Braxton Taylor
A promotion for the general who became famous for being the last U.S. soldier to leave Afghanistan is being delayed by a Republican senator, a Senate aide confirmed to Military.com on Friday.
Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, who has been nominated to receive a fourth star and take command of U.S. Army forces in Europe, was noticeably absent from a batch of military promotions the Senate approved Thursday evening before leaving for its weeklong Thanksgiving break. The aide confirmed Donahue’s promotion was left out because Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., placed what’s known as a “hold” on the nomination.
Military.com reached out to Mullin’s office for comment, but a spokesperson was not able to provide a statement ahead of publication.
Read Next: Police Report Sheds New Light on Pentagon Nominee Hegseth’s Sexual Encounter that Led to Assault Allegation
Mullin’s move appears tied to Donahue’s role in the Afghanistan withdrawal and comes after the Trump transition team reportedly contacted Republican senators to encourage them to place the hold, said the Senate aide, who requested anonymity to discuss internal Senate business.
The hold on Donahue is the latest sign that Republicans and the incoming Trump administration plan to take aim at military officers involved in the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, a chaotic mission that was carried out by the Biden administration but initiated by the first Trump administration. NBC News also reported last weekend that Trump transition team officials are compiling a list of current and former officers involved in the withdrawal with the possibility of court-martialing them.
Donahue is currently the commanding general of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Liberty in North Carolina.
At the time of the Afghanistan withdrawal, Donahue was a two-star serving as the commanding general of the 82nd Airborne Division. In that role, he oversaw the 82nd’s mission of securing Hamid Karzai International Airport as U.S. forces evacuated Americans and vulnerable Afghans after the Taliban took over Kabul.
The evacuation was marred by scenes of desperate Afghans overrunning the airfield prior to the 82nd’s arrival, an ISIS suicide bombing outside the gates of the airport that killed 13 U.S. troops, and a botched U.S. airstrike in response to the suicide attack that killed 10 civilians.
A career special operator, Donahue typically has his work shrouded in secrecy. But he was thrust into the spotlight when the Pentagon published photos of him stepping onto the last C-17 Globemaster III to leave Afghanistan after all other soldiers had boarded, making him the last U.S. service member in Afghanistan.
The grainy photos, tinted green because they were taken through a night vision device, instantly became an iconic symbol of the withdrawal.
While the withdrawal was set in motion by the first Trump administration’s deal with the Taliban, Trump leaned heavily into bashing President Joe Biden for the messy execution of the withdrawal throughout the 2024 presidential campaign. Trump campaigned with family members of the U.S. troops killed in the withdrawal, and Vice President-elect JD Vance at one point said Vice President Kamala Harris “can go to hell” because no one was fired over the withdrawal.
A government watchdog investigation into the collapse of U.S.-backed Afghan forces blamed Trump and Biden equally.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction “found that the single most important factor in the [Afghan National Defense and Security Forces’] collapse in August 2021 was the U.S. decision to withdraw military forces and contractors from Afghanistan through signing the U.S.-Taliban agreement in February 2020 under the Trump administration, followed by President Biden’s withdrawal announcement in April 2021,” the inspector general wrote in a 2022 report.
A hold does not prevent a nominee or military promotion from being confirmed, but it means the Senate must use its limited floor time for a lengthy series of roll call votes rather than confirming nominations in batches in a voice vote as it usually does with military nominees. The Senate is scheduled to be in session for just three more weeks before the end of the year, after which any unconfirmed nominee or promotion would need to start the process from scratch unless the senators agree to waive chamber rules.
While it has become common for senators to place holds on civilian nominees for Pentagon jobs over political disputes, it was considered taboo to do so for military officer promotions until recently.
Last year, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., spent 10 months blocking general and admiral promotions over his opposition to the Pentagon’s policy of providing leave and reimbursements for troops who need to travel to get an abortion.
Related: ‘It Could Be Very Hard to Do Our Job’: Top Military Officers Brace for Trump’s Potential Loyalty Review Boards
Story Continues
Read the full article here