Dem
47
GOP
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Donald Trump has continued to remake the federal government in his image, such as it is. Although appointees to the Joint Chiefs of Staff usually serve the full terms to which they are confirmed, often spanning multiple presidential administrations, that is not the current president's style. And so, he and his organ grinder monkey, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, just fired a bunch of high-ranking officers. As per usual, you can tell that the moves are totally normal, totally unproblematic, by the fact that they were executed late on Friday night.
Far and away the most prominent person to lose their job is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. C.Q. Brown. He's a former fighter pilot, and has had a distinguished career in which he's been appointed to high commands by presidents of both parties. But he was put in place by Joe Biden, which is strike one, and he is too "woke," which is strike two. In this case, it's two strikes and you're out. We don't know exactly how one is deemed to be excessively "woke," but—just spitballing here—it might have to do with the fact that Brown is Black.
The white fellow that Trump has nominated as Brown's replacement is Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine (ret.). Caine was, at least until yesterday, working for a venture capital firm called Shield Capital. Caine is also a former fighter pilot, but has held no particularly prominent commands, having topped out as leader of the 113th Maintenance Group. In fact, Caine is not legally qualified to be Chair of the Joint Chiefs, as the U.S. Code says:
The president may appoint an officer as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff only if the officer has served as (A) the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; (B) the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, or the Chief of Space Operations; or (C) the commander of a unified or specified combatant command.
Caine has held none of these positions and, indeed, has never occupied a job within 3-4 rungs on the ladder of any of them. That said, Congress also granted itself the power to waive the above law, and is expected to do so here. One wonders why they even bother with these restrictions, since they always end up waiving them.
So, what might have caused Trump to pick someone who is not only unqualified, but also retired, and relatively obscure (as far as three-star generals go)? Well—and again, just spitballing here—it could have to do with an encounter that Trump had with Caine back in 2019. According to a story Trump has told many times, Caine told him: "I love you, sir. I think you're great, sir. I'll kill for you, sir." And then, in a pretty serious violation of military protocol, Caine donned a MAGA hat.
We recognize that Trump sometimes tells lies. However, when he's making up stories out of thin air, he is usually very vague, saying things like "I talked to someone" or "Some people say." He isn't usually this specific. It's also possible that some parts of the story are basically true, but others are in error (say, the MAGA hat part). However, what is beyond question is that, whatever did or did not happen, Trump most certainly believes he's found a loyal lackey to run the Joint Chiefs.
Also fired last night were Air Force Vice Chief of Staff James C. "Jim" Slife; Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti; and the Judge Advocates General for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The reason given, in all cases, was "wokeness." Again, we don't know exactly what that means, though it is the case that the firings resulted in the two highest-ranking women in the U.S. armed forces (Franchetti, Navy JAG Lia M. Reynolds) being relieved of their jobs.
Cashiering so many high-ranking military officers at once is unprecedented, and Hegseth has suggested that more removals are coming. Whatever the plan here might be, one cannot feel good about it. (Z)