Top General Suddenly Quits

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0:45Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is bleeding out the top talent from the United States military. Yet another four-star general has announced his sudden and shocking resignation effective early July. Four-star General Chris Donahue, who serves as the Army commander in Europe and Africa, has announced that he will relinquish command on July 2nd. This as Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth have worked to destroy the reputation and capabilities of the United States military. General Chris Donahue was a beloved four-star general. He was a beloved commander known for rising up the ranks and earning the respect of everyone. And he will now be forced out by Donald Trump and Hegseth at the same time Donald Trump and Hegseth have done generational damage to the United States military.

1:41Ben Meiselas:I want to talk briefly about General Donahue. He was also known as the last soldier to leave Afghanistan. Remember that night vision photo of the soldier leaving the Ahmed Karzai airport? Yeah, that was General Donahue, the first to arrive, the last to leave. Let's talk a little bit about his background. This is how the Atlantic described it. His abrupt departure after 18 months is another sign of the mass upheaval within the United States military. He was widely seen as one of the Army's rising stars, a legendary Delta Force leader who is considered a top candidate for Army Chief of Staff or even Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, having distinguished himself in wars for the past two decades.

2:32Ben Meiselas:But Hegseth sought to oust anyone who didn't fit his idea of what it means to be a Trump and Hegseth sycophant, aka a loser, a career ranger and special operations commander. Donoghue served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, climbing through the ranks during two decades of counterterrorism wars. As the U.S. military shifted its focus from hunting terrorist networks to preparing for conflicts against technologically sophisticated adversaries, Donoghue did as well. In recent years, he took a top role in Europe as the Pentagon adapted lessons from Ukraine and other modern battlefields. His departure continues the exit of a generation of combat-tested leaders at a time when Hegseth is destroying the leadership ranks of the United States military.

3:26Ben Meiselas:Think about the upheaval that has unfolded over the past several months, the other high-profile resignations. Hegseth asked Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, the Army's top uniformed officer, to step down in April. And the Army officer who led the Transportation and Training Command and the Chaplain Corps were removed from their roles as well. Navy's Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield was removed in April from her position as the United States military. Hegseth and Donald Trump have refused to promote women and minorities. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General Charles Q.

4:07Ben Meiselas:Brown, was ousted in February 2025, along with the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Frichetti, and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, General James Sleif. Shortly before that, Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan was fired. Also, the head of U.S. military's Southern Command, Navy Admiral Alvin Holsey, retired at the end of last year and was forced out. In other words, the Trump regime is gutting, destroying, ripping to shreds the most respected leaders in the United States military, and they are replacing it with people who are willing to behave as bootlickers and sycophants. Let me show you the contrast right now.

4:53Ben Meiselas:First, I want to share with you General Donoghue's leadership style, and you can see why he was viewed by Hegseth as such a threat. Here is Donoghue talking about how his role as the army commander in Europe and Africa was a role of global scope, and that there was a need to work with our allies carefully methodically let me show you over here and play this clip what is our role as the military what do we have to produce the first thing is especially for the u.s military but also for the 32 members of nato south korea japan australia and new zealand and you'll see many of these other four countries from asia here as well if you were to go across to sag and in Satu, you see them there.

5:41Why? Because we understand the global threat. So what is our role here? So as the land comm commander for NATO, and as the United States Army Europe Africa commander, our previous bosses, General Walters, General Cavoli, and now General George in particular, as we drive what we have to do out here and what is that specifically so as we talk about everything that all these things that everybody talks about what is the specificity required to truly make that change well the first thing is those previous leaders have converged all the plans into so that we have unity of effort and unity of exactly what we have to do and they're called the regional plans within those regional plans we started in the baltics to try to get to how do you actually make it so that industry and the nations know exactly what their requirements are.

