Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona called on President Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, arguing that Hegseth’s focus on issues like military testosterone levels reflects a broader failure of leadership that is putting service members at risk.
“The U.S. military does not need more testosterone, it needs better leadership, and that starts with the Secretary of Defense,” Kelly said in an appearance on The Briefing with Jen Psaki. “It also starts with the Commander in Chief. Ultimately he is responsible. He’s the one that hired Pete Hegseth, who is the most unqualified individual we’ve ever had in this position by far. They’re firing the wrong people, and Pete Hegseth is firing people because they’re women and they’re Black. The President should fire Pete Hegseth. He’s making awful decisions. It’s putting service members at risks that I would not have expected when I served, that a Secretary of Defense would make these sort of decisions, nor a president.”
Kelly, a 25-year Navy combat veteran who flew 39 missions in Operation Desert Storm and serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee as Ranking Member of its Airland Subcommittee, contrasted the current conflict with Iran to the war he fought in under President George H.W. Bush. “I served under George H.W. Bush. Went to war in Iraq because Iraq invaded Kuwait. We had a goal, push ’em out, to support our ally,” Kelly said. “That’s not this. This is a president, I mean, who knows why he got us into this. Was it the Epstein files? I’m not sure. I’m not sure we’ll ever know.”
Kelly’s comments followed Hegseth’s July 15 announcement that the Defense Department would begin testing testosterone levels in service members 30 and older and offer voluntary testosterone replacement therapy to those found deficient. “Under the supervision of our world-class medical professionals, war fighters age 30 and older are going to be tested annually as part of their periodic health assessment,” Hegseth said in a video posted to X captioned “The High-T Department of War.”
The announcement drew scrutiny from other Senate Democrats. In a letter to Hegseth, Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, Gary Peters, Elizabeth Warren and Ruben Gallego wrote that the Pentagon had “provided no evidence that this sweeping new policy will improve” force readiness, and pressed for details on its scientific basis, cost and how it would apply to female service members, according to a report on the letter.
Kelly had separately criticized the policy days earlier, telling CNN it was “a weird idea” and questioning Hegseth’s leadership over the initiative.
Kelly’s accusation that Hegseth is “firing people because they’re women and they’re Black” refers to a pattern of senior personnel actions since Hegseth took office in January 2025. Hegseth fired Gen. CQ Brown, the second African American to chair the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as Chief of Naval Operations, both without public explanation in February 2025. He later dismissed Air Force Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short from her post as his senior military assistant, removed Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield from her role as the U.S. military’s envoy to NATO, and reassigned Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, the first woman to lead the U.S. Naval Academy.
In March, Hegseth blocked the promotions of four Army officers, two Black men and two women, who had been on track to become one-star generals, a highly unusual intervention in the standard promotion process. Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell disputed the characterization at the time, telling reporters that “under Secretary Hegseth, military promotions are given to those who have earned them” and that “meritocracy, which reigns in this Department, is apolitical and unbiased.” Hegseth later fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, who had reportedly sought a meeting with Hegseth to discuss the blocked promotions.
Hegseth has told senior officers that the military has for too long “promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons, based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts.” In total, Hegseth has fired or sidelined at least two dozen generals and admirals since taking office, according to reporting that tracked the personnel actions.
Other Democrats have criticized the testosterone policy in similar terms. Sen. Tammy Duckworth said the initiative sounded “like gender-affirming care to me,” a reference to the administration’s restrictions on transgender troops’ access to hormone therapy, while Sen. Cory Booker called Hegseth “not a serious person” and said having a defense secretary focused on such measures during an active war “makes us a mockery globally.”
Kelly’s relationship with Hegseth has been openly adversarial since January, when Hegseth moved to censure Kelly and downgrade his military retirement rank over a video Kelly and other retired service members released reminding troops they could refuse illegal orders. Kelly filed a lawsuit against Hegseth and the Pentagon over the action, calling it “unlawful and unconstitutional” in a Senate floor speech. “I’ve never backed down from a fight for our country, and I will not back down from this one,” Kelly said at the time.
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon has issued a direct public response to Kelly’s latest remarks calling for Hegseth’s removal.