Donald Trump fires top US military officer in Pentagon shake-up

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Donald Trump fired General CQ Brown as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, ousting the respected Air Force leader as the president seeks to remove military officers who have supported diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

Defence secretary Pete Hegseth also fired two other top officers: chief of naval operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti and Air Force vice-chief of staff General James Slife. The surprise Friday night firings were sure to jolt the US military, which Trump has vowed to rid of what he derides as “woke” DEI programmes.

Brown, the second Black general to serve as the military’s top officer, began what was supposed to be a four-year term in October 2023.

“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,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social Platform.

“He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family.”

Trump said he would nominate retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to replace Brown. Presidents typically select someone for the role who is a service chief or combat commander. 

Trump met Caine when he visited Iraq in December 2018, where the officer was the deputy commanding general of the Special Operations Joint Task Force there during the military campaign against the Islamic State.

During a 2024 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump said Caine “looked better than any movie actor you could get”. 

Caine had recently retired from the military and joined Shield Capital as a venture partner. He had also served as the CIA’s top adviser on military affairs, was an F-16 pilot and a White House fellow, among other assignments.

“Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America First, and rebuild our military,” Trump said on Truth Social.

Trump said he also directed Hegseth to solicit nominations “for five additional high-level positions, which will be announced soon.”

Hegseth said he and Trump “are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars”.

He said he was also firing the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Speculation about Brown’s future was sparked by Trump’s nomination of Hegseth to be defence secretary. In a November podcast appearance, the former Fox News host said: “First of all, you gotta fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.”

He accused Brown of attempting to implement “woke” policies along with other generals.

With a majority in the Senate, Trump could have wide latitude to replace top officers.

Roger Wicker, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was “confident Secretary Hegseth and President Trump will select a qualified and capable successor for the critical position of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

“President Trump, like every president, deserves to pick military advisors that he knows, trusts and has a relationship with,” Republican senator Lindsey Graham posted on X.

Jack Reed, the senior Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, said he was troubled by the dismissals.

“This appears to be part of a broader, premeditated 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.”

The Pentagon said earlier Friday it would fire 5,400 civilian workers beginning next week, the first round in what is expected to be a larger purge of its workforce.

The Trump administration intends to cut the defence department workforce by between 5 per cent and 8 per cent, senior Pentagon official Darin Selnick said. That would amount to potentially tens of thousands of people.