U.S. Air Force General Charles Brown testifies during his confirmation hearing on July 11, 2023.
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President Trump has fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., and announced he will nominate a retired three-star general to succeed him as the nation’s top military officer.
Trump announced Brown’s dismissal in a post Friday on TruthSocial, in which he thanked Brown “for his over 40 years of service to our country,” and called him a “fine gentleman and an outstanding leader.” Brown, a former combat pilot, rose to become the first Black man to lead a branch of the military as Air Force chief before he was nominated by former President Joe Biden as chairman of the Joint Chiefs in 2023.
Trump said he would be nominating Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Caine to succeed Brown.
“General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience,” Trump wrote, adding that Caine “was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate.”
Brown’s ouster appeared increasingly likely following the confirmation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Prior to his nomination, Hegseth had called for Brown to be removed, alleging he supported a “woke” agenda that undermined military readiness.
“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said during an appearance in November on the Shawn Ryan Show.
Before becoming Joint Chiefs chairman, Brown pushed for the military to streamline its bureaucracy and also increase recruitment by attracting Americans from more diverse backgrounds.
In 2020 — as he was awaiting confirmation to serve as Air Force chief of staff — he gained national attention for a passionate video message about race that he shared as the nation was grappling with the police killing of George Floyd.
In an interview with NPR later that year, he explained the decision to post the video, saying, “It was my own personal experiences but thinking about our two sons and their experiences, [is] actually what got me to do it.”
In a statement shared after Trump’s announcement, Hegseth praised Brown for “four decades of honorable service,” saying he has come to know him “as a thoughtful adviser.”
Other top officials were also let go
In the same statement, Hegseth said he would be replacing several additional top military officials, including Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy as Chief of Naval Operations, and Gen. James Slife, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff.
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, responded with a blistering statement expressing his concern over the firings.
“This appears to be part of a broader, premediated campaign by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth to purge talented officers for politically charged reasons, which would undermine the professionalism of our military and send a chilling message through the ranks,” Reed said.
A shake-up at the Pentagon
The staffing announcements come amid a broader shake-up underway at the Pentagon, part of a dramatic attempt by the Trump administration to restructure the federal workforce and slash government spending. The Pentagon announced Friday that it plans to fire approximately 5,400 probationary workers beginning next week.
“We anticipate reducing the Department’s civilian workforce by 5-8% to produce efficiencies and refocus the Department on the President’s priorities and restoring readiness in the force,” Darin Selnick, the acting Defense undersecretary for personnel and readiness, said in a statement announcing the cuts.
The Pentagon has also proposed cutting 8% of its budget in each of the next five years — amounting to some $50 billion each year.
