President Donald Trump announced Friday night that he had fired Gen. C.Q. Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and intends to nominate recently retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine” to be his successor.
Trump did not provide a reason for why he was removing Brown from his position, the first time that the nation’s top military officer has been removed so early into what is supposed to be a four-year term.
“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.
“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.
“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.”
Caine recently 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 was the Central Intelligence Agency’s Associate Director for Military Affairs.
Trump also said he had directed Hegseth “to solicit nominations for five additional high-level positions, which will be announced soon..” Defense Secretary Hegseth later said in a statement that he would request nominations to replace Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Chief of Naval Operations; 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.
Brown was nominated to be the first Black chief of staff for the Air Force by President Donald 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.
Trump as president has the authority to remove generals and senior officers from their positions and reassign then, but if forced out of a role, officers may not find another opening available to them.
Brown’s removal comes after it was that he and Franchetti, chief of naval operations, were on a list circulating through Republican offices in Congress of top Pentagon officials set to be removed from office.
“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.”
In his book, Hegseth doubted whether Brown earned his promotion to his post.
“We’ll never know, but always doubt — which on its face seems unfair to C.Q.,” he wrote. “But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it really doesn’t much matter.”
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