US President Donald Trump dismissed Air Force General CQ Brown Jr. on Friday as president of the joint chiefs of staff, stretching a fighter pilot and a respected officer while the administration makes radical changes to the best military ranks.
The eviction of Brown, only the second black general to serve as president, is sure to send shock waves through the Pentagon. His 16 months in work had been consumed by the war in Ukraine and the conflict extended to the Middle East.
“I would like to thank Brown General Charles ‘CQ’ for his more than 40 years of service to our country, including as the current president of joint staff chiefs. He is a good gentleman and an exceptional leader, And I wish a great future for him and his family, “Trump posted on social networks.
The public support of Brown to Black Lives Matter after the murder of the police of George Floyd had made him fodder for the wars of the administration against the “alarm clock” in the army, and the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, previously hypothesized that Brown may have the job because of his race.
Its evidence is the last upheaval of the Pentagon, which plans to reduce 5,400 civilian probation workers from next week and to identify $ 50 billion in programs that could be reduced next year to redirect savings to finance Trump’s priorities.
Trump said he was the Lieutenant-General of the Air Force, Dan “Razin” Caine, being the next president. Caine is an F-16 pilot in a career that served in active service and in the National Guard, and has recently been associate director of CIA military affairs, according to his military biography.
Caine’s military service includes combat roles in Iraq, publications and special operations positions in some of the Pentagon’s most classified special access programs.
However, he did not have key missions identified in law as prerequisites for the post, in particular as vice-president, combat commander or head of services. This requirement could be canceled if the “president determines that such an action is necessary in the national interest”.
No more pentagon shots
Hegseth, in a press release praising both Caine and Brown, announced the dismissals of two additional higher officers: the head of naval operations ADM. Lisa Franchetti and Vice-Chief of General of Air Force Jim Slife.
Franchetti becomes the second best military officer to be dismissed by the Trump administration. Trump dismissed the Coast Guard Commander Linda Fagan one day after taking an oath.
Surface war officer, Franchetti ordered at all levels, towards the 6th American fleet and the American naval forces in Korea. She was the second woman to have been promoted to the Admiral Four Étoiles, and she made several deployments, notably as commander of a naval destroyer and two stays as commander of the group of airplane strikers.
Slife directed Air Force Special Operations Command before becoming the vice-chief of the service and had deployed in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
He told the Associated Press on Friday: “The president and the defense secretary deserve to have generals in whom they trust and the force deserves to have generals who have credibility with our elected officials and appointed. Although I am disappointed to leave in these circumstances, I would not want the result to be different.
Trump said his executive authority in a much stronger manner during his second term, removing most officials from the Biden administration, even if many of these positions are supposed to report from one administration to another.
The shooting follows days of speculation
Trump acted despite the support of Brown among the key members of the Congress and an apparently friendly meeting with him in mid-December, when the two were sitting side by side for a while in the Navy Army Football match .
The dismissal follows days of speculation after a list of officers to fire, including Brown, was broadcast on Capitol Hill – but was notably sent via any official notification to one or the other Republican Presidents of the Chamber or the Senate armed services committees.
Senator Roger Wicker, president of the GOP of the Senate Armed Services Committee, did not mention the name of Caine in a statement on Friday.
“I thank President Brown for his decades of honorable services to our nation,” Wicker said. “I am convinced that secretary Hegseth and President Trump will select a qualified and competent successor for the critical post of the president of the joint staff chiefs.”
Congress Democratic leaders have called layoffs as a direct attempt to politicize the army.
“A professional and apolitical army which is subject to the civil government and supports the Constitution rather than a political party is essential to the survival of our democracy,” said Rhode Senator Island Jack Reed, member of the Senate Armed Services Committee said the senator of Rhode Island in a statement on Friday evening.
“For the good of our troops and the well -being of all American leaders, in particular the Republicans of the Senate – must defend this lasting principle against corrosive attempts to redo the army in partisan force.”
Brown was likely to discuss the breed
Brown’s future was questioned at the confirmation hearing for HegSeth last month. When asked if he would dismiss Brown, Hegseth replied: “Each higher officer will be examined according to meritocracy, standards, letters and commitment to the legitimate orders which will be given to them.”
Hegseth had already targeted Brown. “First of all, you owe fire, you know, you have to shoot the president of Joint Chiefs,” he categorically said in a podcast in November. And in one of his books, he wondered if Brown had obtained the post because he was black.
Brown, who spent Friday to visit troops on the American-Mexican border, drew attention to himself for having spoken of the death of George Floyd in 2020. Although he knew that it was risky, -He said, discussions with his wife and sons on the convinced murder he needed to say something.
It has been 30 years since Colin Powell became the first black president, serving from 1989 to 1993. While African-Americans represented 17.2% of the 1.3 million soldiers in active service, only 9% of officers were black, According to a 2021 report from the Ministry of Defense.
Brown’s service as a president coincided with Lloyd Austin’s mandate as a defense secretary, the first time in history that the people of the two roles were black.
