President Donald Trump, in a continued effort to replace Pentagon officials, hinted his administration would fire the military leaders involved in the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“They’re going to be largely gone,” he said Wednesday during his first cabinet meeting, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth by his side. “I’m not going to tell this man what to do,” he said, turning to Hegseth. “But I will say that if I had his place, I’d fire every single one of them.”
Former President Joe Biden ordered the American military to quickly evacuate in August 2021 after the Taliban overran the Afghan army and poured into the capital, Kabul. Dozens of U.S. military transport planes ferried panicked Afghan allies out. A suicide bomb killed 13 service members and about 170 Afghan civilians, only making the chaotic scene at the airport worse.
The withdrawal was the culmination of plans to reduce the military’s presence in Afghanistan, which the first Trump administration launched after negotiations with the Taliban.
But the airport attack was used prominently by the Trump campaign during the 2024 presidential election. Family members of the fallen troops even appeared at the Republican National Convention, introduced by current national security adviser Mike Waltz.
“We’re doing a complete review of every single aspect of what happened with the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan, and plan to have full accountability,” Hegseth said.
It’s unclear how many military officers involved in the withdrawal are still on active duty, but the most prominent is likely Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of the U.S. Army Europe-Africa. He led the 82nd Airborne Division at the time and was one of the last soldiers to board a plane out of Afghanistan. His promotion in December was briefly held up by Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) over the withdrawal controversy.
Any further culling would come on top of the firings last week of the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, the Navy’s top admiral, the Air Force deputy chief of staff and the services’ top military lawyers.
