Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mounted a campaign to oust a four-star general because of a picture he thought was a selfie, according to a new report.
Hegseth's war against Gen. Christopher Donahue was sparked by his dislike of an Army photographer's green-and-black photo of the general, taken with a night-vision monocle, on Aug. 30, 2021, The New York Times revealed Sunday.
"Mr. Hegseth seemed to be fixated on the photo," sources told the Times, "mistakenly referring to it as a 'selfie.'"
The photograph, taken at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, documented Donohue's departure from Afghanistan at 11:59 p.m. — one minute before the deadline for Americans to withdraw.
It was also taken four days after an ISIS suicide bomber killed 13 American service members, according to the report.
"Mr. Hegseth believed that President Trump wanted heads to roll for the deaths," the Times reported. "General Donahue was not responsible for security at the bombing site. But he was a top commander at the airport, and so Mr. Hegseth decided he needed to go."
Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s chief of staff, tried to convince his boss that this was a mistake and prepared a notecard with facts about Donohue that he planned to hand over during a brief car ride, according to the report.
It included information about Donahue's three-decade career, during which he undertook more than 20 deployments, tracked down terrorist leaders and played a central role in the U.S. military’s efforts to help Ukraine push back against Russia, according to the report.
But none of these achievements got top billing on Kasper's card. The first item on the card, according to the Times, clarified a misconception of Hegseth's, that the photo of Donohue wasn't a "selfie."
"The defense secretary glanced at the card and passed it back to his chief of staff," the Times reported. Hegseth said, "I don’t care."
