In late March, two U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopters from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Campbell were seen hovering near the pool at Kid Rock‘s Nashville-area estate during a low-altitude maneuver that deviated from a training routine. The brief stunt was posted to his and President Trump’s social accounts and quickly caught national attention. Now a new report on the fallout from the investigation into that flyover is rattling the Defense Department and could lead to further delay in replacing the Army leader ousted for refusing to kill the probe.
The rocker and Trump devotee, who is seen applauding and saluting the helicopters in videos posted across social media,went on the attack in the post sharing the moment that’s now become a lightning rod for the Defense Department, attacking Gov. Gavin Newsom and indicating that the deviation to fly past his home was a display of respect for him.
“This is a level of respect that shit for brains Governor of California will never know. God Bless America and all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend her,” the rocker, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, posted on X.
The unauthorized and potentially dangerous flyover led to an Army review and the suspension of the pilot, but it was quickly reversed by order of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who later fired the Army’s Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George without explanation. A new report in The Washington Post now reveals, via anonymous sources, that the Army’s second-in-command spoke with George days before his firing, telling him he’d be wise to drop the probe into the flyover.
George was irked by the conversation with Gen. Chris LaNeve, two anonymous sources told the outlet, but he “felt it was important to follow typical protocol and determine whether any safety regulations had been violated” by the crewmembers that day. Pressuring George, LaNeve told him that Secretary Hegseth wanted the internal airspace violation probe shut down.
Following George’s firing in April, part of a larger purge in which the Trump administration has forced out or fired senior military commanders, Hegseth appointed LaNeve as acting chief of staff. The fallout was steep: Critics bemoaned the erosion of military norms. They decried Hegseth for politicizing the military, while supporters defended the pilots and the Pentagon claimed they hadn’t deviated from training.
Hegseth called his critics “out-of-touch insiders” trying to undermine the military with “woke politics.”
The new report offers a possible explanation for why George was fired without one, and it could complicate LaNeve’s chances of being permanently confirmed as Army chief of staff. The White House has dragged its feet on nominating him, and he’s already facing opposition in the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The Pentagon downplayed the stalemate in a statement to the Post: “[We are] actively coordinating with our Senate partners to lock in the optimal moment to formally submit his nomination, and we intend to do so.”