US President-elect Donald Trump’s ‘transition team’ is drawing up a list of officers to be fired, which could include members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two sources familiar with the transition plans told Reuters.
The agency notes that this would be an ‘unprecedented shake-up at the Pentagon’: the Joint Chiefs of Staff includes the top officers of the US military, as well as the heads of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, National Guard and Space Force.
‘The chiefs of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all deputy chiefs of staff will be fired immediately,’ one Reuters source said, noting that this was still only preliminary planning.
The agency’s second source said officers associated with the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2019-2023), General Mark Milley, would be the first to be fired. He has repeatedly criticised Trump and recently called him a ‘fascist to the core’.
‘Every single person who has been promoted and appointed by Milley will be gone. There’s a very detailed list of everybody who was associated with Millie. And they will all go,’ the agency’s interlocutor said.
Reuters’ first source questioned the appropriateness of such a “mass firing” of the Pentagon, as did some current and former U.S. officials. The agency’s interlocutor also believes that it would be bureaucratically difficult to fire and replace a large number of senior US military officials. He suggested that such plans could be ‘bluster and posturing’ on the part of Trump’s allies. It is unclear, however, whether the incoming president himself would support the plan.
A second Reuters source suggests that Trump’s team believes it is necessary to cut the Nachstab Committee because of ‘perceived bureaucratic overreach,’ and that replacing them is not a big deal.
‘We have no shortage of people who are willing to be promoted,’ he added.
Trump’s campaign headquarters did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The list of officers to be fired will include Milley’s successor, current Air Force Gen Charles Brown, head of the Nachastaff Committee, one of the sources said. Brown is the first black man to be promoted to the rank of general in the U.S. Air Force and to hold such a position.
Trump’s nominee to head the Pentagon, veteran US National Guard broadcaster Peter Hegseth, wondered in his book whether Brown would have been given the job if he had not been black. Trump himself promised during the campaign to fire ‘sleepy generals’, referring to officers who are seen as promoting ‘diversity’ in the ranks at the expense of combat readiness.
The Wall Street Journal wrote the day before that Trump’s team was working on an executive order to establish a ‘military council’ of retired high-ranking military officers, empowered to review three- and four-star officers (lieutenant generals and generals) and recommend the removal of anyone deemed unfit for leadership, RBC recalls.
According to the draft decree, it would seek to peer-review candidates and focus on their ‘leadership abilities, strategic readiness, and commitment to military excellence.’ WSJ reported that if approved, the decree would reduce the procedure for dismissing high-ranking officers.
That said, the publication noted, as commander-in-chief, Trump would already be able to fire any officer at will, but presidents rarely do so for political reasons. However, the outside council will be able to bypass the usual system by ‘making it clear to the entire military that he intends to purge a number of generals and admirals.’