Donald Trump’s ruthless takeover of the military is reminiscent of Joseph Stalin and could take decades to fix, a former general has warned.
Speaking to the Guardian, Major General Paul Eaton, 75, sounded the alarm on the Pentagon’s “Stalin problem,” which has seen Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ruthlessly cull anyone critical of the Trump administration and replace them with pro-MAGA sycophants.
“There is an active effort to politicise the armed forces,” said Eaton, who spent 37 years in active service and helped train troops in Iraq, in an interview published Monday.
“Once you infect the body, the cure may be very difficult and painful for presidents downstream.”
Although critical of the wider administration, Eaton pointed the finger at Hegseth specifically for handing Trump unchecked power by purging the Pentagon of inspector generals, watchdogs, and military lawyers who advise the president on the laws of armed conflict.
“Hegseth not only swears loyalty to Trump, he swears fealty to Trump – whereas the military swears an oath to the Constitution,” he explained.
Since Hegseth’s appointment last year, a swift purge of top brass and independent oversight officials soon followed. After the inspector generals and legal advisors were ousted in early 2025, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Charles Brown, soon followed, along with the heads of the Navy and Air Force.
In their place were officers such as Lt. General Dan Caine, a Trump loyalist who is alleged to have told the president he would “kill for him” (a claim made by Trump, which Caine has since denied).
The message sent by the firings was clear: “Toe the line, or we will fire you,” Eaton said. “You’re in a different world now. This is Trump’s world, and by God, this is what we’re going to do.”
Drawing a direct parallel to the Soviet Union, Eaton pointed to the purging of the military top brass by Joseph Stalin, who cemented his power by killing or imprisoning any officers who disagreed with him.
“Stalin killed a lot of the best and brightest of the military leadership, and then inserted political commissars into the units,” he explained.
“The doubt that swept the armed forces of the Soviet Union is reminiscent of today – they are not killing these men and women, but they are removing them from positions of authority with similar impact.”
The result, he added, is that “you’ve got a 1940s Stalin problem inside the American military right now”.
After sounding the alarm as far back as 2024, Eaton’s fears were later confirmed during a bizarre gathering of generals back in September, in which Hegseth torched the top brass for allowing themselves to become “the woke department,” telling them “Not any more. We’re done with that s—.”
In an incendiary speech in which he boasted of “removing the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department,” Hegseth said any military commander who disagreed with his vision should retire.
“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies. But if the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he said at the time. “We will thank you for your service.”
The defense secretary’s words that day were “disgusting,” and “antithetical to the US military,” Eaton told the Guardian. “The senior leadership of our armed forces are sober people who do not speak in terms of fatness or ‘kill them all’ or ‘the gloves are off’.”
Furthering comparisons to Soviet Russia, Eaton says he fears a clash among the military’s branches in the near future, predicting they’ll be forced into conflict after receiving contradictory orders from top brass.
“You can very easily see an escalation in which both sides think they are right, obeying orders that they believe were given legally,” he said. “There are going to be people getting hurt who really don’t need to get hurt.”
Speaking to The Daily Beast back in December, Eaton said Hegseth’s conduct would, in normal circumstances, result in him being out of a job.
“If I were rating Pete Hegseth’s conduct as a superior officer, he would be out of a job,” he told the Daily Beast podcast.
“He has consistently demonstrated that he does not have the gravitas, he does not have the experience, he does not have the mindset, he does not have the ethical base to perform the duties expected of the Secretary of Defense, and he is demonstrating this on a daily basis.”
Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told the Daily Beast: “The United States military is — and will always remain — non-partisan and under civilian control. Retired officers are private citizens who can speak for themselves and their commentary, or lack thereof, does not change the professionalism, readiness, or oath of our men and women in uniform. Eaton’s bogus comments are nothing more than an attempt to undermine confidence in the military and push a partisan media narrative.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for further comment.
