Democrats are slamming the Trump administration after firing the country’s senior military officer as part of a major shake-up at the Pentagon on Friday night, alleging that the move was politically motivated.
President Donald Trump announced Friday night he fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the now-former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, while Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth dismissed five other leaders from the Pentagon.The president said he will nominate Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to the Joint Chiefs of Staff position, which will require senate confirmation.
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Trump announced his decision to fire General Brown in a message on Truth Social, which reflected his belief that the Biden administration was too focused on diversity initiatives and passed over qualified nominees in the process.
“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 wrote in the post.
Hegseth had previously said General Brown should be dismissed because of his “woke” focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the military.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services 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.”
Hegseth fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead the Navy; Gen. James Slife, the vice chief of the Air Force; and the top lawyers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. In response to the purge, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said “Trump and his loyalists have continued to attack these brave men and women simply because they do not look like them.”
“Hegseth has suggested that Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti was only promoted because she is a woman—a suggestion that blatantly disregards her 20 years of operational experience and the fact she has commanded at every level and deployed in every Fleet,” Crockett said in a statement.
“Bigoted statements such as this divisively— and, without evidence—suggest that a servicemembers’ race, religion, sex, or gender identity erode military readiness. These suggestions could not be further from the truth,” she added.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who served as a Navy combat pilot and a NASA astronaut, said Trump purged “decades of experience from the highest ranks of our military for no good reason.”
“This is disrespectful to the service and sacrifice of everyone who’s put their life on the line for our country,” he wrote in a post on X. ”The military must be above politics.”
General CQ Brown is a dedicated military officer, combat veteran and was a very effective Chaiman of the Joint Chiefs. Tonight, Trump is purging decades of experience from the highest ranks of our military for no good reason. This is disrespectful to the service and sacrifice of…
— Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) February 22, 2025
The firings came after a group of six bipartisan House lawmakers with experience in the military wrote a letter to Hegseth about his reported plans to dismiss top generals and flag officers on Friday.
“There are valid reasons to remove a general or flag officer, but there must be clear, transparent, and apolitical criteria and processes associated with any such dismissal,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter was signed by Reps. Don Bacon (R-NE), Seth Moulton (D-MA), CHrissy Houlahan (D-OA), Jason Crow (D-CO), Mikie Sherill (D-NJ) and Jared Golden (D-ME), all members of the House Armed Services Committee.
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They asked Hegseth to unveil the process by which the general and flag officers are being evaluated for dismissal, how the officers were nominated for review and which elements of an officer’s written record will be reviewed.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), 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.”