6:37Ultimately, that is now known as the Eastern Flank Deterrence Line. The Eastern Flank Deterrence Line is the capability that hinges all these regional plans together. So as we all talk about these things that are so important, the use of data, you actually can use data. So whenever we talk about how are we going to use these new forms of masks, the unmanned systems, well, how do you build that to a standard? that you can actually fight it throughout an alliance. But as important, because this is global, how do you use it in the Middle East? How do you use it in the Pacific? So all these standards have to be, and that's what the Eastern flank deterrence line will bring to all.

7:18Ben Meiselas:Now here is Donahue talking about the culture of the military that he likes to foster here. Play this clip right here. I think the number one thing is, is they have to understand, the first is why you have to change. If you have not put across to your command why you have to change, and they have to buy into it. If they don't buy into it, you're not going to change. The next is you have to actually provide a legitimate vision and then turn that vision into a plan that you're going to change and to accomplish the why. Okay, this is why we have to change. Here's the vision of how we're going to do it.

7:57Here's the actual plan. and then that gets into culture and process of how you actually execute that change right because you're going to constantly update you're going to fail you're going to do good things so it's that culture of making sure that they know hey this is the environment we want to create and this is why you have to change and then the process to actually do it which is hugely important right you can go out and have the best culture in the world and go out and make temporary changes But if you don't get it into the process, it doesn't matter. You know, right now we're developing the Eastern Flank deterrence line, which we'll talk about.

8:32But if you don't put that into a process where people actually buy the things that you have to do for this, you can have the greatest plan, the greatest vision. We're doing all kinds of awesome, unique stuff we've never done before. But you actually have to put things into the ground. People actually have to train, and they have to believe and have faith that that's going to work in common.

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10:08Ben Meiselas:Finally feel good about what you're buying with dupe.com. And here he is describing how when he commands people, it's okay to make mistakes and take accountability for them. The biggest problem that he sees is when people cover up their mistakes and compound the problems, aka what Donald Trump and Hegseth and this incompetent, despicable, and malicious regime do every damn day. Here, play this clip. It's about your team. It's about your mission. It's about everything else. It's like, you know, nobody cares if you mess up. Just own it and move on, right? And, you know, and Joe, I know you feel the exact same way.

10:53If you mess up, tell everyone else you messed up. Let them see that because if they see that, oh, the boss messed up, I can tell them what I messed up. Because you just want to know what's going on, right? I don't care if anybody messed up. It's not about the fact that you messed up, right? It's about just tell us you messed up so we can correct it and get back to what we want to do.

11:11Ben Meiselas:Now, contrast that to Hegseth and Trump. As we learned from the book Regime Change, they report that Hegseth and Donald Trump would love to watch the death videos together of those war crimes where the United States military is killing all those people in the fishing boats off of the coast of Venezuela. According to the book, Hegseth and Trump love to watch the charred corpses and they get off on it, essentially. I know it's sadistic and disgusting, but this is what Hegseth and Donald Trump like to do together. Also, we've learned that Hegseth has run out of money at the Defense Department. He is utterly incompetent.

11:55Ben Meiselas:They are now demanding$80 billion for the war in Iran, which they claim only cost$29 billion, or else they are imminently going to be unable to pay contractors. And we are so low on our munitions that this budget request by Hegseth is being done on an emergency basis. You have Hegseth going out there and just like dancing around and as Governor Newsom says, prancing Pete. And then you have Hegseth over here when he was in Cuba, basically saying to the troops and like in such a performative straight to DVD movie kind of way, which is Trump has your back. your hands are unleashed do what you need to do and we'll have your back in other words he was encouraging them to commit war crimes on camera let's play this clip so on behalf of the war department and president trump he always wants me to tell you that he's got your back he's got your back in the circumstances that you need to undertake that's all i ever wanted when i was a lieutenant here or a first lieutenant in iraq if you're going to ask me to do tough things or difficult phase where I have to make a tough decision at moments notice, just have my back.

