{"id":16077,"date":"2026-05-17T10:41:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T02:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077"},"modified":"2026-05-17T10:41:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T02:41:34","slug":"gop-senator-blasts-hegseth-for-careless-decision-on-troop-posture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077","title":{"rendered":"GOP senator blasts Hegseth for \u2018careless decision\u2019 on troop posture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"692\" height=\"382\" src=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16078\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8-1.png 692w, https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8-1-300x166.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 692px) 100vw, 692px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) offered harsh criticism for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday over reported changes at the Pentagon, including a shift in U.S. military posture around the globe and the exits of multiple senior military officers in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe careless decision to reduce our force posture in Europe, along with moves by Pete Hegseth and his political henchmen to force out some of our finest general officers is amateur hour at best and deadly at worst,\u201d Tillis wrote on the social platform X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The North Carolina Republican\u2019s comments came after NOTUS reported that the Pentagon plans to downgrade the Army\u2019s top command overseeing Europe and Africa by mid-summer. The command is led by four-star Gen. Christopher Donahue, who was photographed as the last American to leave Afghanistan in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The changes would see Donahue replaced with a three-star or lieutenant general, according to the outlet, which cited five people familiar with the deliberations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tillis described Donahue as \u201cone of our nation\u2019s finest warfighters\u201d and argued any rumored decision from Hegseth to \u201csideline\u201d him would mark \u201canother step down a dangerous path\u201d if true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHegseth continues to surprise and disrespect our greatest allies and some of our best military professionals with impulsive decisions not grounded in reality or good judgment,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Trump administration has vowed to shrink the U.S. military presence in Europe and reconsider its collective defense commitments, amid mounting frustration over NATO allies\u2019 reluctance to support the conflict with Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hegseth ordered the cancellation of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team\u2019s deployment to Poland earlier this week, an unexpected move that halted the movement of 4,000 U.S. troops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pentagon also announced plans earlier this month to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany under pressure from President Trump, who\u2019s been feuding with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over his opposition to the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those decisions came months after the U.S. informed allies that it would also pull some American troops from NATO\u2019s eastern flank, including Romania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Trump administration\u2019s approach has drawn bipartisan scrutiny, with Republican chairs of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees arguing that \u201cprematurely reducing\u201d America\u2019s force presence in Europe \u201crisks undermining deterrence and sending the wrong signal\u201d to Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tillis is part of a growing chorus of GOP senators who have begun to doubt Hegseth\u2019s ability to steer the Defense Department, despite voting for his confirmation last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Much of their frustration has centered around the reported dismissals of more than a dozen senior military officers since the start of Trump\u2019s second term, including Navy Secretary John Phelan most recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cKeep your word, Mr. Secretary: choose meritocracy over your mediocre yes-men,\u201d Tillis wrote on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) offered harsh criticism for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday over reported changes at the Pentagon, including a shift in U.S. military posture around the globe and the exits of multiple senior military officers in recent months. \u201cThe careless decision to reduce our force posture in Europe, along with moves by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2118,1935,2437],"class_list":["post-16077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-blasts","tag-gop","tag-senator"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>GOP senator blasts Hegseth for \u2018careless decision\u2019 on troop posture - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GOP senator blasts Hegseth for \u2018careless decision\u2019 on troop posture - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) offered harsh criticism for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday over reported changes at the Pentagon, including a shift in U.S. military posture around the globe and the exits of multiple senior military officers in recent months. \u201cThe careless decision to reduce our force posture in Europe, along with moves by [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-17T02:41:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-17T02:41:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"692\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"382\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darcy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/\",\"name\":\"LISTEN WORLD\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8-1.png\",\"width\":692,\"height\":382},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077\",\"name\":\"GOP senator blasts Hegseth for \u2018careless decision\u2019 on troop posture - LISTEN WORLD\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-17T02:41:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-05-17T02:41:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/1162f45aa51c894eefc48fd30308af4a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\u9996\u9875\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"GOP senator blasts Hegseth for \u2018careless decision\u2019 on troop posture\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/1162f45aa51c894eefc48fd30308af4a\",\"name\":\"Darcy\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7537ee6b8d37bad39b4bef536dfdfbabb0d66d9d304b0d853fc389e9f7bc082f?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7537ee6b8d37bad39b4bef536dfdfbabb0d66d9d304b0d853fc389e9f7bc082f?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Darcy\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"GOP senator blasts Hegseth for \u2018careless decision\u2019 on troop posture - LISTEN WORLD","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=16077","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"GOP senator blasts Hegseth for \u2018careless decision\u2019 on troop posture - LISTEN WORLD","og_description":"Sen. 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