Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth determined in early 2025 to spike Gen. Christopher T. Donahue’s nomination to be the highest U.S. navy officer in Europe.
Mr. Hegseth believed that President Trump needed heads to roll for the deaths of 13 U.S. service members in a suicide bombing on the Kabul airport in the course of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Basic Donahue was not answerable for safety on the bombing web site. However he was a high commander on the airport, and so Mr. Hegseth determined he wanted to go.
It fell to Joe Kasper, Mr. Hegseth’s chief of employees, to attempt to persuade him that he was unsuitable.
Mr. Kasper requested a senior Pentagon official to organize a card with a half-dozen bullet factors laying out the information in Basic Donahue’s protection, present and former officers mentioned. He took it with him in March of final yr as he and Mr. Hegseth sped by site visitors to the White Home for a press occasion.
For these jiffy within the automotive, Mr. Kasper knew he would have his boss’s undivided consideration.
Sirens had been blaring. He handed Mr. Hegseth the cardboard.
These had been the information of Basic Donahue’s three-decade profession: He had seen extra fight in his 20-plus deployments than simply about any officer within the U.S. navy. A star within the clandestine world of particular forces, he had spent years within the shadows looking terrorist leaders. After which because the world and warfare modified, he modified with it.
He had performed a central function within the U.S. navy’s efforts to assist Ukraine maintain off a a lot bigger Russian drive, a job that impressed his imaginative and prescient for a brand new form of fight that married divebombing drones, robotics and synthetic intelligence.
Now his destiny lay within the palms of Mr. Hegseth, a former Fox Information host who had two deployments as an Military officer to Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Hegseth had come to the Pentagon vowing to weed out the “small” and “feeble” generals who he believed had failed in these wars.
What performed out within the 16 months after the automotive experience was a conflict between Mr. Hegseth and Basic Donahue’s supporters, who seen him as a generational expertise.
That conflict, and its consequence, was described to The New York Occasions by greater than 40 individuals on the Pentagon, in Congress and around the globe, practically all of whom spoke on the situation of anonymity to keep away from retribution.
It quantities to one of the crucial consequential chapters in Mr. Hegseth’s marketing campaign to drive out these he sees as out of step together with his priorities, a leadership purge that his critics say is pushed by ideology, identification and suspicion of these with tenuous ties to former navy leaders that he doesn’t like. And it reveals the depth of the behind-the-scenes battle to save lots of one normal.
The extra Basic Donahue’s allies pushed, the extra Mr. Hegseth’s opposition appeared to harden.
The Pentagon declined to reply questions on Basic Donahue, saying in an announcement that every one senior navy leaders serve on the pleasure of the president and the protection secretary.
Within the spring of 2025, Basic Donahue was commanding floor forces in Europe. Mr. Hegseth was new to the Pentagon. To the extent he was aware of Basic Donahue, it was largely by the prism of the Afghanistan withdrawal and a grainy photograph that indelibly linked the overall to the battle’s tragic finish.
Basic Donahue was the final U.S. soldier to depart Afghanistan. As he stepped onto a hulking navy cargo aircraft, an Military photographer snapped his image utilizing his cellphone digicam and night time imaginative and prescient machine.
The green-and-black picture rocketed around the globe. Senior Pentagon officers mentioned Mr. Hegseth appeared to be fixated on the photograph, mistakenly referring to it as a “selfie.”
The primary merchandise on the cardboard that Mr. Kasper handed to Mr. Hegseth within the automotive clarified that the photograph was not a selfie and that Basic Donahue had nothing to do with its distribution. Different bullet factors famous that Marines, not Basic Donahue’s paratroopers, had been in control of the gate the place the suicide bombing occurred.
The protection secretary glanced on the card and handed it again to his chief of employees.
“I don’t care,” Mr. Hegseth informed Mr. Kasper.
‘Brother, We Want Your Assist’
At first, Basic Donahue wasn’t imagined to go to Afghanistan for the withdrawal. The Pentagon mentioned it simply wanted roughly 2,000 of his paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division to assist with safety on the Kabul airport.
Then, on Aug. 16, 2021, shortly after the paratroopers began arriving, 1000’s of Afghans, determined to flee Taliban insurgents, swarmed the runways, stopping planes from taking off and touchdown.
Basic Donahue’s paratroopers watched in horror as Afghan particular operations items, who had been ready to be evacuated, beat again the civilians in order that flights may resume.
Amid the chaos, Basic Donahue acquired new orders: Get to Kabul as quick as doable.
Three a long time had handed since Basic Donahue graduated from West Level. He was in his mid-20s when his management abilities and soccer participant’s construct caught the attention of a senior officer in Delta Drive, the Military’s elite counterterrorism unit.
