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US Defence Secretary has asked the US Army Chief of Staff General Randy George to step down, the Pentagon said Thursday without giving a reason for the departure.
George “will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately,” said Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman. He has held the post, which typically runs for four years, since August 2023 under the Biden administration.
During a nearly four-decade military career, George deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan multiple times and also served in positions including vice chief of staff of the Army and senior military assistant to Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin during Joe Biden’s term as president.
The reason for the request was not immediately known, but CBS quoted a source as saying Hegseth wanted someone who would implement his and President Donald Trump’s vision for the Army.
Hegseth also has ousted Army Gen. David Hodne and Army Maj. Gen. William Green, according to a Pentagon official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive leadership changes. A reason for their departures also was not given.
The announcement also came just hours after reports emerged that Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday and named his former personal lawyer to serve as the acting chief of the Justice Department.
General Christopher LaNeve will be stepping in as acting Army chief of staff, the Pentagon official said. LaNeve was serving as Hegseth’s top military aide when Trump suddenly nominated him to be the Army’s vice chief of staff last October. It is a meteoric rise for an officer who was only a two-star general two years ago.
Trump has overseen a purge of top military officers, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, general Charles “CQ” Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February 2025.
Other senior officers dismissed include the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to NATO, and three top military lawyers.
The leadership shakeup comes as Army paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne division are heading to the Middle East along with thousands of Marines and other assets. The Trump administration has avoided questions about whether or not the US military will deploy ground troops against Iran.
In a prime-time address Wednesday about the war, Trump offered no end date for the conflict and few details on his strategy going forward but did forecast more military action.
“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said of Iran, before adding that “we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”
Hegseth echoed that sentiment after the speech, with a post on social media that simply read, “Back to the Stone Age.”
Additional sources • AP, AFP
