By TARA COPP and LOLITA C. BALDOR | Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump abruptly fired Air Drive Gen. CQ Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees on Friday, sidelining a history-making fighter pilot and revered officer as a part of a marketing campaign to rid the army of leaders who help variety and fairness within the ranks.
The ouster of Brown, solely the second Black normal to function chairman, is certain to ship shock waves by means of the Pentagon. His 16 months within the job had been consumed with the struggle in Ukraine and the expanded battle within the Center East.
“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. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump says he’s nominating Air Drive Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to be the subsequent chairman. Caine is a profession F-16 pilot who served on lively responsibility and within the Nationwide Guard, and had most just lately served because the affiliate director for army affairs on the CIA, based on his official army biography.
Brown had spent the day on the U.S.-Mexico border, assessing the army’s speedy buildup of forces to satisfy Trump’s government order on countering unlawful immigration.
Trump acted regardless of help for Brown amongst key members of Congress and a seemingly pleasant assembly with him in mid-December, when the 2 have been seated subsequent to one another for a time on the Military-Navy soccer recreation. Brown had been assembly repeatedly with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, who took excessive Pentagon job simply 4 weeks in the past.
However Brown’s future was referred to as into query through the Senate Armed Companies Committee’s affirmation listening to for Hegseth final month. Requested if he would fireplace Brown, Hegseth responded bluntly, “Every single senior officer will be reviewed based on meritocracy, standards, lethality and commitment to lawful orders they will be given.”
Hegseth has embraced Trump’s effort to finish packages that promote variety, fairness and inclusion within the ranks and fireplace those that mirror these values.
Hegseth had beforehand taken purpose at Brown. “First of all, you gotta fire, you know, you gotta fire the chairman of Joint Chiefs,” he stated flatly in a podcast in November. And in one in every of his books, he questioned whether or not Brown received the job as a result of he was Black.
“Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt — which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn’t really much matter,” Hegseth wrote.
As he walked into the Pentagon on his first day as protection chief on Jan. 27, nevertheless, Hegseth was requested instantly if he deliberate to fireplace Brown.
“I’m standing with him right now,” stated Hegseth, patting Brown on the again as they headed into the constructing. “Look forward to working with him.”
In his second time period, Trump has asserted his government authority in a a lot stronger method and eliminated most carryover officers from President Joe Biden’s time period, although in typical transitions, lots of these positions are supposed to carry over independently from one administration to the subsequent.
A profession F-16 fighter pilot with greater than 3,000 flight hours and command expertise in any respect ranges, Brown is named a relaxed however decided chief with a observe document for driving institutional change. His choice as chairman was seen as key to propelling the army from twenty years of struggle within the Center East to a concentrate on making ready for and deterring potential battle with China.
Simply previous to his Senate affirmation vote in June 2020 to grow to be chief of the Air Drive, Brown gained some consideration when he spoke out on the police killing of George Floyd the month earlier than. Whereas he knew it was dangerous, he stated, discussions together with his spouse and sons concerning the killing satisfied him he wanted to say one thing.
As protests roiled the nation, Brown posted a video message to the Air Drive titled, “Here’s What I’m Thinking About.” He described the pressures that got here with being one of many few Black males in his unit. He recalled pushing himself “to perform error-free” as a pilot and officer his complete life, however nonetheless dealing with bias. He stated he’d been questioned about his credentials, even when he wore the identical flight swimsuit and wings as each different pilot.
“I’m thinking about my mentors, and how I rarely had a mentor that looked like me,” Brown stated within the video. “I’m thinking about how my nomination provides some hope, but also comes with a heavy burden — I can’t fix centuries of racism in our country, nor can I fix decades of discrimination that may have impacted members of our Air Force.”
Brown was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate with a vote of 98-0. Not lengthy afterward, his identify started to floor because the seemingly successor to Gen. Mark Milley, who was set to retire as chairman.
Brown’s path to the chairmanship was troubled — he was among the many greater than 260 senior army officers whose nominations have been stalled for months by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. Tuberville precipitated ire within the Senate and organizational juggling within the Pentagon when he blocked the confirmations in protest over a division coverage that paid for journey when a service member needed to exit of state to get an abortion or different reproductive care.
However when the Senate vote was lastly taken in September 2023, Brown simply was confirmed by a vote of 89-8.
As chairman, Brown spent a lot of his time on the wars in Ukraine and the Center East, serving to to find out what army help to ship to Kyiv and coordinating help for Israel because it battled Hamas and fought off a number of important assaults from Iran.
Born in San Antonio, Texas, Brown is from a household of Military troopers. His grandfather led a segregated Military unit in World Battle II and his father was an artillery officer and Vietnam Battle veteran. Brown grew up on a number of army bases, which helped instill in him a way of mission.
It had been 30 years since Colin Powell turned the primary Black chairman, serving from 1989 to 1993. However whereas African People made up 17.2% of the 1.3 million active-duty service members, solely 9% of officers have been Black, based on a 2021 Protection Division report.
Brown’s service as chairman made historical past in that this was the primary time that each the protection secretary, Lloyd Austin, and the Joint Chiefs chairman have been Black.
