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Politics51 outlets ran this4 min read

Tillis calls on Trump to fire Defence Secretary Hegseth over military leadership

Republican senator cites 'inept management' and links Army secretary's resignation to Pentagon chief's record

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a ceremony at the Pentagon in Washington, DC on August 26, 2026 [Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters]

What this story says

  • Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican, publicly called on President Donald Trump to fire Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, citing 'inept management' and a 'leadership void' in the military.
  • Tillis linked Hegseth's leadership to the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who stepped down on Monday without giving a reason.
  • The US has been at war with Iran since 28 February 2026, and more than two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the administration's handling of it.
  • Hegseth has pursued changes to the Pentagon that include limiting journalistic access and removing transgender service members.

Who covered it

Left 40%(16)Centre 27%(11)Right 33%(13)

Percentages are shares of the 40 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 11 of the 51 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

55/100

Craft

65/100

Hype

35/100

51 sources · methodology

Missing from the right

Only 13 of the 40 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

Senator Thom Tillis called on President Donald Trump to dismiss Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on 2 September 2026. Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, accused Hegseth of 'inept management' and creating a 'leadership void' within the US military. The statement followed the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, which Tillis linked to Hegseth's leadership.

Tillis made the remarks in a social media post. He wrote that Hegseth was 'intimidated by competence' and had retreated to 'ginning up culture wars' instead of addressing national defence. Tillis, who voted to confirm Hegseth in 2024, contrasted him with Driscoll, whom he described as forward-thinking. Driscoll resigned on Monday without giving a reason, though he praised the military in a post on the same platform.

The US has been at war with Iran since 28 February 2026. The conflict has lasted six months with no end in sight, and the Trump administration's handling of it is disapproved of by more than two-thirds of Americans, according to a University of Massachusetts poll released on 31 August. Hegseth has faced scrutiny over his changes to the Pentagon, which include limiting journalistic access and reviewing admissions standards at military academies.

The eight left-rated digests led on Senator Thom Tillis's criticism of Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. All carried Tillis's accusation of 'inept management' and his call for Hegseth to be fired. Seven mentioned the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, and six linked it to Hegseth's leadership. Al Jazeera's full report quoted Tillis's social media post in full and detailed Hegseth's changes to the Pentagon, including the removal of transgender service members and the firing of top military leaders.

Al Jazeera also reported that Tillis had voted to confirm Hegseth in 2024 despite concerns about his past conduct. The outlet quoted Tillis's statement that Hegseth was 'intimidated by competence' and had created a 'leadership void'. It carried the context of the war with Iran and the low public approval for the administration's handling of it.

The two centre-rated digests led on Senator Tillis's call for President Trump to fire Defence Secretary Hegseth. Both carried Tillis's accusation of 'inept management' and his link between Hegseth's leadership and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll's resignation. Neither mentioned the war with Iran or the public disapproval of the administration's handling of it.

The one right-rated digest led on Senator Tillis's criticism of Defence Secretary Hegseth. It carried Tillis's accusation of 'inept management' and his call for Hegseth to be fired. It mentioned the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Tillis's link between it and Hegseth's leadership. It did not mention the war with Iran or the public disapproval of the administration's handling of it.

None of the centre-rated or right-rated digests mentioned the war with Iran or the public disapproval of the administration's handling of it. The right-rated digest did not carry the detail that Hegseth had pursued changes to the Pentagon that include limiting journalistic access and removing transgender service members.

Tags:#USPolitics#DefenceSecretary#TrumpAdministration#IranWar#MilitaryLeadership

Coverage settled. We checked this 41 times and stopped on 8 Sept 2026, 11:15. The figures above are what it finished at.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

16 rated outlets

  • All eight left-rated outlets reported that Republican Senator Thom Tillis called on Donald Trump to dismiss Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. They noted Tillis’s criticism of Hegseth’s leadership as inept and his claim that the Pentagon chief had created a leadership void in the military. The digests and Al Jazeera’s report agreed Tillis had voted to confirm Hegseth 18 months earlier.
  • Al Jazeera led on Tillis’s accusation that Hegseth was fixated on culture-war issues rather than modernising the military. It quoted Tillis’s statement that Hegseth was “intimidated by competence” and had forced out top officers, including Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. The Independent, Raw Story, and The Daily Boulder’s digests also highlighted the forced retirements and Driscoll’s resignation.
  • Five digests and Al Jazeera’s report carried Tillis’s reference to Hegseth’s efforts to remove what he called “wokeness” from the military, including blocking promotions and reviewing admissions standards. Al Jazeera alone added that Hegseth had limited journalistic access to the Defence Department and removed transgender service members. None of the digests mentioned the ongoing war with Iran or its impact on Trump’s approval ratings.

Centre

11 rated outlets

  • The centre-rated coverage agreed that Senator Thom Tillis called for President Donald Trump to dismiss Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. Both accounts noted the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll as the immediate context for Tillis’s statement.
  • The Hill’s digest led on Tillis’s accusation of “inept management” of the military. Political Wire’s digest included a partial quote from Tillis, describing Hegseth as “intimidated by competence.” Neither digest mentioned other lawmakers’ reactions or the White House’s response.
  • Neither digest reported on the timing of Tillis’s previous calls for Hegseth’s removal or provided additional details about Driscoll’s resignation beyond its connection to the statement.

Right

13 rated outlets

We have not written our reading of the right coverage of this story. The right-rated outlets that ran it are listed below.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Tillis calls on Trump to fire Defence Secretary Hegseth over military…?
Of the 40 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 40% are rated left, 27% are rated centre, 33% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 51. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Tillis calls on Trump to fire Defence Secretary Hegseth over military… left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 40 rated outlets on this story, 40% are rated left, 27% are rated centre, 33% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Tillis calls on Trump to fire Defence Secretary Hegseth over military… biased?
Tillis calls on Trump to fire Defence Secretary Hegseth over military leadership is one event reported by 51 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Tillis calls on Trump to fire Defence Secretary Hegseth over military…?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Tillis calls on Trump to fire Defence Secretary Hegseth over military…?
51 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Why did Senator Thom Tillis call for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to be fired?
Senator Thom Tillis called for Pete Hegseth's dismissal on 2 September 2026, accusing him of 'inept management' and creating a 'leadership void' in the US military. Tillis linked Hegseth's leadership to the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and criticised his focus on culture wars over modernising the military.
What changes has Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth made to the Pentagon?
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has pursued changes to the Pentagon that include limiting journalistic access, removing transgender service members, and reviewing admissions standards for military academies. He has also fired top military leaders and blocked promotions, as reported by Al Jazeera.
How long has the US been at war with Iran, and how is the administration handling it?
The US has been at war with Iran since 28 February 2026, a conflict that has lasted six months with no end in sight. More than two-thirds of Americans disapprove of the Trump administration's handling of the war, according to a University of Massachusetts poll released on 31 August.

Read it at the source

51 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

16
Show 8 more

Centre

11
Show 3 more

Right

13
Show 5 more

Not rated

11
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How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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