Trump replaces a top military commander amid widespread shakeup

Akayla Gardner and Roxana Tiron, Bloomberg News on Feb 21, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Charles Q. Brown, as part of a broader shakeup of top military officers on Friday night.

Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform Friday night, announced that Brown, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer who was appointed by President Joe Biden, was being replaced. In his place, Trump nominated Air Force Lieutenant General Dan Caine. Brown’s four-year term was not set to expire until 2027.

“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,” Trump said. “But not anymore!”

Shortly after Trump’s post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that he wanted to replace Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the chief of Naval Operations, and General James Slife, the Air Force vice chief of staff.

The move was widely expected given that Brown’s name appeared on an informal list of military officers, seen by Bloomberg Government, that Hegseth was eyeing to remove. Hegseth had previously said Brown, who was the second Black person to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, needed to be fired.

“You’ve got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, any general that was involved, admiral or whatever, anyone that was involved in any of the DEI, woke shi* — has got to go,” he told conservative podcast host Shawn Ryan before Trump’s November election victory.