13:09Because not everything's going to go right every single time. But if I'm doing it for the right reasons on behalf of the country, we are going to untie your hands and unleash you to get it done so that you come home and the bad guy doesn't. That's the point.

13:21Ben Meiselas:And here he is like trying to act all tough. He's like, Iran would be unwise to challenge us further. Yeah, we're dudes. Here's what Hankseth had to say. Let's play this clip. We're with the folks slinging it. out in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and ensuring Iran doesn't target shipping. And again, we're prepared there to do what needs to be done. Right now, there are defensive strikes to ensure we protect our people. Again, Iran would be unwise to challenge us further. President Trump is seeking a deal, but not just a deal, a great deal on behalf of the American people so that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.

13:58Ben Meiselas:And so the type of person who climbs the ranks under the Trump regime is someone like Brad Cooper. Brad Cooper runs CENTCOM. And when I first saw Brad Cooper a year ago or so, I said, hey, you know, seems like a normal military guy, but I've seen Cooper devolve into a Trump sycophant where he goes in front of Congress and just behaves like Hegseth and Trump. And it's been really sad to see what I hear from my military sources is that they all believe that Cooper is basically a traitor at this point and that he is behaving like such a MAGA loser that they never thought that Cooper would behave like that.

14:40Ben Meiselas:And they all mock Cooper behind his back. Here's what Cooper had to say at his last congressional hearing. Let's play. I just read it. I just read it to you. Yes, sir. You're a combatant commander. You're one of our most senior military officers with tens of thousands of service members under your command. Does the law of war manual state that it is prohibited to utter, to declare that no quarter be given? It prohibits a large number of things. No, no, I've asked you. I will follow. I just read the provision to you. I just literally read the provision to you. Does it prohibit you or anyone else from declaring that no quarter be given?

15:21I just read it to you. We will follow everything that's in the law. Answer the question, Admiral Cooper. You have tens of thousands of service members under your command. I literally just read a provision from the Law of War manual, our own manual. Will you not just say what I just read to you? I will say that we will follow the law of armed conflict to the T. This is just unbelievable to me. I find the same thing, sir. This is just unbelievable to me. We will follow the law of armed conflict very calmly. You have tens of thousands of service members under your command. I literally verbatim just read a provision from our own law of war manual, and you will refuse to say what that provision says.

16:03Will you agree that it is prohibited under our own manual that you and all the people under your command are obligated to follow to declare that no quarter be given? I will agree, consistent with my constitutional responsibility to follow the law of armed conflict to the T. And I expect everyone working for me to do that. This is not leadership. This is not leadership. To not be able to say something as basic. The people, the men and women who we represent, who are under your command, deserve leadership. Mr. Chairman, I object. This is a personal attack. This is unfair. I appreciate the animal very much.

16:43This is well within the purview of my questioning. This is the gentleman's time. I reclaim my time. Can I reclaim some additional time? I'm going to give you some extra time. Go ahead. It's our job to make sure the law is being followed. That is literally the obligation of this Congress. I read to you a provision of our own law of war manual, and all I want you to say is what the provision says. That it is prohibited. It is prohibited. This is the title. This is what the title says to declare that no quarter be given. I will follow the law to the T and expect everyone to do the same. This is extremely disappointing.

17:20Our service members deserve far better than this. I yield back.

17:23Ben Meiselas:Gentlemen, you're back. I want to make it clear. You know, while you have Hegseth forcing out and having people like Donahue quit and again, depriving us of kind of the critical military leadership during these deeply uncertain times, I mean, it seems like it would fall right into the hands of like Putin and people who wish the United States ill. You have Pete Hegseth out there turning the press conference room in the Pentagon into a SCIF, a sensitive compartmented information facility, in order to ban the press. This is what little, weak, pathetic losers like Pete, this is how they behave. and it's really sad to see.

18:08Ben Meiselas:Well, there you have it. We'll keep you posted every step of the way. Thanks for watching. Let me know what you think. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.

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