Pete Hegseth has not formally nominated Gen. Christopher LaNeve to be Army chief of staff because Republican senators do not yet have the votes to move him through the Senate Armed Services Committee. LaNeve, 59, has been acting Army chief of staff while the search for a permanent replacement drags on.
The hold-up matters now because LaNeve was supposed to step in permanently for retired Gen. Randy George, leaving the Army’s top leadership choice unresolved at the very moment the committee is deciding whether he can move at all. The reported on Tuesday that the votes are not there, and Chairman Roger Wicker made clear in May that LaNeve did not have enough support.
That is the central obstacle for Hegseth’s pick. To reach a floor vote, LaNeve would need support from every Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is controlled by Republicans, 14-13. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and other GOP senators are questioning his qualifications, and one point of concern is that he has been a four-star general for only six months. Most generals hold that rank about three times as long before becoming chief of staff, according to the reporting.
The resistance is not just about timing. Hegseth fired George in April after George reportedly refused to remove two Black officers and two female officers from a list of service members set to be promoted to one-star generals, and LaNeve was the officer expected to fill the vacancy after that. The Defense Department says it still stands behind LaNeve’s leadership, but that endorsement has not changed the math in the committee.
Sean Parnell said the Defense Department and Hegseth stand behind GEN LaNeve as acting chief of staff, and said the department will continue to work with the White House and the Senate to nominate and ultimately confirm President Trump’s pick to lead the United States Army. Trump has already shown his enthusiasm for LaNeve, once calling him “central casting” after a video call during an Inaugural Ball last January, when LaNeve told him, “Welcome back, Mr. President,” and said, “Sir, we'd be privileged to host you here in Korea soon, so you can see firsthand the valor of our soldiers here...”
For now, that praise has not translated into a formal nomination. Unless Hegseth can line up the Republican votes that Wicker says are still missing, LaNeve remains in the acting job and the Army remains without a permanent chief of staff.
