Pete Hegseth has a big problem. And this time, it’s coming from inside his own party.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican and former member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is calling on President Trump to fire his defense secretary, accusing Hegseth of showing “inept management” of the U.S. military.
Tillis’s criticism exploded after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll announced his resignation following repeated clashes with Hegseth over the removal of senior military officials.
And Tillis didn’t mince words.
“I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country,” Tillis wrote on X.
Then he went even further.
“He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force,” Tillis said.
That’s not a minor complaint from a Republican senator. That’s a direct indictment of the man running the Pentagon.
And Tillis isn’t merely asking Hegseth to change course.
He’s asking Trump to fire him.
“I urge the president to find a new leader at the Pentagon who will retain and empower our military talent rather than diminish it,” Tillis said.
There’s another reason his criticism carries some weight: Tillis voted to confirm Hegseth last year.
Now he’s saying the president made the wrong choice.
Tillis accused Hegseth of creating “a leadership void at the top of our military ranks” by pushing a growing list of senior officers out of their positions.
Among those officials are Gen. Chris Donahue, the top U.S. Army commander in Europe; former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. CQ Brown Jr.; Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top officer; Gen. David Allvin, the Air Force chief of staff; and Gen. James Mingus, the Army’s vice chief of staff.
And now Driscoll is out, too.
Tillis wasn’t exactly subtle about who he thinks is responsible.
He praised Driscoll and former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George for pushing the Army toward a radically different approach to modern warfare, particularly through the Army Transformation Initiative and its emphasis on rapidly deploying unmanned aircraft systems.
The senator argued that the wars in Ukraine and Iran have made one thing painfully clear: the battlefield is changing fast.
“Our understanding and assumptions of warfare are being challenged in places like Ukraine and Iran, and Dan understands the old way of doing business no longer applies,” Tillis wrote.
He credited Driscoll and George with pushing innovation in how the Army organizes its forces, equips soldiers and approaches procurement.
And, perhaps most importantly, Tillis said Driscoll actually cared about the troops.
“Most of all, he cared deeply about the men and women in our Army formations and quickly earned their respect,” Tillis wrote.
That kind of praise is pretty significant when it comes from a sitting Republican senator who is simultaneously calling for the defense secretary’s removal.
The dispute also goes straight to one of the biggest questions facing the Pentagon: Is the military preparing for the wars of tomorrow—or fighting yesterday’s wars?
Drones have fundamentally changed modern combat, particularly in Ukraine, where relatively inexpensive unmanned systems have become a critical part of battlefield operations.
But after Driscoll’s departure, Gen. Christopher LaNeve, the Army’s acting chief of staff, ordered a Europe-based Army battalion to shut down its experimental drone initiative and return its focus to its core mission as an airborne infantry unit.
Tillis clearly isn’t thrilled.
Neither is Sen. Mike Rounds, another Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“I was disappointed. I think he’s been a pretty solid guy. So disappointed,” Rounds said of Driscoll’s resignation.
Rounds also stressed that the Army’s development of drone tactics is critical to future combat readiness.
And this isn’t some theoretical debate happening in a Washington conference room.
The Ukrainians have been demonstrating for years how quickly drone warfare can evolve—and how devastating it can be.
“This issue that’s going on with regard to Ukraine, the use of drones, the integration of drones into this—this is not a new thing that just happened,” Rounds said. “We’ve been watching this ever since 2021.”
He added that lawmakers have watched Ukrainian forces use drones to remarkable effect.
That’s what makes the growing Republican criticism of Hegseth so significant.
This isn’t simply another partisan fight over Trump’s Pentagon chief.
It’s a fight over competence. It’s a fight over military leadership.
Tillis has now made his position unmistakable.
He voted to put Hegseth in charge. Now he’s telling Trump to take him out.
It’s a five-alarm fire.
