Lieutenant General Joe McGee , who served as director of Strategy, Plans and Policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was removed from his post earlier this month after months of friction with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
According to sources close to McGee, he often disagreed with Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine on issues ranging from policy toward Russia and Ukraine to military operations in the Caribbean.
Nearly a year ago, former President Joe Biden nominated McGee for a promotion to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ; however, the current administration has not confirmed his appointment.
Officials in the Office of the Secretary of Defense believed that McGee maintained too many connections with the so-called “old guard” at the Pentagon, particularly with General Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Lloyd Austin, former Secretary of Defense.
In a statement, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said, “General McGee is retiring and the War Department recognizes his service,” and denied that there had been any clashes with Hegseth.
Since Hegseth took office in January, he has relieved more than a dozen senior officers , including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, CQ Brown; the Chief of Naval Operations; the directors of the National Security Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency; as well as the top uniformed legal advisors of the Army and Air Force.
According to various media outlets, these replacements occurred due to suspicions that the officers were not fully aligned with Hegseth’s strategy. Among them, Lieutenant General Doug Sims and Admiral Alvin Holsey , commander of U.S. Southern Command, were authorized to take early retirement.
Holsey submitted his resignation earlier this month after strong disagreements with Hegseth and Caine over the legality of military attacks in the Caribbean and announced that he will leave his post in December, just one year after taking it.
Last month, President Donald Trump and the Secretary of Defense met with hundreds of generals and admirals at a Marine Corps base in Quantico , Virginia, where they promoted a shift toward a more rigid and nationalistic military doctrine , centered on “merit, strength and readiness for war . ”
During the speech, Trump warned that he would immediately fire any general who did not conform to his vision of the Armed Forces and announced that promotions would no longer be based on “political criteria” or “gender or race quotas . ”
For his part, Hegseth indicated that the new policy involves eliminating inclusion measures , gender identity issues, and climate change policies within the Armed Forces, and acknowledged that he has already begun to replace high-ranking commanders who, according to him, were promoted in previous administrations for ideological reasons and not for their combat capabilities.