Senator Thom Tillis Calls for Firing of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Amid Leadership Criticism

The North Carolina lawmaker’s call to oust Hegseth comes after Dan Driscoll resigned from his role as Army Secretary on Monday, amid tension that had been reportedly broiling between Driscoll and Hegseth for months. In a social media post on Wednesday, Tillis thanked Driscoll “for his leadership to our Army and service to our country,” before going on to slam Hegseth.

“If we had a @SecWar who maintained the same priorities and forward-thinking, he would be fighting to retain talented leaders like Dan and the many flag officers he has forced into retirement,” Tillis said. “Instead, he is creating a leadership void at the top of our military ranks.”

Tillis, who previously served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, included in his post a link to a CBS News article that lists about 20 military and civilian leaders who have been ousted or stepped down since Hegseth was confirmed to lead the Department of Defense, including Driscoll. Also among them is Gen. Randy George, who was serving as the Army Chief of Staff until Hegseth requested that he retire, effective immediately, in the spring.

Tillis voted to confirm Hegseth as Defense Secretary last year, though he initially had reservations about him. Amid mounting controversy surrounding Hegseth’s nomination, three other Republicans broke from party ranks and voted against it, forcing Vice President J.D. Vance to be the tiebreaking vote. It was the smallest margin for the confirmation of a nominee to lead the Defense Department since the Secretary role was first formed in 1947, Senate records indicate.

Despite Tillis’ crucial vote in the confirmation, he has since publicly criticized the Defense Secretary. The Republican Senator told POLITICO in May that he thought that “Hegseth misinformed [the President] on the challenges” related to a war in Iran, adding that “I’m glad the president did what he did in Iran. I’m not glad that he has Hegseth advising him on the details.” He went on to tell the news outlet: “I’d love to see Pete Hegseth fired because he’s incompetent and doing a horrible job. That’s kind of on a Christmas wish list.”

“I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country,” Tillis said in his post on X. He accused Hegseth of being “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 and Trump have clashed in the past, most notably when the North Carolina Senator joined two other Republicans in the upper chamber in voting against the President’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” last year. In the aftermath, the President lashed out at Tillis, threatening to back candidates who could challenge Tillis in a Republican primary race.

Soon after, Tillis announced that he would not seek reelection in the 2026 midterms, citing what he described as a shift away from bipartisanship in Washington in recent years.

“Too many elected officials are motivated by pure raw politics who really don’t give a damn about the people they promised to represent on the campaign trail,” Tillis said in a statement last June. He added that a choice “between spending another six years navigating the political theatre and partisan gridlock in Washington or spending that time with” his family is “not a hard choice.”

Republican Rep. Don Bacon told CNN on Wednesday that he was aligned with Tillis in his feelings about Hegseth, though he didn’t go so far as to call for the Defense Secretary’s firing.

“I agree with the sentiments of Sen. Tillis,” Bacon said. “I hate to tell the President who he should hire and fire. I don’t know if it’s really my role, but I would say this: I would not—[Hegseth] would not be on my team. I think he is—he has not been a very good leader in many ways.”

In a post on X on Wednesday, Bacon said that the Defense Secretary “has the legal right to hire & fire whom he wants, but that doesn’t make it morally right or wise.”