A Republican senator has blocked a promotion for the general who oversees troops in Kabul during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, a Senate aide said.
The move by Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin comes as President-elect Donald Trump threatens to fire senior officers and officials overseeing a chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. It also comes as Trump’s transition team Considers a possible court-martial As NBC News previously reported, against current and former officers involved in the retreat.
Army Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue has been nominated for promotion to become a four-star general and oversee US military forces in Europe. His nomination was among more than 900 proposed nominees sent to the Senate, but Donahue’s nomination was delayed by Senator Mullin, according to a Senate aide.
Mullin’s office declined to comment.
Donahue was the last American serviceman to board the last US military plane out of Afghanistan in 2021. Night view photo Donahue’s boarding of the cargo plane went viral, symbolizing the end of America’s 20-year war.
After the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Donahue, then commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, was ordered to Kabul to oversee the withdrawal of U.S. forces, American embassy personnel and Afghans fighting alongside American troops.
Retired General Tony Thomas, the former head of the Special Operations Command, said in a social media post that the decision was a “disgrace” and that Donahue was being treated as a “political pawn.”
Heather Nauert, who worked at the State Department during the first term of Trump’s presidency, said in her social network that she supports Trump and likes Senator Mullin, but she does not agree with the hold on Donahue’s promotion.
“In the absence of facts that I do not know, it is wrong to continue military escalations in connection with our disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan,” he wrote.
Donahue is currently the commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty in North Carolina.
With the current Senate soon to go on recess and a new Republican-controlled Congress set to take office in 2025, his nomination may now be at risk.