Analysis: Tillis joins Hegseth critics as debate over Pentagon reform intensifies 

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina has joined a small group of congressional Republicans publicly criticizing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, but his objections come with a history of opposition to Hegseth and a background in the Senate committee that oversees military personnel.

Tillis spoke out forcibly against Hegseth’s “inept” management of personnel in a lengthy post on X.

The post marks Tillis and Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon as the only two Republicans on Capitol Hill suggesting Trump should dump the polarizing War chief.

Both are considered Pentagon insiders.

Bacon, who has served on the House Armed Services Committee since 2017 and is a retired brigadier general in the Air Force, said Hegseth “would not be on my team.”

And, as Tillis readily admitted, he was not speaking as a disinterested outsider when criticizing the secretary.

“I served on Senate Armed Services for 8 years and as chair or ranking member of the Personnel and Readiness subcommittee,” wrote Tillis, calling Hegseth “inept.”

Tillis went on to say the War secretary is “intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars” as a cover.

“Culture war” is a derogatory phrase used by liberals to denigrate conservatives who object to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) mandates.

The senior senator from North Carolina, who announced he was quitting the Senate after Trump threatened him with a primary for voting against the budget bill, was notably thin on details besides complaining that Hegseth retired or passed over certain officers for promotion.

Heartlander News previously reported on the personnel moves by Hegseth, which allegedly resulted in the resignation of Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll.

While Hegseth has not personally spoken about the reason for the cuts, he’s been given a broad mandate to fight back against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) mandates imposed by the Biden administration that Trump says hamper military readiness.

“These actions undermine leadership, merit, and unit cohesion, thereby eroding lethality and force readiness,” said a Trump executive order in January 2025 about DEI.

Because flag officer promotions pass through the Senate for ratification, where the opinion of the Armed Services Personnel and Readiness subcommittee has large sway, Tillis might have a more personal reason for objecting to the personnel moves.

The senator was one of the men responsible for implementing the policies Hegseth is now trying to change as he confronts a multifaceted military readiness crisis that has been brewing for a decade.

“If Pentagon leaders don’t address the military’s readiness problems soon, they might be in for a rude awakening about how much the joint force can handle,” warned Michael P. DiMino, a former career intelligence officer, in 2023.

Even before Hegseth was confirmed by the Senate, Tillis was one of the former Fox News host’s most vocal opponents, actively courting his former sister-in-law to testify against his nomination, reported the New York Times.

The institutional opposition emerging in the media using Pentagon insiders against Hegseth is reminiscent of the opposition to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the last Cabinet member who tried to reform the Pentagon while fighting a major war.

“Rumsfeld is trying to reform a gargantuan bureaucracy that still buys the wrong weapons with an industrial policy more at home in the old communist bloc than in the freest nation on earth,” noted the Cato Institute think tank in 2001, before the 9/11 attacks.

A generation later, Hegseth is challenging a similar Pentagon culture.

“The defense industry financially benefits from our backwards culture, schedule overruns, huge order backlogs,” Hegseth told industry executives at the National War College.

But grassroots support on social media now counts perhaps more than the echo chamber of the mainstream media did 20 years ago.

“The effectiveness and lethality of the military RIGHT NOW, after Hegseth’s so-called ‘purge’ of Admirals and Generals is remarkable by any metric,” said Capt. John Konrad V, a maritime logistics expert and writer who is supporting Hegseth’s reforms.

He’s not alone.

Lt. Col. Robert “Buzz” Patterson, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), a New York Times best-selling author who carried the nuclear football for President Bill Clinton, noted Trump and Hegseth “are doing great things” after DEI eroded public trust and readiness in the military.

“It’s time for America to reclaim its military,” he added.

Even the outgoing Army secretary had good things to say about the War chief.

“As a third-generation Army veteran, it has been the honor of a lifetime to serve as the Secretary of the Army under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth,” Driscoll wrote on X. “We could not have made the progress we did without the support of Secretary Hegseth.”

But most importantly, the secretary of War seems to retain the trust of the commander in chief by making the military into what the president wants it to be.

When baited by the media into speculation that Hegseth is thinking about running for president, Trump simply said, “I think he’s doing a fantastic job.”

“Right now, all [Hegseth] loves is, and all he cares about is, the military and taking care of the military,” said Trump, as reported by Newsweek.

However, George W. Bush said similar things about Rumsfeld just days before the midterm defeat in 2006, saying he wanted the secretary of Defense to stay until the end of the term.

But the day after the midterms, everything changed.

“Secretary Rumsfeld and I agreed that the timing is right for new leadership at the Pentagon,” Bush told reporters gathered at the White House.