No one's talking about the other nomination battle Trump's losing

President Donald Trump has fired much of the military’s top personnel and replaced them with loyalists, as well as engaged in controversial practices like encouraging personnel to receive testosterone supplements.

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s pick for Army chief of staff is in jeopardy because of objections from Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and other Republican senators, according to U.S. officials and congressional sources,” reported The Wall Street Journal's Lara Seligman on Tuesday. “Hegseth has been pushing to nominate Gen. Christopher LaNeve, who has served as acting Army chief of staff since Hegseth in April fired the former Army top officer, retired Gen. Randy George, according to U.S. officials. But without unanimous Republican support, a LaNeve nomination won’t advance out of the Senate Armed Services Committee.”

Seligman added, “The administration was poised in May to put forward LaNeve for the role, but has held off because the committee chairman, Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), communicated that he didn’t have the votes to secure approval for LaNeve’s nomination, according to U.S. officials and congressional sources. LaNeve, who commanded the 82nd Airborne Division, has faced criticism from lawmakers and experts who note he has been a four-star general for only six months. Most chiefs serve at least 18 months in a four-star role before assuming the top position.”

Like many of the military personnel preferred by Trump, LaNeve has benefited from his perceived political support for the Republican leader.

“LaNeve’s reputation for discipline and a chance encounter with President Trump vaulted him into a senior position at the Pentagon last year,” Seligman wrote. “While commanding the Eighth Army in South Korea in January 2025, LaNeve appeared in a video call for an inaugural ball. ‘Welcome back, Mr. President,’ said the square-jawed general, reciting a script that had been vetted before the event, WSJ reported.”

Seligman added, “Trump appeared impressed. ‘Is this man central casting, or what?’ he asked the ballroom’s crowd.”

Trump’s management of the Defense Department has drawn considerable criticism for being more motivated by politics than merit. In July Margaret Donovan, a lawyer and Army JAG veteran, broke down the flaws of the Pentagon under Trump by analyzing how they got America into a war with Iran.

“You know, you get somebody like Secretary Hegseth in charge of the Department of Defense, and that's what you get,” Donovan told The Bulwark’s William Kristol on Thursday, describing how Trump got roughly 120 Iranian schoolgirls killed in a botched air strike.

“You get this harebrained operation, and the very first strike, something that, nearly every former military lawyer, probably current military lawyers, if they could speak freely would consider a war crime, or otherwise unauthorized under the law of armed conflict,” Donovan continued. “You have that, and lest you thought that was a fluke, that sort of rushing into an operation ill-prepared and not fully thought out in terms of your legal basis. We have February 28th, and so that's the opening of the Iran War.”