DEVELOPING: President Donald Trump fires Gen. CQ Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Yesterday, ABC News reported: Joint Chiefs Chairman Brown on list to possibly be removed from post by Hegseth.
Gen. C.Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s top admiral, are on the list of general officers provided to Congress this week whom Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could fire or remove from their current jobs, according to two U.S. officials.
Spokesmen for both Brown and Franchetti declined to comment. CNN was first to report their names were on the list for possible removal.
“We are aware of the reports but have nothing to add,” the spokesman for Franchetti told ABC News.
Brown serves as the president’s top military adviser and has been chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff since October 2023, his four-year tenure is supposed to end in 2027.
Franchetti has been the chief of naval operations since November 2023.
The president has the authority to remove any general or senior officer from their current position and reassign them, should they refuse a request to resign. Three- and four-star generals or admirals only hold those ranks while in certain senior leadership roles. If forced out of a current role, there might not be another opening available for them, and such relief of authority is generally a career-ender.
Both officers had been criticized by Hegseth prior to his becoming defense secretary during the Trump administration.
“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 June of 2020, Brown shot a video in support of George Floyd and those rioting in his name:
General CQ Brown, then the Air Force chief of staff & now the successor to Milley as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, in June 2020 speaking about George Floyd amidst the violent protests & riots: “Many of you may be wondering what I’m thinking about the current events surrounding… pic.twitter.com/bDe7hV0Phf
— Jerry Dunleavy IV 🇺🇸 (@JerryDunleavy) November 27, 2024
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that “Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan ‘Razin’ Caine will be nominated to be the next chairman. Trump said: ‘General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience,’ Trump said.”
UPDATE: Hegseth is calling for Franchetti to be sacked as well:
