Senator Thom Tillis recently took to Facebook to blast secretary of War Pete Hegseth for removing Gen. Chris Donahue, calling it an “unforced error,” “bro-culture bravado,” and “paranoid micromanagement” that is harming the finest fighting force in the world.  Strong leaders, Tillis lectured, are not threatened by accomplished commanders.

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Spare us the selective outrage, Senator.

For years, while serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Tillis remained largely silent as Obama-Biden Pentagon leadership and a parade of politicized flag officers systematically undermined military readiness, merit, and the warrior ethos.  Now that a new team is finally cleaning house and restoring lethality, Tillis suddenly discovers his voice.

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Where was Senator Tillis when Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a 60-day stand-down across the force in early 2021?  Ostensibly to root out “extremism,” the directive functioned in practice as a politically charged fishing expedition that many service members correctly viewed as a witch hunt targeting conservatives and patriots who had sworn the same oath as everyone else.  Units paused training and operations to sit through lectures on ideology rather than focusing on China, Russia, or combat effectiveness.  Tillis said little while this distraction played out under his committee’s oversight.

Where was Tillis when Austin and then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley pushed through the Biden administration’s COVID vaccine mandate for all active-duty personnel?  We now have documented evidence — from military health records and peer-reviewed studies — of elevated myocarditis rates, particularly among young male service members, following mRNA shots.  Many fit, previously healthy troops faced cardiac issues, medical profiles, and career impacts.  The mandate was enforced aggressively even as questions mounted about risk-benefit for a young, healthy force.  Tillis, like most of his colleagues, acquiesced rather than demanding rigorous scrutiny or exemptions grounded in science and military necessity.

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He also remained silent while the Biden Pentagon drummed hundreds of warriors out of the military for refusing to submit to an experimental COVID-19 vaccine mandate.  Once again, Tillis stood with the political generals rather than the troops who volunteered to defend this nation.  By now, the pattern is unmistakable.

Where was Tillis while the Pentagon poured resources into DIE initiatives and recruitment advertising that prioritized identity politics over combat effectiveness?  We saw taxpayer-funded ads featuring male soldiers and sailors in women’s clothing and high heels — content more suited to progressive activism than attracting warriors to close with and destroy the enemy.  Recruitment shortfalls followed predictably.  The focus shifted from standards and lethality to “inclusion” metrics.  Tillis and the Armed Services Committee largely looked the other way as this cultural experiment played out in real time.

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Where was Tillis when Gen. James Mattis — initially brought in by President Trump as a trusted warfighter — oversaw a Pentagon that dragged its feet and ultimately resisted the commander-in-chief’s clear direction to end transgender recruitment and end taxpayer funding for “sex change” surgeries and related medical interventions?  The policy reversals and implementation delays under Mattis and subsequent leadership sent a clear signal: The permanent bureaucracy and senior officers would decide which presidential orders they would faithfully execute.  Tillis offered no meaningful pushback.

And where was Tillis while America’s shipbuilding industrial base atrophied to the point that China’s capacity now dwarfs ours by a factor of roughly 200 to 230?  One Chinese shipyard alone often exceeds the output of the entire U.S. commercial and naval sector combined.  We face a dangerous numerical and production disadvantage against the People’s Liberation Army Navy that directly threatens our ability to deter or prevail in a Pacific conflict.  This collapse did not happen overnight.  It resulted from decades of globalist trade policies, offshoring of manufacturing, and failure to prioritize a robust defense industrial base — policies Tillis and many in his party either supported or failed to reverse with sufficient urgency.  The current secretary of Defense and president are aggressively working to rebuild that capacity.  Tillis’s sudden concern for “steady, serious civilian leadership” rings hollow after years of watching the fleet shrink relative to the threat.

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During the twelve disastrous years of Obama-Biden influence over Pentagon culture — marked by politicized promotions, loyalty tests to progressive orthodoxy, and the elevation of officers willing to salute whatever social agenda was in vogue — Tillis sat on the Armed Services Committee and largely smiled through it.  Flag and general officers who embraced DIE, suppressed dissent on vaccines and “extremism,” and subordinated readiness to ideology advanced.  Those who resisted often found their careers stalled.  Tillis did not lead a serious effort to stop it.

I challenged Senator Tillis in the March 2025 Republican primary for U.S. Senate in North Carolina precisely because these issues demanded accountability.  Four months later, Tillis dropped out.  Though I fully support our Republican nominee, Michael Whatley, in the general election against radical Democrat Roy Cooper, Tillis’s departure from the race was a win in its own right — for North Carolina, for America, and for the men and women who wear the uniform and deserve leaders who will fight for a merit-based, lethal force rather than lecture from the sidelines after the damage is done.

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Secretary Hegseth is not engaged in “sophomoric” purges.  He is attempting to restore a Department of War that puts winning wars and deterring adversaries ahead of social experiments and political loyalty tests.  That requires removing leaders whose records reflect the failed policies of the prior era.  Senator Tillis’s Facebook post reveals more about his own selective memory than it does about the current secretary of Defense.

Our military deserves better than performative concern from those who were missing in action when it mattered most.

Don Brown is a former Navy Judge Advocate who served at the Pentagon.  A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the international law program at the Naval War College, he is a nationally bestselling author of 16 books and commentator on national security, military justice, and foreign policy.  He previously served as a special assistant United States attorney and was a candidate for the United States Senate from North Carolina.

Image: Thom Tillis.  Credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.