US President Donald Trump has fired Force General CQ Brown as chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff as part of a wider shake-up of top military leadership.
“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 his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
The US president did not provide a reason for dismissing Brown with immediate effect.
The president announced that he would nominate retired former Lieutenant General Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking tradition by pulling someone out of retirement to become the top military officer.
But Brown, a former fighter pilot who has held commands in the Middle East and Asia and the second Black officer to take the position, had come under fire previously after his public support for Black Lives Matter in the wake of the police killing of Black man George Floyd, making him fodder for the administration’s fight against “woke culture” and the push for diversity.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had previously suggested that Brown had got the position because he was Black.
Along with Brown’s firing, Hegseth announced that Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti and Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force General Jim Slife were also being let go.
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