Frank Kendall III, who led the Air Force under Presidents Obama and Biden, delivered a blistering critique of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, describing the current Pentagon leadership as “dysfunctional” and accusing Hegseth of inflicting “active harm” on the department.
In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Kendall said he has worked with or for roughly a dozen secretaries of Defense over his career, but Hegseth stands apart for the wrong reasons. “In a word, it’s dysfunctional,” Kendall said. “He’s doing active harm to the Department of Defense. It’s not passive. It’s active harm.”
The former secretary warned that the damage being done now could take years or even decades to undo. “The enormous damage that is being done will take a long time to repair,” he said. “We need to restore the type of system that we have had traditionally.”
Kendall also took aim at Hegseth’s emphasis on physical toughness and what he called a “bro thing,” arguing that modern military competition demands intellectual firepower as much as brawn. “In our competition, brain power is just as important as how big somebody’s biceps are,” Kendall said. “We need people with intellectual capital just as much as we need people who are physically capable.”
He added that the secretary&rsquos focus should be on strategic risks, not cultural posturing. “That’s not what the secretary of Defense should be worrying about,” Kendall said. “What he should be worried about is not getting us into a conflict that we have no obvious way out of.” He referred to the ongoing military action against Iran as an “absolute disaster.”
The Pentagon has not responded to a request for comment on Kendall’s remarks.
Hegseth has faced mounting criticism from former military leaders and some Republican lawmakers over his management of the Defense Department, which has been marked by high-level turnover and controversial personnel decisions. Most recently, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned, though he publicly praised Hegseth in a social media post, saying the secretary supported efforts to modernize the Army. “We could not have made the progress we did without the support of Secretary Hegseth,” Driscoll wrote.
But Driscoll was reportedly displeased with Hegseth’s removal of four Army officers—two women and two Black men—from a one-star general promotion list earlier this year. Hegseth has since struck at least six Army officers from a list for promotion to two-star general. Hegseth and his allies insist that promotions are based solely on merit and that the department does not consider gender or race. Yet the pattern of blocking promotions across the Army, Navy, and Air Force has led other former military leaders to describe the actions as damaging to the services.
Hegseth’s standing on Capitol Hill is also eroding. Senator Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a former member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has accused Hegseth of “inept management” and called on President Trump to remove him, adding to the growing GOP backlash over Pentagon turmoil and the rising costs of the Iran war. Tillis’s call followed Driscoll’s confirmation of his exit as Army secretary, a departure that has intensified scrutiny of Hegseth’s leadership.
The criticism comes as the Pentagon continues to face complex global challenges, including fresh U.S. strikes on Iranian targets and debates over nuclear posture and other strategic issues. Kendall’s warning underscores a broader concern among national security professionals that the department’s effectiveness is being undermined at a critical time.
