Republican Sen. Thom Tillis urges Trump to replace Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

Sen. Thom Tillis called on President Donald Trump to remove Pete Hegseth as defense secretary after a succession of prominent departures and dismissals among senior Pentagon officials. The senator directed his request to Trump and urged him to find a new Pentagon leader. Tillis's intervention was a demand for a leadership change, not an announcement that Trump had accepted the request or that Hegseth had left office.

Tillis made his comments Wednesday amid increasing Republican criticism of Hegseth's management of the Defense Department. His statement came two days after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned following months of reported clashes with Hegseth. The criticism was described as the strongest so far from a Republican politician, marking an escalation in public objections from within the president's party rather than a formal personnel decision by the administration.

In his statement, Tillis criticized Hegseth's management of military personnel as inept and said the secretary was intimidated by competence. He also said Hegseth focused on culture-war disputes instead of national defense and the welfare of the armed forces. These were Tillis's stated assessments of Hegseth's performance, not independently proven findings, and they formed the senator's argument for appointing a different Pentagon leader.

Hegseth has overseen a broad departmental reorganization during which nearly two dozen generals, admirals and senior civilian defense officials resigned, retired early or were dismissed. Several of the departures followed reported conflicts with him. He entered the post after serving as an Army National Guard major and with less senior government and military leadership experience than any previous defense secretary, circumstances that frame the scale of the management role he assumed.

Tillis thanked Driscoll for his leadership and also praised Gen. Randy George, who stepped down at Hegseth's request in April. The senator said the two had begun a period of change in how the Army positions its forces and equips soldiers. His praise linked the latest resignation to a broader dispute over which senior leaders the Pentagon retains and which modernization priorities remain supported at the department's highest levels.

Tillis said Hegseth had created a leadership gap at the top of the armed forces. He argued that a defense secretary sharing the priorities he attributed to Driscoll and George would work to retain them and other flag officers. The statement identifies the senator's central concern as senior leadership retention, while leaving the president's response and Hegseth's future unresolved.