Making good on a campaign pledge to shake up the senior military ranks to ensure a focus on his policy priorities, President Trump on Friday night took the extraordinary step of firing the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and five more senior Pentagon officers. The fired chair, Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., had only served two-and-a-half years of his four-year term.
Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs usually stay in their posts when control of the White House changes hands. Trump's move immediately triggered accusations that he was politicizing the US military. “A professional, apolitical military that is subordinate to the civilian government and supportive of the Constitution rather than a political party is essential to the survival of our democracy,” said Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed in a statement
To replace Brown, Trump has nominated retired USAF Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Cain. The selection of Cain is highly unusual: Not only had he already retired from service, but he would be the first three-star general to ascend to the highest post in the US military. Cain is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute and an F-16 pilot credited with 150 combat hours and two tours in Iraq. From 2021 to 2024, Cain served as the CIA's associate director for military affairs, collaborating on several highly classified initiatives, the New York Times reports.
Announcing the nomination on Truth Social, Trump's praised Cain's performance against ISIS:
"During my first term, Razin was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate. It was done in record setting time, a matter of weeks. Many so-called military 'geniuses' said it would take years to defeat ISIS. General Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered."
While praising Cain, Trump accused his own predecessor for failing to recognize Cain's talents. "Despite being highly qualified and respected to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the previous administration, General Caine was passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden. But not anymore!"
Trump was gracious, however, toward the fired chairman, thanking Brown for "his over 40 years of service to our country," calling him "a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader," and wishing him "a great future for him and his family."
Brown was just one of five casualties on Friday night. After Trump's announcement, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth issued a statement indicating that Chief of Naval Operations Adm Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff James Slife have also been removed, along with the judge advocates general of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
While no reason was given for the removal of the top lawyers of three largest military branches, the action comes after Hegseth's repeated criticism of what he says are unwarranted restrictions on how soldiers conduct themselves on the battlefield. In his Senate confirmation hearing, Hegseth said military lawyers put "his or her own priorities in front of the war fighters, their promotions, their medals, in front of having the backs of those making the tough calls on the front lines.”
As for the other officers, Trump and Hegseth promised to clear out officers deemed too have embraced woke ideology, to include emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion over merit and performance. In his book, War on Warriors, Hegseth criticized Brown for "[making] the race card one of his biggest calling cards," and Hegseth questioned whether Brown's ascent resulted from merit or his skin color. Trump himself nominated Brown to become the Air Force chief of of staff in 2020, and heralded the fact that Brown would be the “first-ever African American military service chief.”
In November, Hegseth called for Brown to be fired, along with others on the wrong side of woke-ism:
"First of all, you've got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs...But any general that was involved -- general, admiral, whatever -- that was involved in any of the DEI woke shit has got to go. Either you're in for warfighting, and that's it. That's the only litmus test we care about."
In his book, Hegseth also questioned Franchetti's qualifications to serve as the highest ranking Navy officer, sarcastically writing, "If naval operations suffer, at least we can hold our heads high. Because at least we have another first! The first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — hooray."
More recently, Hegseth used a Pentagon town hall to declare that diversity initiatives were "dividing the force as oppose to uniting it." Driving the point home, he pointedly attacked one of the most cherished rhetorical cornerstones of woke ideology, saying, "The single dumbest phrase in military history is ‘our diversity is our strength'."
