Strategic Affairs no. 45

Trump Fires the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

Strategic Affairs no. 45

Trump Fires the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs

February 25, 2025

I spent 11 years in the Pentagon, and for two of them I was a Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. It was a fascinating vantage point. Two decades have passed, but the lessons of those years reverberate through today’s headlines.

The Chairman is the only military officer who sits where national strategy, policy, and politics come together. He is immersed in all those areas but must remain focused on giving the best military advice. As the senior-most officer in the Armed Forces, he --- and so far, they have only been men --- commands nothing but influences everything in the U.S. Armed Forces.

The Chairman, by law, was once the first among equal Chiefs, but since 1986, his status, independence, and responsibilities have grown. His main job is to be the principal military advisor to the President, the Secretary, and the National Security Council. He sits on the Principals’ Committee of the National Security Council. The Chairman is not in the chain of command, which runs from the President to the Secretary to the combatant commanders in the field. At the same time, the Chairman is de facto spokesman for the Chiefs and the Combatant Commanders. The Chairman normally serves a four-year term, but Presidents can and have made exceptions to that rule.

Secretaries of Defense (SECDEFs) and Presidents routinely communicate with fleet or field commands through the Chairman and the Joint Staff. The Chairman also leads the Joint Staff, which, by law, is the only military staff the Secretary of Defense can have. When Congress has a question about the Armed Forces, it is the Chairman that they want to hear from. While a Chairman and a SECDEF may have personal differences, they quickly learn that when they act together in the Interagency arena or Congress, they are a powerful team.

Last Friday, Team Trump fired three four-star officers: the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, GEN CQ Brown, the Chief of Naval Operations, ADM Lisa Franchetti, and the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, GEN James Slife. None were fired for cause. They were not right for the moment, the SECDEF later noted. It is important to note that these firings are legal, even if very unusual.

The fired four-star officers were identified with DEI programs, but each was also highly experienced in commanding line units in his or her respective service. The Chairman, for example, had commanded all U.S. Air Force elements in the Middle East and later, the Far East. Admiral Franchetti had commanded the Sixth Fleet. All of those fired had significant combat experience.

The Chairman was a black officer. The CNO was the only female member of the Joint Chiefs. This lead to accusations of bias, which were denied by the Pentagon and White House. These denials, however, stood in front of the Administration’s anti-DEI policy.

The named replacement for the Chairman is a retired Air Force National Guard Lieutenant General John Dan “ Razin’ ” Caine. Caine impressed Trump in Iraq where he was a deputy commander of the special operations component of Central Command. Caine has had significant time on active duty, but he has not had senior commands, as GEN Brown has, and has less combat flying hours than GEN Brown did. Caine’s most recent job was Associate Director of CIA for Military Affairs, a very important job, but not a senior command. He retired from that position in 2024.

Several pundits noted that with these firings, a highly experienced black man has been replaced in a top job by a significantly less experienced white man. In any case, the Chairman-select will have an interesting hearing, one that will have to dive deeply into his civilian job as a “serial entrepreneur and investor,” as noted in the New York Times.

Caine will need a waiver before he is confirmed. The law states that to be qualified to be Chairman, the officer must be a four-star in the Regular component, * a former service chief, or a former combatant commander, or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. (This old soldier thinks that that’s a lot to waiver, but I am told I am stuck in the past. Experience and demonstrated competence are so 2024.)

Compounding all these changes, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, fired, without naming them, the top Judge Advocates General in the Uniformed Services: Army LTG Joseph B Berger III, RADM Lia M. Reynolds, and Air Force LTG Charles Plummer. In his published writings, the SECDEF had previously complained about military lawyers being overly legalistic and constraining “the warriors.” He called them “JAGOFFs” and also connected them in his published work with the prosecution of two accused war criminal/warriors --- a Navy Chief and an Army Lieutenant --- that he successfully lobbied to have pardoned.

Rosa Brooks, Georgetown Law professor and security expert, opined on X (formerly, Twitter) that firing the top lawyers “is what you do when you’re planning to break the law: You get rid of any lawyers who might try to slow you down.” The SECDEF, of course, denied this was the reason.

The status of JAGs and the Chiefs are intimately connected. The service Judge Advocate Generals are charged with giving non-partisan, independent advice to the Chiefs. They are among the nation’s greatest experts on the law of warfare and the various Geneva Conventions. They have grown up working the complexities of the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, the body of law that governs all service members at home and abroad. Civilian officials in the Pentagon also have civilian lawyers who are empowered to work policy and political issues, ** but JAG officers advise on the law from a purely legal standpoint. Commanders or Service Chiefs then decide on the best course of action.

It will be interesting to see what officers are recommended to replace these three experienced service JAGs. SECDEF may have to reach down to lower ranks to find military lawyers who can satisfy MAGA sensibilities.

These firings by President Trump and SECDEF Hegseth politicize the military by attempting to hire politically acceptable four-stars and senior lawyers to be the arbiters of the law. This is a naked attempt by Trump and Hegseth to have “their” generals and lawyers, treating senior officers as political appointees. It is another ill-considered swipe at DEI, and another act of disrespect toward the personnel and institutions of government.

The Chairman and the Joint Chiefs of Staff are the most important military people in the world. They must remain professional and non-political. Presidents should not have “their” generals or uniformed lawyers. They need the best and most experienced professionals that a career of selfless service can provide. Team Trump will find this out the hard way.

Notes

*I am not clear what “Regular” means in terms of service components. LTG ret Caine had significant time on active duty while serving in the National Guard. It is not clear in what component he retired.

**For a fuller explanation of JAGs and civilian lawyers, see MG ret Charlie Dunlap, USAF, “Is Independent, Non-partisan Legal Advice from Military Lawyers on the Chopping Block,” Lawfire, February 22, 2025, at https://sites.duke.edu/lawfire/2025/02/22/is-independent-nonpartisan-legal-advice-from-military-lawyers-on-the-chopping-block/ . Professor Dunlap of Duke Law School is a former TJAG of the Air Force.

Joseph J Collins is a retired Army Colonel and civil servant. He served 46 years in the Department of Defense, including time as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Stability Operations. He taught at West Point, Columbia, Georgetown, and the National War College.