Democrat lawmakers and former national security leaders are furious over President Trump’s Friday night massacre of top Pentagon leadership, which they warned was a dangerous polarization of the military at a time of major geopolitical turmoil.
The firing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., as well as five other top defense officials, was met with a slew of backlash from those who say the decision will have a chilling effect on military leadership, which is already bracing for mass firings of civilian employees and an expected overhaul of defense budgets.
“Donald Trump’s quest for power is endangering our military,” Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.), wrote in an op-ed published by The Washington Post.
“The implications for our national security cannot be overstated. A clear message is being sent to military leaders: Failure to demonstrate personal and political loyalty to Trump could result in retribution, even after decades of honorable service,” said Reed, himself a former Army paratrooper.
Senior panel member Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), called Trump’s decision “incredibly reckless” and one that “dangerously politicizes our military and undermines our national security, military readiness, and the rule of law, ultimately making Americans less safe.”
“The dismissals reveal the President’s true intention – installing a group of ‘yes men’ with fealty to him and not the Constitution or the American people,” she said in a statement.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), also a member of the committee, said the dismissals came “without cause out of pure pettiness.”
“Instead of focusing on steps to ensure our military remains the most lethal in the world in the face of global threats, including from China, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are taking steps that make Americans less safe,” he said in a statement Saturday.
And Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who prior to the firings led a group of five other former-service members-turned congressmen in a letter demanding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth justify any dismissals, said Trump’s decision was dangerous.
“Dictators or wannabe kings fire generals who don’t agree with their politics,” he said in a statement on X. “What Trump and Hegseth are doing is un-American, unpatriotic. It’s [the] definition of politicizing our military.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Chair Sen. Roger Wicker issued a terse statement on Brown’s firing, thanking the general “for his decades of honorable service to our nation.” He added that he was “confident Secretary Hegseth and President Trump will select a qualified and capable successor for the critical position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.“
Brown’s firing, which became public while he was in Texas visiting troops on the U.S.-Mexico border, was revealed in a Trump Truth Social post Friday evening. In Brown’s place, Trump will nominate venture capitalist and retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine.
Less than an hour later, Hegseth said in a statement that he is “requesting nominations” for replacements for Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti – the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs – and Air Force Vice Chief Gen. James Slife, revealing that they too would be axed.
Hegseth also said he was looking for new nominations for the Army, Navy and Air Force’s top lawyers.
Neither man offered concrete justification for the firings, with Hegseth only saying it was meant to put in place “new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars.”
But Trump while on the campaign trail last year often spoke of firing “woke” generals, and Hegseth – who has railed against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the military – prior to becoming Pentagon chief had on numerous occasions expressed his skepticism of Brown.
Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, in November said on a podcast that Brown should be fired over the military’s DEI efforts. And in his 2024 book “The War on Warriors,” Hegseth questioned whether Brown would have gotten the job as a top military official if he were not Black.
Several Trump allies, including Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), lauded the dismissals as a further dismantling of what they believe is a misguided view on diversity in the military.
“Making our military great again means destroying wokeness and firing the generals that promoted it,” Banks, a Senate Armed Services Committee member, posted to X. “We must refocus on lethality. President Trump is right to clean house!”
A historic pick to lead the Joint Chiefs, Brown had initially been tapped by Trump in 2020 to become the Air Force’s chief of staff. President Biden then chose Brown as the highest military officer in 2023, making him just the second Black chair to serve.
Brown would have stayed through September 2027, with those in his role typically serving four-year terms that span across Democrat and Republican administrations. Though Trump did have the authority to remove him, the decision reveals a distrust of the current group of military leaders and signals that anyone in the Pentagon can be fired at any time.
Count Every Hero, a nonpartisan group of retired service secretaries and officers, swiftly issued a letter to Wicker stating their “deep concern” about the dismissals, which they said would disrupt the chain of command, diminish morale, and exacerbate the challenges facing the U.S. military at a time of significant international turbulence.
“Effective defense policy requires open, honest communication between senior military and civilian leadership,” they wrote. “These unjustified firings will have a chilling effect on our senior military leadership, discouraging them from providing the candid military advice necessary for sound strategic decisions.”
The bi-partisan group National Security Leaders for America, a group of former military and civilian leaders, also condemned the purge, saying it will weaken the force and embolden U.S. enemies.
“[It] will force current and future military leaders to consider whether following a lawful order today will get them fired by a future president, creating immense tension in the chain of command,” they said in a statement. “Worse yet, the removal of these senior leaders tells everyone in our military, and everyone who one day wants to serve their country, that merit and character matter less than partisanship.”
Lawmakers expressed particular concern over the firings of the Army, Air Force and Navy’s nonpartisan attorneys – who also serve continuously in both Republican and Democratic administrations – as a sign Trump seeks to bend military law to his will.
“It’s clear these individuals were singled out to ensure their successors understood that only the President’s expansive and legally dubious interpretations of military law would be tolerated,” Hirono said. “Ultimately, these dismissals will have a chilling effect on the willingness of uniformed attorneys to speak truth to power, undermining the rule of law.”
And Reed called it an “unprecedented and explicit move to install officers who will yield to the president’s interpretation of the law.”
“The firings are sure to create a dangerous ripple up and down the ranks. Leaders might hesitate to refuse illegal orders, speak their minds about best practices or call out abuses of power,” Reed said.
Lawmakers will now have to contend with Trump’s decision to replace Brown with Caine, who is retired and will require a waiver to serve. While it is not unheard of for a former officer to be pulled from retirement, a 3-star general has never been nominated as Joint Chiefs chair.
“Firing CQ Brown as joint chiefs chair is completely unjustified,” House Armed Services ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said in an X post. “Smart, competent leader to be replaced by a retired 3 star? More weakening of America.”