He survived the choice course of and disappeared right into a world of secrecy and pretend personas. Deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and different sizzling spots adopted as he rose to develop into Delta’s high commander.
The ability that usually set Basic Donahue other than his friends on these battlefields was his skill to win the belief of native companions. It had been on show in Afghanistan in Could 2019 when he started main particular operations forces within the nation and gained over his Afghan counterpart, Brig. Gen. Sami Sadat.
Collectively, they leveraged airstrikes, particular operations advisers and commandos to punish Taliban insurgents and retake territory that had been misplaced. “We didn’t really feel like we cracked the code; we did crack the code,” Basic Sadat mentioned.
However their battlefield good points had been fleeting. In February 2020, Mr. Trump cut a deal with the Taliban to curtail U.S. navy help to Afghan forces and start the American withdrawal.
Basic Sadat remembered sitting by Basic Donahue’s aspect of their command publish watching a drone feed because the Taliban rolled over an Afghan unit. “He was very offended, annoyed and ashamed,” Basic Sadat mentioned.
Eighteen months later, the Afghan president had fled the nation and the federal government had collapsed. Basic Sadat reconnected with Basic Donahue, who was already on his approach again to Afghanistan, and informed him that his Afghan forces had dissolved.
“Brother, we want your assist,” Basic Sadat recalled telling him.
Basic Donahue landed in Kabul on Aug. 17.
Round 2 a.m., he met with Qari Hamdullah Mokhlis, a Taliban commander whom Basic Donahue’s commandos had been looking for and kill as not too long ago as 2020. The overall’s former goal was now his accomplice.
“You don’t like me; I don’t such as you,” Basic Donahue’s paratroopers recalled his telling the Taliban commander. “However we’re going to need to work collectively.”
The largest menace to each was the Islamic State terror group, which was decided to show the withdrawal right into a blood bathtub, in response to U.S. intelligence. The U.S. navy would management the airport and its entry gates. U.S. commanders needed the Taliban, who had arrange checkpoints exterior the airport, to let Americans and allies cross by, and hold out would-be suicide bombers.
Basic Donahue’s paratroopers started making ready for a serious assault. They cleared the roads resulting in the airport’s subject hospital so they might be capable of rush wounded to get care.
The intelligence recognized Abbey Gate, a serious airport entry level managed by the Marines, because the more than likely goal. The Marines had been planning to depart and switch over management of the location to Basic Donahue’s troops.
On Aug. 24, Basic Donahue visited the gate and noticed 1000’s of determined Afghans crowding the Marines who had been making an attempt to keep up order and display them.
The chaos and proximity between the Afghans and the Marines made it a perfect goal for a suicide bomber, Basic Donahue informed his paratroopers.
The plan was for Basic Donahue’s paratroopers to take management of Abbey Gate from the Marines on Aug. 27 and shut it down. However Basic Donahue thought it was too dangerous to attend. He met with the senior U.S. commander on the airport and really useful shutting the gate instantly.
British forces, which had been utilizing the entryway to evacuate their residents and allies, requested the Individuals to maintain it open. Pentagon leaders “grudgingly” agreed, a senior U.S. official recalled.
The Marines had been nonetheless accountable for Abbey Gate at 5:48 p.m. on Aug. 26 when the suicide bomber struck. Eleven Marines, one Navy medic and one Military soldier, together with scores of Afghans, had been killed.
Basic Donahue may hear and really feel the blast at his headquarters on the opposite aspect of the runway. “I must know the numbers and kinds of casualties,” he informed his employees. The state of affairs was so dire that medics started pumping blood from wholesome troopers into the veins of the wounded.
On Aug. 30, America’s longest battle got here to a bitter finish. Basic Donahue took a parting glimpse on the Kabul airport after which hurried onto the massive, grey aircraft. It was the final one out and, in step with Military custom, he was the ultimate soldier to board. The Military photographer captured the second at 11:46 p.m. utilizing his iPhone and the night time imaginative and prescient monocle hooked up to his helmet. When the aircraft landed in Qatar, Basic Donahue known as his spouse.
His paratroopers overheard the dialog.
“We’re out,” he mentioned.
“I do know,” she mentioned.
“How do you know?” he requested.
“Everyone is aware of,” she mentioned.
She despatched him the photograph, which was now posted on information websites around the globe. Basic Donahue, bowled over, confirmed the photograph to members of his crew. He had spent most of his profession within the shadows. Now he was in all places.
“This isn’t good,” he mentioned.
‘He Desires Fewer Generals!’
On the 2024 marketing campaign path, Mr. Trump blasted the Biden administration for the withdrawal and the Abbey Gate deaths, calling the episode “essentially the most embarrassing second within the historical past of the USA.” He puzzled why no generals had been fired for it.
