Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth’s Top Army Pick's January 6 National Guard Fiasco Role Revealed

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Army Donald Trump’s favorite general was a key player in the Pentagon’s calamitous Jan.

6 response.

General Chris LaNeve, who has been tasked by Pete Hegseth to lead the Army, was a central figure in the most disputed moment of the Pentagon’s botched intervention, documents reviewed by PunchUp show .

It comes after reports of a reason behind LaNeve’s predecessor as Army Chief of Staff Gen.

Randy George’s dismissal: his desire to push forward with the investigation of a bizarre Apache helicopter flyby of MAGA singer Kid Rock’s Tennessee estate.

Days before George was dismissed as Army chief of staff in April, LaNeve, 59, reportedly told him the defense secretary did not want the probe to go ahead.

Concerned, George confided in colleagues, only to be fired on Apr.

2, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

George also refused to strike two Black and two female officers from a promotion list.

LaNeve, Hegseth’s former military aide who was handed his job in an acting capacity and is in line to keep it permanently, was spotted by Trump on an inaugural-ball video call in January 2025 and asked the room: “Is this man central casting, or what?” Months later, LaNeve returned from South Korea as Hegseth’s senior military assistant and, by Feb.

6, had a fourth star, rising from brigadier to full general in five years.

But PunchUp, the Daily Beast’s sister investigations Substack , has uncovered documents that highlight a key role he played in the Pentagon’s ill-fated handling of the Capitol riots of Jan.

6, 2021.