'This is scary!' Experts alarmed at Trump firing respected general

President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff — and people took to X to express alarm.

“BREAKING: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has asked U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to step down immediately and retire,” posted journalist Ed Krassenstein on X on Thursday. “This dramatic shakeup comes in the midst of the ongoing war against Iran, which raises some significant questions. This is scary!”

His brother, journalist Brian Krassenstein, was even more direct, speculating that “I wonder if Army Chief of Staff Randy George REFUSED ILLEGAL ORDERS.” The account Rapid News also described the “purging” of George in ominous terms.

“General George is not a political appointee,” Rapid News wrote. “He is a career soldier who rose to the highest position in the United States Army. Forcing him out mid-conflict — while American troops are actively engaged in combat operations — is an extraordinary and deeply unusual move.”

It added, “The timing is what makes this alarming. You don’t remove your Army Chief of Staff during an active war unless the breakdown in the relationship is so severe it can’t wait. That either means George was openly pushing back on decisions being made above him, or Hegseth is using the cover of wartime to reshape military leadership around loyalty rather than competence. One of those explanations is concerning. The other is dangerous.”

Perhaps shedding light on what happened, journalist Libbey Dean — who reported the story before it became official — pointed out that their anonymous source “tells me the secretary lost trust and confidence in George and believes it is time for a leadership change. The current vice chief of staff Chris LaNeve is expected to replace George.”

Sprinter Press also did some digging and speculating to find out why Trump and Hegseth fired George.

“There are two options: either this is a search for a ‘scapegoat’ for the failure of the war plan against Iran, or Randy George opposed the plans for a ground operation in Iran,” Sprinter Press. Meanwhile the account DD Geopolitics joked about the firing by showing an image of Ralph Wiggum, the simpleton character from “The Simpsons,” saying "I'm in charge of the Pentagon." Missouri Democratic congressional candidate Fred Wellman, by contrast, saw little funny about the situation.

“This is political purging,” Wellman tweeted. “Hegseth is a failure. — Hegseth ousts Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George - CBS News”

Hegseth has been widely criticized for politicizing the armed forces, seeming to target female and minority soldiers for different and worse treatment and finally pushing a Christian nationalist vision on the country through the military.

"Hegseth is expressing an extreme version of Christian supremacy, where America, a Christian nation, is entitled, and in fact probably, in his mind, required by God, to smite America's enemies — or to smite the enemies of Christianity, even,” religious studies scholar Sarah Posner told The New Republic last month. “When we talk about Christian nationalism, this is exactly what we're talking about. But the important thing to remember with Hegseth, in contrast to other versions of Christian nationalism that we see more commonly in the Republican Party, is that his is a very extreme version of Christian supremacy where we Christians are entitled to go out and take dominion over the world, to vanquish enemies, and to do so violently — and even when they do so violently, with the express mandate from God."

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