Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who served under President Biden, accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of politicizing the U.S. military on national television Sunday, adding his voice to a growing chorus of critics that now includes members of Hegseth's own party.

Kendall appeared on ABC News' This Week and told host Martha Raddatz he had "never seen an attempt to politicize our military like the one being conducted by Pete Hegseth." The former Pentagon official pointed to roughly 25 senior officers fired, others pulled from promotion lists, and a climate of fear he said now runs "all the way down through the ranks."

The broadside lands at a moment of genuine turbulence inside the Defense Department. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, a longtime ally of Vice President JD Vance, resigned last week after months of reported friction with Hegseth. At least 20 generals, admirals, and senior civilian defense leaders have been fired or have departed since Hegseth took over the Pentagon. And Republican lawmakers who voted to confirm the defense secretary are now openly calling for his replacement.

Kendall paints a Pentagon where officers are "afraid" to speak

Kendall's interview went beyond a simple policy disagreement. He described an institution whose internal feedback loop, the mechanism by which senior officers tell civilian leaders hard truths, has broken down under pressure. Newsweek reported his full remarks Sunday.

"He's fired 25, roughly, senior officers. He's pulling people off of promotion lists. And that effect is rippling all the way down through the ranks."

Kendall went further, arguing that the scale of the personnel purge has chilled honest counsel inside the building:

"It's causing people to be afraid and refuse, and, in many cases, I think he's not getting good advice because people are afraid to tell him things that he doesn't want to hear."

That is a serious charge, not because senior officers are owed lifetime employment, but because a defense secretary who cannot get candid advice from his own generals is flying blind. Kendall summarized the stakes in four words: "Long-term serious damage is being done to our military."

Asked by Raddatz what he would do if he were serving in Pentagon leadership today, Kendall was blunt: "I couldn't serve this administration."

It is worth noting what Kendall is and what he is not. He is a former Biden appointee, a political figure with political incentives. His framing carries the obvious weight of partisan interest. But the substance of his complaints does not exist in a vacuum. The same concerns are now coming from Republicans with no incentive to do Democrats any favors.

Driscoll's exit exposed fault lines Hegseth cannot dismiss as partisan

Dan Driscoll's resignation as Army secretary stripped away the easy talking point that only Democrats and legacy media oppose Hegseth's leadership. Driscoll is a Trump appointee. He served since February 2025. He is a close ally of the vice president. And by multiple accounts, he had taken on a prominent role in diplomatic efforts tied to the war in Ukraine and in pushing Army modernization.

His departure statement, published Tuesday, was gracious in tone. Driscoll thanked both Trump and Hegseth by name and praised the soldiers and civilians he served alongside:

"Our Soldiers, Civilians, and their Families are our Nation's very best, and they have inspired me every day."

He added: "We could not have made the progress we did without the support of Secretary Hegseth. I am forever grateful to President Trump for the opportunity to once again serve my country." The words were polite. But Reuters and The Wall Street Journal both reported that Driscoll's resignation followed broader disagreements with Hegseth, including concerns about readiness and the removal of senior military officers.

The gap between the public courtesy and the reported private friction tells its own story. Driscoll did not air grievances on his way out. He did not need to. The timeline did it for him.

Republican Sen. Tillis called Hegseth's management "inept"

Within days of Driscoll's departure, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a Republican who voted to confirm Hegseth, posted on X with a message that left no room for diplomatic interpretation. Tillis urged the president to find a replacement:

"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 went further. He said he had "never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country." He accused Hegseth of "creating a leadership void at the top of our military ranks," of being "intimidated by competence," and of focusing on culture-war issues rather than national defense. He praised Driscoll as "the right man at the right moment" who had helped modernize the Army as warfare evolved in places like Ukraine and Iran.

Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a Republican and former Air Force brigadier general, had already laid down a marker months earlier. After Hegseth fired Army chief Gen. Randy George and other senior officers in April 2026, Bacon acknowledged that the defense secretary had the legal authority to make the changes. But he added that the firings were "not morally right nor wise." He later sharpened the point: "firing without cause shows lack of character."

Bacon said flatly that Hegseth "would not be on my team." That criticism predates Driscoll's resignation and predates Kendall's Sunday interview. It is not a reaction to Democratic talking points. It is an assessment from a retired general officer inside the president's own party.

A roster of senior departures that keeps growing

The personnel record under Hegseth is now long enough to constitute a pattern, and it reaches across every service branch. In February 2025, President Trump removed Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the second Black officer to hold that post, roughly 16 months into his four-year term. Hegseth called Brown "an honorable officer" but said he was "not the right man for the moment."

That same month, Hegseth announced the removal of Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy's top officer and the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs. Air Force Chief Gen. David Allvin announced his retirement in 2025, well before completing his own four-year term. Hegseth has also pulled officers from promotion lists, a move Kendall says sends a message of fear deep into the ranks.

Gen. Randy George, the Army's highest-ranking officer, was asked to retire in April 2026, during active military operations tied to the Iran conflict. Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of Army forces in Europe and Africa, departed after Hegseth blocked efforts to extend his career, the Washington Post reported. Donahue had commanded Delta Force and played a major role in operations against ISIS. Navy Secretary John Phelan also departed.

Any new administration has the right, and arguably the duty, to install leaders who share its priorities. Supporters of the changes argue the military must adapt to new forms of warfare and that legacy leadership was not up to the task. That argument has merit in principle. But the question is whether the scale, speed, and apparent indifference to institutional continuity have crossed a line from reform into disruption.

When you remove the Joint Chiefs chairman, the Navy chief, the Army chief, the Air Force chief, the Army secretary, the Navy secretary, a combatant commander who led Delta Force, and pull officers off promotion lists, all within roughly eighteen months, you are not trimming around the edges. You are hollowing out the leadership bench.

Kendall warns the "guardrails are gone" ahead of midterms

Kendall's most politically charged remark on Sunday looked ahead rather than backward. He told Raddatz:

"As we approach the midterms, I'm worried that all of our guardrails are gone."

He also argued that senior officers carry "an obligation" to push back against civilian leaders when asked to do something "morally wrong, unethical, or illegal." That framing, implying the current Pentagon leadership may be crossing those lines, is a former cabinet official publicly questioning the ethical direction of the Defense Department. It should not be dismissed simply because Kendall served a Democratic president, and it should not be accepted uncritically for the same reason.

Newsweek reported that it reached out to both the Pentagon and the White House on Sunday for comment. No response was noted in the article. Hegseth had, however, strongly denied to Newsweek on Saturday that the White House was reviewing potential replacements for Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, a sign that even Hegseth's own deputy's position has become a subject of speculation.

Meanwhile, Democrats have signaled they intend to make Hegseth a central issue. Rep. Jake Auchincloss has said that impeaching Hegseth would top his party's agenda if Democrats win control of the House in the midterms. And Hegseth himself has fueled questions about his long-term ambitions with a recent swing through Iowa that stoked 2028 presidential speculation.

The combination, a defense secretary under bipartisan fire, an institutional exodus at the Pentagon's highest levels, and political maneuvering on all sides, presents a problem that cannot be waved away as media overreaction or Democratic sour grapes. Republican senators and retired generals are saying the same things.

A defense secretary who cannot keep his own Army secretary, who faces open revolt from members of his own party, and who presides over a senior leadership vacuum during active military commitments abroad owes the public more than denial. He owes them results, and right now, the ledger is running the wrong way.