He didn’t point out the deal he had reduce with the Taliban that set the collapse in movement.
The withdrawal first grew to become a career-threatening downside for Basic Donahue in November 2024. Markwayne Mullin, then a Republican senator from Oklahoma, put a maintain on his nomination to steer U.S. floor forces in Europe, successfully blocking him from taking the job.
The maintain set off a scramble amongst senior Military officers, members of the particular operations group and a few of Basic Donahue’s supporters in Congress. Mr. Mullin, after assembly with Basic Donahue, relented.
For Basic Donahue, it could show to be a fleeting victory. His profession and imaginative and prescient would quickly collide with Mr. Hegseth, who resigned from the Military after being singled out for tattoos that the service deemed extremist. “The navy I liked, I fought for, I revered spit me out,” Mr. Hegseth wrote in a 2024 e-book.
Mr. Hegseth went on responsible the Military’s generals, whose ranks he believed had been “bloated.” It was time, he wrote, to “clear home.”
Earlier than he was confirmed as protection secretary, Mr. Hegseth met with Mr. Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort and emerged from their speak believing the president-elect shared his imaginative and prescient.
“He desires fewer generals!” Mr. Hegseth informed aides.
Basic Donahue, in his 50s and one of many navy’s youngest four-star generals, appeared to be on the ascent. Three years earlier, he created a new headquarters to funnel intelligence, expertise, planning and technique to the Ukrainians.
It labored, and the Ukrainians retook massive swaths of their territory. However within the years that adopted, the U.S. navy and its NATO companions couldn’t present the Ukrainians with sufficient shells and missiles, so the undermanned Ukrainians improvised. They changed scarce and dear shells and missiles with low-cost drones.
Basic Donahue and like-minded navy leaders had been satisfied that U.S. help to the Ukrainians was a worthwhile funding: It was bleeding the Russians and making ready the U.S. navy for future wars.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Hegseth didn’t see it that approach. They spoke of curbing U.S. help and forcing Kyiv to chop a cope with Moscow.
In February 2025, Mr. Hegseth traveled to Europe. The journey started with a tense dialog with Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, Basic Donahue’s boss who, as the pinnacle of European Command, led all U.S. and NATO forces on the continent. Basic Cavoli, who was retiring that summer season, informed Mr. Hegseth that he would quickly want to decide on his substitute.
The front-runner for the job was Basic Donahue, who was standing by together with his troops in Poland. It was Mr. Hegseth’s final cease. The assembly — their first and solely — was transient and optimistic.
‘Our New Mannequin’
In Washington, Mr. Hegseth acquired a binder with candidates’ pictures and bios. Basic Dan Caine, the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, had scribbled an effusive endorsement with a black Sharpie subsequent to Basic Donahue’s image, the officers mentioned. The 2 officers had labored collectively earlier of their careers.
Mr. Hegseth initially agreed that Basic Donahue would take over European Command. However Mr. Hegseth later informed his employees that Mr. Trump needed punishment for the deaths at Abbey Gate.
After Mr. Kasper’s failed try within the automotive to salvage Basic Donahue’s nomination, the chief of employees met Basic Donahue in his workplace.
The highest job at European Command was now off the desk, Mr. Kasper defined. Basic Donahue seemed dejected. However he nonetheless had his Military publish and a goal, which he described to a former colleague.
The headquarters he established in Germany in 2022 to help the Ukrainians ought to function “the laboratory the place we check new concepts and capabilities after which quickly share them throughout the drive,” he mentioned.
He noticed the battle as a historic alternative, the colleague recalled. Within the waning days of its defeat in Vietnam, the Military had despatched a normal to the Center East to check how the outnumbered however progressive Israelis defeated Arab armies within the 1973 Yom Kippur Conflict. That normal’s report had remodeled the Military.
“This must be our new mannequin,” Basic Donahue informed the previous colleague.
He started to show his imaginative and prescient into an in depth plan utilizing a dry-erase board, officers recalled. His command would take Ukrainian advances in low-cost, mass produced drones and drone interceptors, and construct on them with new ways and high-tech methods distinctive to the U.S. navy, like precision-guided missiles, Patriot batteries and intelligence from satellites. All of this may be plugged into a man-made intelligence-enabled command and management system that may determine and monitor 1000’s of potential enemy targets in actual time.
The system would then be shared throughout NATO to defend in opposition to Russia however may very well be replicated within the Pacific and elsewhere. The officers within the room initially known as it “the World Killing Machine.” Its correct title grew to become the Japanese Flank Deterrence Initiative.
He pitched the plan to Military Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll over beers at a bowling alley at his base in Germany, mentioned Pentagon officers.
Mr. Driscoll was taken with it.
