Trump fires CQ Brown as Joint Chiefs Chairman

(WASHINGTON) — In an unprecedented move both Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top admiral, were fired from their posts by President Donald Trump, marking the first time that two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been dismissed from their senior military roles.

As a retired military officer, Caine will be brought back onto active duty and will have to be confirmed by the Senate in order to assume the role of the president’s senior military adviser and the nation’s top military officer.

Caine retired after serving 34 years in the Air Force where he served as an F-16 pilot, the assistant commanding general at Joint Special Operations Command, and the Central Intelligence Agency’s associate director for military affairs.

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

As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Brown became the president’s top military adviser in October 2023 and was to complete a four-year term at the end of September 2027. He was the second African American to serve in the role and Franchetti was the first woman to serve as the Navy’s top admiral.

The role of chairman is intended to be apolitical and by design the chairman’s four-year term overlaps presidential election years meaning someone serving in the role could serve in two different presidential administrations.

Trump as president has the authority to remove generals and senior officers from their positions and reassign them, but if forced out of a role, officers may not find another opening available to them.

“Today, I am honored to announce that I am nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan ‘Razin’ Caine to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump wrote. “General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a “warfighter” with significant interagency and special operations experience.”

“During my first term, Razin was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate,” said Trump, repeating praise of the three-star general that he had placed since his first term after meeting him during a tour of U.S. military troops in Iraq.

“It was done in record-setting time, a matter of weeks,” said Trump. “Many so-called military ‘geniuses’ said it would take years to defeat ISIS. General  Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered.”

“Despite being highly qualified and respected to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the previous administration, General Caine was passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden,” said Trump. “But not anymore! Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America First, and rebuild our military.”

Defense officials told ABC News that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called both Brown and Franchetti to advise them that they were being removed from their posts. At the time both Brown and Franchetti were traveling outside of Washington, Brown having completed a tour of U.S. military troops on the southern border with Mexico, and on his way to California to link up with Franchetti where both of them were to participate in a conference.

Hegseth later said in a statement that he would request nominations to replace Franchetti; Gen. James Slife, the Air Force’s Vice Chief of Staff; and the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Earlier this week both Brown and Franchetti appeared on a list of generals and admirals provided by the Trump administration to Congressional Republicans that Hegseth was considering firing or removing from their positions.

“General Caine embodies the warfighter ethos and is exactly the leader we need to meet the moment. I look forward to working with him,” said Hegseth in a statement issued after Trump’s announcement.

“The outgoing Chairman, Gen. Charles ‘CQ’ Brown, Jr., USAF, has served with distinction in a career spanning four decades of honorable service,” said Hegseth. ‘I have come to know him as a thoughtful adviser and salute him for his distinguished service to our country.

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

In a statement provided to ABC News Slife said “The President and Secretary of Defense deserve to have generals they trust and the force deserves to have generals who have credibility with our elected and appointed officials.”

“While I’m disappointed to leave under these circumstances, I wouldn’t want the outcome to be any different,” said Slife. “I wish the President, the Secretary, and the Airmen of the USAF the very best as they serve our nation in challenging times.”

The removal of some of the nation’s most senior military officers drew criticism from a former member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Our military has accepted the principle of civilian control of the military for 236 years. What may seem like an arcane principle to most Americans, is essential to the healthy civil-military relations that drive effective national security decision-making,” retired Gen. George Casey, a former Army Chief of Staff told ABC News in a statement.

“Firing officers for following the directives of the previous civilian leadership of the Department of Defense will undermine that principle and is completely unnecessary. Change the policy, not the people,” he added.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee thanked Brown “for his decades of honorable service to our nation” and expressed confidence that “Hegseth and President Trump will select a qualified and capable successor for the critical position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said he was “troubled by the nature of these dismissals” and said they appear “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.”

Brown was nominated to be the first Black chief of staff for the Air Force by Trump during his first term, in early 2020.

However, he received criticism from Hegseth in the leadup to his confirmation as defense secretary, as well as from Trump following his 2024 election win.

Both Brown and Franchetti’s names appeared on a list circulating through Republican offices in Congress of top Pentagon officials that Hegseth was said to be considering having removed from their posts.

“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said in a November appearance on the “Shawn Ryan Show.”

“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.”

“We’ll never know, but always doubt — which on its face seems unfair to C.Q.,” he wrote in his book “War on Warriors.” “But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it really doesn’t much matter.”

Hegseth also called into question Franchetti’s qualifications to be the Navy’s top Admiral.

In the same book he wrote: “If naval operations suffer, at least we can hold our heads high. Because at least we have another first! The first female member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — hooray.”