A promotion for the general who became famous for being the last American soldier to leave Afghanistan is being delayed by a Republican senator, a Senate aide confirmed to Military.com on Friday.

Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, who has been nominated to receive a fourth star and assume command of the United States Army forces in Europe, was noticeably absent from a batch of military promotions the Senate approved Thursday night before leaving its weeklong Thanksgiving recess. The aide confirmed that Donahue’s promotion was omitted because Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., placed what is known as a “hold” on the nomination.

Military.com reached out to Mullins’ office for comment, but a spokesperson was unable to provide a statement prior to publication.

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Mullins’ move appears to be tied to Donahue’s role in the Afghanistan withdrawal and comes after the Trump transition team reportedly contacted Republican senators to encourage them to place the move, said Senate aides, who requested anonymity to discuss internal Senate business.

The hold on Donahue is the latest sign that Republicans and the Trump administration-elect plan to target military officers involved in the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, a chaotic mission carried out by the Biden administration but initiated by the first Trump administration. NBC News also reported last weekend that Trump transition team officials are compiling a list of current and former officers involved in the withdrawal with the possibility of court-martialling them.

Donahue is currently the commanding general of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Liberty in North Carolina.

At the time of the Afghanistan withdrawal, Donahue was a two-star acting general for the 82nd Airborne Division. In that role, he oversaw the 82nd’s mission to secure Hamid Karzai International Airport as U.S. forces evacuated Americans and vulnerable Afghans after the Taliban took over Kabul.

The evacuation was marred by scenes of desperate Afghans running across the airfield ahead of the 82nd’s arrival, an ISIS suicide bomb outside the airport gates that killed 13 US soldiers and a failed US airstrike in response to the suicide attack that killed 10 civilians.

A special career operator, Donahue has usually shrouded his work in secrecy. But he was thrust into the spotlight when the Pentagon released photos of him stepping onto the last one C-17 Globemaster III to leave Afghanistan after all other soldiers had boarded, making him the last American serviceman in Afghanistan.

The grainy images, tinted green because they were taken through night vision, instantly became an iconic symbol of the withdrawal.

While the withdrawal was set in motion by the first Trump administration’s deal with the Taliban, Trump leaned heavily on bashing President Joe Biden for the botched execution of the withdrawal throughout the 2024 presidential campaign. Trump campaigned with family members of the American troops killed in the withdrawal, and taking office Vice President JD Vance at one point said that Vice President Kamala Harris “can go to hell” because no one was fired over the withdrawal.

A government watchdog investigation into the collapse of US-backed Afghan forces placed equal blame on Trump and Biden.

The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction “found that the single most important factor in the (Afghan National Defense and Security Forces) collapse in August 2021 was the US decision to withdraw military forces and contractors from Afghanistan by signing the US-Taliban agreement in February 2020 under the Trump administration, followed by President Biden’s April 2021 withdrawal announcement,” the inspector general wrote in a 2022 report.

A hold does not prevent a nominee or military promotion from being confirmed, but it does mean that the Senate must use its limited floor time for a long series of roll call votes rather than confirming nominations in batches in a voice vote as it usually does with military nominees. The Senate is scheduled to sit for just three more weeks before the end of the year, after which any unconfirmed nominee or promotion would have to start the process over unless senators agree to waive chamber rules.

While it has become common for senators to seize civilian nominees for Pentagon jobs because of political disputes, doing so was considered taboo for military officer promotions until recently.

Last year, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., spent 10 months blocking general and admiral promotions because of his opposition to the Pentagon’s policy of providing leave and reimbursement to troops who need to travel to get an abortion.

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