The Times said Hegseth, in a “highly unusual move,” defied a promotion board of senior admirals that had recommended 22 candidates, striking down seven, five of them women or people of color.
Among those blocked was Rear Admiral Amy Bauernschmidt, a 30-year veteran who commanded the nuclear-powered carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and now leads a full carrier strike group. The Times reported Hegseth gave no explanation for blocking her promotion or the others’.
Hegseth has now purged or sidelined more than two dozen generals and admirals, including Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy, and blocked roughly 40 senior officers already cleared by review boards. More than half of the officers fired or blocked have been women or Black.
Retired Brig. Gen. Paul Eaton, a 33-year Army veteran, wrote in The Guardian that Hegseth’s leadership focuses on the wrong priorities, arguing his approach “does nothing to prepare the armed forces of the United States to meet its next peer or near-peer opponent.”
The DOD has been contacted for comment.
