Senator freezes promotion of general who led during Afghanistan evacuation

A Republican senator from Oklahoma has frozen the promotion of a three-star general who led U.S. forces during the evacuation of Afghanistan, after months of President-elect Donald Trump’s pledges that he would fire any senior officer associated with the chaotic and traumatic mission.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin installed the hold against Lt. Gen. Christopher T. Donahue, according to a Senate official familiar with the matter and congressional correspondence reviewed by the Washington Post. The official, like some others for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue.

President Joe Biden nominated Donahue, 55, this month for promotion to four-star general and to lead all U.S. Army forces in Europe. He has led troops in elite Special Operations units like the 75th Ranger Regiment and more recently commanded tens of thousands of conventional forces from a headquarters at Fort Liberty in North Carolina.

Mullin’s office declined to comment. The move comes three years after Mullin, then a member of the House, twice tried to personally rescue people from Afghanistan during the evacuation, only to be rebuffed once by the U.S. embassy in Tajikistan and once by the Pentagon, the Post previously reported. At the time, Mullin wrote on Instagram that he was “extremely disappointed” in the United States not getting all Americans out of the country.

The freeze comes as the Senate this week approved promotions for hundreds of other military officers.

The move could mark an opening salvo in what Pentagon officials fear could become a war on generals who are not sufficiently loyal to Trump. The president-elect’s transition team members have for weeks discussed how to follow through on his vow, without clarifying how they will do so.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time, Gen. Mark A. Milley, and the top commander overseeing the region, Gen. Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, have both retired since the evacuation. So has Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, a Navy SEAL officer who commanded forces in Kabul in the final months of U.S. operations in Afghanistan.

Donahue is seen by many senior Pentagon officials as one of the Army’s brightest leaders and someone who has often sought to avoid Washington politics. In a post on X on Friday, retired Gen. Tony Thomas, a former commander of Special Operations Command, called the decision a “disgrace.”

“The finest officer I ever served with, Chris Donahue is a generational leader who is now being held up for political purposes,” Thomas wrote. “At the tip of the spear defending this country for over three decades he is now a political pawn.”

Since March 2022, Donahue has commanded the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, which oversees prominent units like the 82nd Airborne Division, 101st Airborne Division, 10th Mountain Division and 3rd Infantry Division.

It is Donahue’s previous assignment, as commanding general of the 82nd Airborne, that has drawn the attention of Republicans. After the U.S.-backed government in Kabul collapsed in August 2021 and the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, the Pentagon dispatched on short notice Donahue, then the two-star commander of the 82nd Airborne, to Kabul’s airport to establish security and evacuate as many people as possible.

U.S. military officials said that Donahue was the last American service member with his boots on the ground in Afghanistan, and released a night-vision photograph of him stepping onto a C-17 cargo plane. The image went viral, capturing a moment of mourning for many of the roughly 800,000 U.S. service members who served there during 20 years of war.

Republicans have for years sought to highlight the chaos of the evacuation, including in a lengthy investigation carried out by the House Foreign Affairs Committee that concluded in August. They have been reluctant, however, to acknowledge that both Trump and Biden took actions to end the nation’s longest war, with Trump approving peace negotiations with Taliban militants and signing an agreement in February 2020 that called for the full withdrawal of U.S. forces by May 2021.

In a U.S. military investigation carried out in the aftermath of the evacuation, numerous senior officers voiced frustration with what they saw as insufficient planning for the possibility of a withdrawal. Senior White House and State Department officials failed to grasp the Taliban’s lightning advance across the Afghan countryside that summer and resisted efforts by military leaders to better prepare for an evacuation of embassy personnel and Afghan allies, placing U.S. troops in greater danger, the testimony said.

Donahue told investigators after the evacuation that he learned he was being sent to assist in the evacuation on Aug. 16, 2021, one day after the government in Kabul fell. He grew agitated as he made initial rounds of the airport and realized that Taliban fighters were still inside the facility.

“Later that night, around 0200, we met with the Taliban,” Donahue recalled, using military terminology to refer to 2 a.m. “We told them we would control the gates and they would push people out. We expressed that they will comply, because if they fight us we will kill more of them than they could ever hope to kill of us. After that their tone changed.”

Attempts to reach Donahue were not successful. Other defense officials voiced exasperation to hear that he may be caught up in politics. Donahue, they noted, arrived in Kabul after the Taliban took charge.

One senior military officer said that leaders like Donahue have commanded combat units across multiple administrations, doing their best to keep the force ready while public policy has changed.

“If you’re looking for a list of political generals, you’ve got the wrong guys,” the military officer said. “If you’re looking for a list of warfighters, you’ve nailed it.”

James Adams, a Pentagon spokesman, sought to highlight Donahue’s qualifications, including 30 years of military service.

“His appointment comes at an extremely critical time in the European region,” Adams said. “We urge the Senate to confirm all of our highly qualified nominees. Holds on our nominees undermine our military readiness.”

Ezra Cohen, a Pentagon official during the first Trump administration, defended the hold on Friday night. In a post on X, he said that “putting aside my personal thoughts on Donahue,” he believes no generals or admirals should be approved by the Republican-led Senate during the presidential transition.

“All positions,” he wrote, “should be held pending a MERIT based review.”

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Abigail Hauslohner contributed to this report.