Purge of the uniformed service chiefs: Brown, Franchetti, and Slife removed in one night

Editor's note: reporting documents the firings as a political loyalty purge, but the removals were within the president's authority and no official finding establishes a retaliatory purpose.

On February 21, 2025, Trump announced on Truth Social that he had fired Gen. C.Q. Brown, the second Black officer to serve as Joint Chiefs chairman, whose four-year term ran to September 2027. Minutes later Hegseth said he was removing Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service, and Air Force Vice Chief Gen. James Slife, and requesting nominations for the three service judge advocates general (documented separately at PRG-06). It was the first time two sitting members of the Joint Chiefs were dismissed at once.

No misconduct was cited. Brown and Franchetti had appeared on a list of officers circulated among congressional Republicans that Hegseth was said to be weighing for removal, and before his confirmation Hegseth had said publicly that 'you've got to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs' and that any general 'involved in any of the DEI woke' agenda 'has got to go.' Lawmakers of both parties had written to Hegseth that same morning asking for more transparency to keep officer removals apolitical.

The president has clear authority to remove and reassign senior officers, and several Republicans defended the move as within his prerogative, with commentators describing the removals as historic but legal. Critics framed them differently. Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, called the firings 'part of a broader, premeditated campaign by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth to purge talented officers for politically charged reasons' and warned against 'firing uniformed leaders as a type of political loyalty test.' Trump's nominee to succeed Brown, retired Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, did not hold the posts the chairmanship statute ordinarily requires, necessitating a waiver.