WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending President Donald Trump ‘s firing of the nation’s senior military officer and a wave of dismissals at the Pentagon, insisting that they weren’t unusual despite accusations that the new administration is injecting politics into the military.
“Nothing about this is unprecedented,” Hegseth told “Fox News Sunday” about Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. being dismissed Friday night as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “The president deserves to pick his key national security advisory team.”
Hegseth said “there are lots of presidents who made changes” citing former commanders in chief from Franklin D. Roosevelt to George H.W. Bush to Barack Obama who the defense secretary said “fired or dismissed hundreds” of military officials.
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Months into his first term, Obama relieved Army Gen. David McKiernan as the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, making him the first wartime commander to be dismissed since Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Trump, however, vowed while running for his second term to eradicate “woke” ideologies from the military and moving swiftly to dismiss so many top leaders means keeping a campaign promise.
Brown was just the second Black general to serve as chairman. His 16 months in the post were consumed with the war in Ukraine and the expanded conflict in the Middle East.
Trump nominated retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next chairman.
Hegseth said Friday’s dismissals affected six three- and four-star generals and were “a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take.”
He called Brown “honorable” but said he is “not the right man for the moment.” Of Caine, he said that Trump “respects leaders who untie the hands of war fighters in a very dangerous world.”
Retired Gen. George Casey, commander of U.S. and multinational forces in Iraq from 2004 to 2007 under Republican President George W. Bush, called the firings “extremely destabilizing.” He also noted that the Trump administration can change Pentagon policy without changing personnel, but added, that what happened is “”within the president’s prerogative.”
“That’s his prerogative,” Casey told ABC’s “This Week.” “He is the commander in chief of the armed forces.”
Still, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee told ABC that the firings were “completely unjustified” and that “apparently, what Trump and Hegseth are trying to do is to politicize the Department of Defense.”
Hegseth was also asked on Fox News about officials potentially compiling lists of more defense officials they plan to fire. He said there was no list but suggested that more dismissals could indeed be coming.
“We have a very keen eye towards military leadership and their willingness to follow lawful order,” Hegseth said. “Joe Biden gave lawful orders. A lot of them are really bad” and that things like COVID vaccine mandates “eroded” the military ideologically
“President Trump has given another set of lawful orders and they will be followed,” the defense secretary said. “If they’re not followed then those officers will find the door.”
