June 2026: TRUMP PRESIDENCY General Donahue's Firing Indicates Hegseth's Action Was Correct

General Donahue's Firing Indicates Hegseth's Action Was Correct
"The forced retirement of U.S. Army General Chris Donahue has generated nearly as much ink as President Harry S. Truman's firing of General Douglas MacArthur, and it definitely created more consternation on the left than President Jimmy Carter's booting of General John Singlaub or President George H. W. Bush's firing of General Frederick Woerner.
Hegseth has embarked on an ambitious reform of the Pentagon and is proceeding at breakneck speed. To make that work, he has to have

senior commanders and civilians who believe in his program. If there is any doubt of their full-throated support, he must get rid of them. Generals and admirals associated with the corrupt policies of the Lloyd Austin era have been removed.
During the last hours of the Afghan evacuation (2021), according to troops under his command and as documented by photographs and witness statements, Donahue ordered all of the passengers aboard a C-17 transport plane to disembark so he could have a souvenir loaded onto the plane. That souvenir, or “war trophy,” was an inoperable Taliban-owned Toyota Hilux with a fully operational Russian ZU-23 anti-aircraft autocannon mounted in the bed. Once the Hilux was loaded passengers were allowed back on the plane, but, of course, there wasn’t room for all of them. According to troops on the scene, at least 50 people and perhaps as many as 100 people were left at Kabul to make room for the Hilux.
When then-Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin blocked Donahue's promotion to four-star rank in November 2024, additional details emerged about the Afghanistan fiasco. In addition to the "war trophy" incident recounted above, Donahue blocked American passport holders from entering the evacuation area. Working dogs were left behind rather than evacuated. Donahue borrowed the equipment he used for the "last man in Afghanistan" photo from a soldier. Allegedly, the "last man" image took multiple takes to get right.
LTG Donahue refused to open the gates at HKIA despite Marines reporting up the chain of command that American passport holding citizens were trying to get in to evacuate.
Donahue was the ground commander who ultimately made the decision to not get those Americans out. We can banter back and forth about security and other critical elements of why he chose to do what he did, but I can’t sidestep or forgive a commander not making every attempt to get those Americans out who were standing at the gate, talking directly to the Marines, and being refused entry." RedState