U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivers remarks, during a presentation ceremony of the Mexican Border Defense Medal (MBDM) to service members participating in the Trump administration's Operation Ardent Vanguard, at the Pentagon in Washinton, D.C., U.S., July 27, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
A retired military commander on Monday unfurled a laundry list of misdeeds by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in a grim warning about the cabinet member's future.
Retired Maj. Gen. Randy Manner sounded off on Hegseth to CNN's Erin Burnett on "OutFront" over Hegseth's management of the Iran war, citing reports that American munitions and missile stockpiles have reached critically low levels. He also called Hegseth's sanity into question over a recent initiative to test the testosterone levels of military members.
"I'm very worriedabout, quite frankly, the sanityof the Secretary of Defense," Manner said bluntly. "He's not a strategist, andit's evidenced by the fact thathe has unrelentingly used thesevery expensive munitions."
Manner noted that the U.S. continued to use expensive munitions to strike Iran, some of which cost up to $12 million each against Iranian drones that can be made for under$100,000.
"That is no way to beable to engage the enemy," he said. "The Ukrainians have learned how to engage and defend themselves with low-cost alternatives. Wehave not. And [Hegseth is] blamingeveryone else but himself forthe strategy. So I think, quite frankly, the Secretary of Defense's days are numbered."
Manner also chided Hegseth for the Defense Department's decision to test the testosterone levels of military troops aged 30 and up.
"This bizarreness,it sounds like he's trying tosell some kind of drugs ortreatment as a used carsalesman," Manner said. "It's extremely sad."
Hegseth’s decision to revise the number of soldiers killed in action in Iran also got under Manner’s skin. Burnett played a clip from a recent interview with a military widow who said she had "no words" to describe how bad that decision felt.
Manner described the decision as "unforgivable."
"He actually knows that he isbetween a rock and a hard place," Manner said. "He knows that things are evenworse than he is letting on,probably worse than he'sactually telling the president."