President Donald Trump on February 21 fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and dismissed five other admirals and generals in a major shake-up of the top leadership of the U.S. military.
Air Force General CQ Brown, who had served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since 2023 after being appointed by former President Joe Biden, was ousted in the move, which Trump announced on his social media platform Truth Social.
Brown, the second black officer to hold the job of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had been expected to complete his four-year term in September 2027.
A Pentagon statement said Trump would nominate retired Lieutenant General Dan "Razin" Caine to succeed Brown. A former F-16 fighter pilot, Caine is a former associate director of military affairs at the CIA.
The Pentagon announced separately that Trump will replace the head of the U.S. Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service, and Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force General Jim Slife. The judge advocates general for the army, navy, and air force were also fired.
Slife led Air Force Special Operations Command prior to becoming the service's vice chief of staff and had deployed to the Middle East and Afghanistan.
The moves were part of a campaign led by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to rid the military of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Hegseth said that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would have "broad access" to root out such programs from the Pentagon.
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General CQ Brown (left) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the start of a Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in September 2024 (file photo)
DOGE will work to "find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities" such as DEI programs. These are "not core to our mission, and we're going to get rid of it all,” Hegseth said.
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk -- the world's richest person -- has been tasked by Trump to lead DOGE. Musk’s efforts to achieve efficiencies thus far have resulted in the firing of tens of thousands of federal workers, which in turn has sparked legal challenges.
SEE ALSO: Trump Praises Musk For Work Cutting Government WasteThe Pentagon is already bracing for mass firings of civilian staff in a dramatic overhaul of its budget announced by Hegseth earlier this week.
Trump did not explain his decision to replace Brown but thanked him for “over 40 years of service to our country, including his time as 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.
Brown’s public support of Black Lives Matter after the police killing of George Floyd in 2020 had made him a target for the administration's wars against “wokeism” in the military.
Hegseth had been skeptical of Brown before taking the helm of the Pentagon, questioning in a book he published last year whether Brown would have gotten the job if he were not black.
Representative Adam Smith (Democrat-Washington) said Trump's "Friday night massacre" unleashed even more chaos at the Pentagon. He defended Brown as intelligent, accomplished, and a true patriot.
"That wasn’t good enough for the president, who has chosen -- yet again --fealty over proven ability to do the job and loyalty to the Constitution," said Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, in a statement.
“All of this continues to play into the hands of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin and others working to exploit the weakness Trump continues to broadcast and undermine the military, our government, our national security interests, and democracy worldwide,” Smith said.
SEE ALSO: Ukraine Feels The Shockwaves As USAID Cuts Start To BiteThe cut to the Pentagon’s civilian workforce will begin next week. Darin Selnick, who is performing the duties of undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a statement that at least 5 percent of the workforce will be cut. The layoffs will focus on recently hired employees in a workforce of about 900,000.
"We anticipate reducing the department's civilian workforce by 5-8 percent to produce efficiencies and refocus the department on the president's priorities and restoring readiness in the force," said Selnick.
The dismissal of approximately 5,400 probationary workers will be followed by a hiring freeze "while we conduct a further analysis of our personnel needs," Selnick said.
A day before the announcement, Hegseth said in a video message that "it is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission critical."