Gen. Randy George, the Military’s chief of employees, was going to retire in the summertime of 2027. Now that the European Command job was off the desk, Basic George, Mr. Kasper and Mr. Driscoll cooked up a brand new thought. Basic Donahue may take over for Basic George when he stepped down.
The Military chief of employees job would permit Basic Donahue to convey the imaginative and prescient he had sketched out in Europe to your complete drive.
However Mr. Hegseth had different plans. He needed to appoint Basic Christopher LaNeve, his senior navy adviser, to the chief of employees publish.
Mr. Driscoll had a strained relationship with Mr. Hegseth. He tried to advance his most popular candidate by arranging a gathering between Vice President JD Vance, his shut buddy and Yale Legislation Faculty classmate, and Basic Donahue, officers mentioned.
Mr. Vance may be keen to push Mr. Trump to overrule Mr. Hegseth, Mr. Driscoll reasoned.
However Mr. Hegseth discovered of the assembly and blocked it, officers mentioned.
Mr. Hegseth had set in movement a plan to scale back Basic Donahue’s job in Europe from a four-star to a three-star place this summer season. The transfer was in keeping with the Trump administration’s coverage of shifting the navy’s focus from Europe to Asia. For Mr. Hegseth, it additionally had the advantage of forcing Basic Donahue to retire, if he didn’t get one other four-star place.
In late February, the drone menace that Basic Donahue had been making ready for in Europe grew to become a lethal actuality for U.S. forces within the Center East.
Mr. Trump had launched an in depth assault on Iran, and Iran responded with volleys of Shaheed drones, just like these utilized by the Russians. U.S. troops weren’t prepared.
One assault struck a U.S. Military base in Kuwait, killing six troopers.
In a single day, the Pentagon despatched frantic messages to commanders around the globe, determined for drone interceptors.
Basic Donahue had already distributed the command’s inventory to NATO companions. However he knew somebody who had extra of them: Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander in chief of Ukrainian forces.
That they had grown shut over the earlier 4 years in frequent safe video convention calls that started with the identical salutation — “my buddy” or “my brother” — and ended with Basic Donahue saying, “What else can I do for Ukraine?” the Ukrainian normal recalled.
“Afterward, he would genuinely attempt to do one thing,” Basic Syrskyi mentioned.
Now the state of affairs was reversed. The U.S. navy was the one needing assist. Basic Donahue requested Basic Syrskyi for drone interceptors and Ukrainian officers with expertise utilizing them in battle. They might be part of their Europe-based American counterparts and educate troops within the Center East the way to defend themselves.
“I known as the president of Ukraine, defined the state of affairs, and informed him that I believed offering this help was the precise factor to do and that it could not compromise Ukraine’s protection,” Basic Syrskyi mentioned.
As this was taking place in early March, Basic George known as Basic Donahue to inform him to place in his retirement papers. Mr. Hegseth needed him out.
Basic George mentioned he would attempt to persuade Mr. Hegseth to increase Basic Donahue’s command six months till December 2026. The Military chief requested for half-hour with Mr. Hegseth to debate Basic Donahue and different points, however Mr. Hegseth stored suspending the assembly.
On April 1, Mr. Hegseth fired Basic George in a cellphone name that lasted 15 seconds, officers mentioned.
Basic George may not assist him. There was now one final slim hope for Basic Donahue: his supporters within the Senate. They had been annoyed by Mr. Hegseth’s lack of transparency, and so they valued senior officers like Basic Donahue for his or her frank assessments.
One in all Basic Donahue’s supporters was Senator Tim Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL and Republican of Montana. Mr. Sheehy’s fight file and pro-Trump popularity gave him additional credibility with Mr. Hegseth. He had succeeded in persuading Mr. Hegseth to drop his objections to a handful of senior officers, notably these Mr. Sheehy had served with in fight.
However his efforts to save lots of Basic Donahue had been going nowhere.
In a gathering with Mr. Sheehy, Basic Caine defined why: The senators’ marketing campaign was solely inflicting Mr. Hegseth’s opposition to develop, reinforcing his notion that Basic Donahue was too highly effective, unbiased and related.
A spokesperson for the chairman disputed that he used these phrases to explain Mr. Hegseth’s notion of Basic Donahue.
Mr. Sheehy stopped pushing.
Senator Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican who had deployed to Iraq and served 22 years within the Nationwide Guard, had been Basic Donahue’s most insistent champion. She continued to search for a approach to assist him.
She believed Mr. Hegseth had promised her that he would permit Basic George, a fellow Iowan, to complete his full time period. And he or she felt betrayed when Mr. Hegseth fired him.
Now she was decided to dam Mr. Hegseth’s alternative to steer the Military. As a substitute of Basic LaNeve, she urged three options to the White Home. Her best choice was Basic Donahue.
