President Donald Trump and his defense secretary have declared their intent to oust the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of naval operations, the vice chief of the Air Force, and the judge advocates general for the Army, Navy, and Air Force—all amid a broader push to root out military officials who have supported diversity efforts.
“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 said in a post Friday night.
Brown, a four-star fighter pilot, was the second Black American to serve as chairman. In 2020, Trump nominated Brown to be the Air Force chief of staff. Once in the job, he “launched investigations into potential biases in the service’s promotion process and made changes to make it more equitable. The following year, he opened the Air Force’s first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office,” Defense One reported. (In recent weeks, the Air Force has removed a press release about the office, but it remains online elsewhere.)
By the time President Biden tapped Brown to step up to the Joint Chiefs chairmanship, the general was noted as “a full-throated leader of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs in the military,” as Defense One put it in 2023. “Early in the summer of 2020, as nationwide protests and riots boiled over George Floyd’s murder, Brown posted a video message that was unusually personal for a member of the Joint Chiefs, explaining how he felt and how the military’s path to diversity has been and will continue to be a long one.”
On a podcast last November, Pete Hegseth railed against DEI efforts and said, “First of all, you gotta fire the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.” But when the Fox host-turned-defense secretary arrived at the Pentagon last month, he professed satisfaction with Brown and indicated that he was looking forward to working with him.
Trump has nominated a retired three-star Air Force general, Dan Caine, to serve as the next chairman.
“General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a “warfighter” with significant interagency and special operations experience,” Trump said.
But Caine lacks experience for the job that is required by law, although the president can grant a waiver, the Associated Press reported.
In a statement Friday night, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also announced that he was seeking replacements for Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff James Slife.
No reason was given for replacing Franchetti, the first woman to serve as the Navy’s top officer, after just 15 months on the job.
“I am also requesting nominations for the positions of Chief of Naval Operations and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff. The incumbents in these important roles, Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Gen. James Slife, respectively, have had distinguished careers. We thank them for their service and dedication to our country. We are also requesting nominations for the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force,” Hegseth said.
The firings come after weeks of tumult at the Pentagon and another announcement Friday that 5,400 Pentagon employees will lose their jobs next week, the first cut in a broader effort to slash up to 61,000 civilians from the workforce.
