{"id":578384,"date":"2026-04-02T23:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/578384\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T23:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:46:10","slug":"hegseth-tells-us-army-chief-of-staff-randy-george-to-step-down-immediately","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/578384\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth tells US Army chief of staff Randy George to step down immediately"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n US Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George has been told to retire immediately by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth<\/a>, a Pentagon official told CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed George\u2019s retirement Thursday, writing on X, \u201cGeneral Randy A. George will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately. The Department of War is grateful for General George\u2019s decades of service to our nation.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CBS News first reported<\/a> George\u2019s ousting. A Defense Department official confirmed the accuracy of CBS News\u2019 report.\n <\/p>\n

\n Hegseth\u2019s move comes a day after President Donald Trump\u2019s address to the nation<\/a> on the Iran war. In the speech, Trump signaled the US will intensify strikes on Iran<\/a>, after earlier suggesting the US could be done with the war within two to three weeks.\n <\/p>\n

\n As the Army Chief, George has worked closely with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll \u2014 a senior official close to the White House whom Hegseth has perceived as a threat<\/a> and had a contentious relationship with at times. Hegseth has ousted a number of other senior military officers<\/a> during his tenure.\n <\/p>\n

\n George, a career infantry officer, commissioned out of the US Military Academy at West Point in 1988. He has served as the chief of staff since September 2023; he previously commanded I Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and went on to serve as the senior military assistant to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin during the Biden administration.\n <\/p>\n

\n While the job of senior military assistant to the defense secretary is often one considered to be apolitical and a role given to the best of the best of military officers, George\u2019s proximity to Austin has been considered a mark against him to Hegseth and his circle.\n <\/p>\n

\n There was speculation among military and Pentagon officials when Hegseth nominated his senior military assistant, Gen. Chris LaNeve, to be the Army vice chief of staff, that he would ultimately take over for George. As the vice chief, LaNeve will likely step in as the acting chief of staff in George\u2019s absence.\n <\/p>\n

\n Before working for Hegseth, LaNeve \u2014 who has served since 1990 after commissioning from the University of Arizona ROTC \u2014 was the commanding general of 8th Army in South Korea, after a brief tenure as commander of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.\n <\/p>\n

\n Commanding the 82nd Airborne Division is typically a two-year job, though LaNeve left the role less than two years in and moved to be a special assistant to the commander of US Army Forces Command, before moving to South Korea, according to his official biography.\n <\/p>\n

\n LaNeve got Trump\u2019s attention in the hours after his inauguration, when LaNeve called into the Commander in Chief\u2019s Ball with his troops from South Korea.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSir, on behalf of the brave men and women who serve under my command and the thousands of dedicated service members that are part of the joint team in Korea, congratulations on your victory as the 47th President of the United States,\u201d LaNeve said on a video call. \u201cWelcome back, Mr. President.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump praised LaNeve, saying, \u201cIs this man central casting or what?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey\u2019re not going to play games with you. That\u2019s good,\u201d Trump added, according to an official transcript of the event. \u201cI like to see that. Nobody is playing games with that man.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n This story has been updated with additional details.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George has been told to retire immediately by Defense Secretary Pete…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-578384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}