Trump fires top Pentagon officers in sweeping overhaul

President Trump fired top US military officer General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown as part of a major shake-up of the armed forces’ leadership.

US Air Force General Charles Brown Jr has been axed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Picture: AFP

The Trump administration fired the military’s highest-ranking officer, the admiral leading the Navy, and several other senior leaders in a massive Pentagon shake-up of the top ranks of the armed forces.

The firings began with an announcement by President Trump on Friday that he had fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., and was nominating a retired three-star general to succeed him.

Shortly after Trump’s Truth Social post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was ousting Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy and to be on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. James Slife, the vice chief of staff for the Air Force.

Hegseth also said he was planning to replace the top uniformed lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

The firings were an unprecedented move to replace top uniformed officers in several branches of the armed services by an administration that has accused the Pentagon of failing to focus on its core war-fighting mission.

While some firings at the Defense Department were anticipated, the moves caused shockwaves at the Pentagon nonetheless and raises questions about what the moves portended, both for the commander in chief’s control of the military and for the careers of other generals and admirals the administration has criticised.

“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 the Truth Social post.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, (D., Conn.) a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in a post on X: “Purging these highly dedicated, decorated military leaders — based on politics, not merit — does immediate immense & lasting damage to the readiness of our armed forces & national defence.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said, “President Trump, like every president, deserves to pick military advisers that he knows, trusts and has a relationship with.”

Trump gave no reason for replacing Brown, the second Black officer to serve as the military’s highest ranking officer and the president’s senior military adviser. Hegseth didn’t explain the firings of the other officers.

General James Slife has been fired as vice chief of staff for the US Air Force.

Brown was ousted despite support among key members of Congress and a seemingly positive meeting with Trump in mid-December, when the two sat next to each other for a while at the Army-Navy football game. Brown had been meeting regularly with Hegseth at the Pentagon.

On Friday, Brown was at the U.S.-Mexico border, where Trump has ordered a build-up of U.S. troops to counter illegal immigration. He learned about the decision shortly before the announcement, a Defense Department official said.

Franchetti posted on social media that she was conducting meetings at the Pentagon on Friday and was surprised by the news.

Hegseth didn’t announce nominees to succeed Franchetti, Slife and the judge advocates general of the Army, Navy and Air Force, saying he would seek recommendations for their replacements. He didn’t say from whom he would seek nominees.

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Caine will be nominated to be the next chairman, Trump said. Caine must be confirmed by the Senate.

“General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience,” Trump said.

Graham said Trump and Caine “go way back to his first term where General Caine led the effort to destroy the ISIS caliphate. They have a longstanding relationship, and I’m confident General Caine will be the right person at the right time to take over as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs”.

Admiral Lisa Franchetti. Picture: Supplied

Brown, who has been in the job since later 2023, was replaced before the end of what is normally a four-year term.

Brown’s future as chairman has been uncertain since Trump’s election in November. The move to replace him is a sharp departure from past practice by most presidents who replaced the chairman only after expiration of their terms.

During his first term, Trump nominated Brown to lead the Air Force. The decision to promote him to chairman was made by President Joe Biden. Brown didn’t immediately release a statement after Trump’s post.

Brown, an F-16 jet fighter pilot, often described himself as an ordinary man serving in an extraordinary job. The Senate confirmed him in a 83-11 vote in 2023. Among the 11 Republicans who voted no were then-Sens. JD Vance, now vice president, and Marco Rubio, now Trump’s secretary of state. The Senate confirmed Franchetti in a 95-1 vote, with four not voting.

Brown’s promotion was delayed for weeks by Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R., Ala.), who vowed to not let the Senate expedite his confirmation until the Pentagon agreed to end its policy of allowing troop leave and travel funds for reproductive healthcare, including abortion.

Six days after Brown assumed the job, Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200, kidnapping 250 others and leading to a devastating war in Gaza that has reshaped the region.

Gen. Brown spent much of his career in the Asia-Pacific region, and made the strategic competition with China a priority. He released a nearly five-minute video shortly after the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, sharing his feelings about the incident and his experience as a Black officer rising through the ranks.

That video drew the ire of Trump supporters, leading Hegseth before he was nominated to take the reins of the Defense Department to label Brown as an officer who benefited from diversity policies and who might have been unqualified for the job.

“We’ll never know, but always doubt — which on its face seems unfair to CQ,” Hegseth wrote. “But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it really doesn’t much matter.” In a November appearance on the “Shawn Ryan Show,” Hegseth said: “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 s — has got to go,” he continued. “Either you’re in for warfighting, and that’s it. That’s the only litmus test we care about.” DEI refers to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Nonetheless, Hegseth said as he arrived at the Pentagon for his first official day on the job that he looked forward to working with Brown, who greeted him at the door.

Brown had fierce defenders, who described him as a strong leader who remained even- keeled in tough situations. He maintained his flying hours even while serving as chairman. Brown said he didn’t want to be judged for his race but simply to have the same opportunity to prove himself as everyone else.

Commissioned in 1990 and a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, Caine is an F-16 pilot, according to his Air Force biography, with 150 combat hours and two tours in Iraq. But more important, he won over the president, who has described him as a supporter and a strong critic of the top military leadership.

Caine retired in 2024 and in his job served as the associate director of military affairs for the Central Intelligence Agency. Until the Senate acts on his nomination, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Christopher Grady, will serve in the position in an acting capacity.

Franchetti, a career surface officer, also was confirmed in 2023, She spent much of her career serving on destroyers and came to office when the Navy had been beleaguered by low recruiting, program delays and challenges with shipbuilding and maintenance as the U.S. regarded China the biggest threat. Under her tenure, the Navy was able to close recruiting shortfalls.

But she, too, faced Hegseth’s wrath, who alleged in a book that she had no combat experience and was promoted because of “optics.”

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