President Donald Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, and a number of other top military officers over the weekend in a dramatic shakeup of Pentagon leadership.
Trump announced on social media Friday that he was replacing Brown and planned on nominating retired Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to fill his role as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, making him the military’s top officer.
A report from Reuters noted Trump’s move was “unprecedented,” becoming the first time a president has pulled a military officer out of retirement to head the Joint Chiefs.
The move was just one of many changes Trump announced to top military brass in recent days, including plans to replace the U.S. Navy’s top officer, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead one of the military branches. Trump is also removing the Air Force vice chief of staff, Gen. Jim Slife, and the judge advocates general of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
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President Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Evan Vucci/AP)
“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family,” Trump wrote in a social media post.
Trump campaigned heavily on the idea of removing “woke” generals from the top of the military, especially those he believed were responsible for botching the U.S. exit from Afghanistan in 2021.
Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has also made it a point to root out Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the military, going so far as to question whether Brown was given the nod as the nation’s top military officer as a result of his race.
“Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt – which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn’t really much matter,” Hegseth wrote in his 2024 book.
Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown (Joint Chiefs of Staff)
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The decision to move on from Franchetti also reverses a 2023 decision by former President Joe Biden, who surprised Pentagon leaders by tapping Franchetti over Adm. Samuel Paparo, who at the time led the Navy’s Pacific Command and was widely expected to be in line for the service’s top job.
But Trump’s decision has also caused “upheaval” at the Pentagon, according to the Reuters report, where the Defense Department was already bracing for mass cuts to its civilian staff.
The moves were also condemned by the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jack Reed, of Rhode Island, who called the firings “political.”
Adm. Lisa Franchetti (U.S. Navy)
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“Firing uniformed leaders as a type of political loyalty test, or for reasons relating to diversity and gender that have nothing to do with performance, erodes the trust and professionalism that our service members require to achieve their missions,” Reed told Reuters.
The White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
