Members of President-elect Donald Trump's transition team are drawing up a list of military officers to be fired, potentially to include the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two sources said, in what would be an unprecedented shakeup at the Pentagon.
The planning for the firings is at an early stage after Trump's Nov 5 election victory and could change as Trump's administration takes shape, said the sources, who are familiar with the Trump transition and requested anonymity to speak candidly about the plans.
One of the sources questioned the feasibility of a mass firing at the Pentagon.
It was also unclear if Trump himself would endorse the plan, although in the past he has railed extensively against defense leaders who have criticized him. Trump has also spoken during the campaign of firing "woke" generals and those responsible for the troubled 2021 pullout from Afghanistan.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The second source said the incoming administration would likely focus on U.S. military officers seen as connected to Mark Milley, Trump's former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Milley was quoted in the book "War" by Bob Woodward, which was published last month, calling Trump "fascist to the core" and Trump's allies have targeted him for perceived disloyalty to the former president.
"Every single person that was elevated and appointed by Milley will be gone," the second source said.
"There's a very detailed list of everybody that was affiliated with Milley. And they will all be gone."
The Joint Chiefs of Staff include the highest ranking officers in the U.S. military and comprise the heads of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, National Guard and Space Force.
The disclosure of plans to fire senior leaders of the U.S. armed forces comes a day after Trump picked as his defense secretary Pete Hegseth, a Fox News commentator and veteran who has signaled a willingness to clean house at the Pentagon.
"The next president of the United States needs to radically overhaul Pentagon senior leadership to make us ready to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. Lots of people need to be fired," Hegseth said in his 2024 book "The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free."
It is unclear if Hegseth's lack of management experience could complicate his Senate confirmation and if a more traditional alternative for the position would carry out such sweeping dismissals.
Hegseth has also taken aim at Milley's successor, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, asking whether he would have gotten the job if he were not Black.
"Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We'll never know, but always doubt - which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn't really much matter," he wrote.
The first source familiar with the transition planning said Brown would be among the many officers to leave.
"The chiefs of the Joint Chiefs and all the vice chiefs will be fired immediately," the source said, before noting that this was still only early planning.
Some current and former U.S. officials have played down the possibility of such a major shakeup, saying it would be unnecessary and disruptive at a time of global turmoil with wars raging in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The first source said that it would be difficult bureaucratically to fire and replace a large swath of senior U.S. military officials, suggesting the planning could be bluster and posturing by Trump allies.
But the second source suggested the Trump camp believed the Joint Chiefs of Staff needed to shrink due to perceived bureaucratic over-reach.
Such cuts could be endured in an organization the scale of the U.S. military, the source said.
"These people are not irreplaceable. They are very replaceable. And then the other thing too is there is no shortage of people that will step up," the source said.
"In World War Two, we were very rapidly appointing people in their 30s or people competent to be generals. And you know what? We won the war."
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
68 Comments
JJE
This is long overdue.
dagon
Purging of generals who give informed pushback is not fascism right?:MAGA
Who has more strategic foresight, Brown or Hegseth?
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/392248-man-sues-fox-friends-host-after-hes-struck-by-axe-on-set/
GBR48
Trump signed the deal surrendering Afghanistan to the Taliban. After pardoning himself, perhaps he could sack himself.
bass4funk
This is going to be my favorite part.
wallace
Trump’s Afghanistan withdrawal lead to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
bass4funk
No, it’s not because no one elected these “yes, men” to any executive position.
Hegseth
RichardPearce
Well, probably the Generals involved in/supporting the 'green military' projects (reducing fuel usage may simplify supply lines, but Drill Baby won't like it)
And the Generals involved in/supporting the 'inclusive military' efforts (yes, having your military include people like those entering basic training from top to bottom is good for morale, but TruMusk considers it immoral)
Anyone who has rooted out far right racist extremists under them will probably also find their names on the list.
Underworld
Petty personal grudges rather than making things better for people.
Welcome to the Trump presidency.
MAGA = My Angry Grudge Agenda
bass4funk
Yeah, uh, that’s funny coming from the left. The Dems had 4 years to make things better for the nation, but their petty sick obsession with Trump cost them everything, they have nothing now.
Smash it with a wrecking ball.
Underworld
bass4funk
And they did.
Nothing that I noticed.
bass4funk
What in the world are you talking about??
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/16/politics/afghanistan-joe-biden-donald-trump-kabul-politics/index.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-joe-biden-cpac-republicans-vladimir-putin-2022-2
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/biden-isnt-blameless-russias-invasion-ukraine-rcna22111
Peter Neil
don't underestimate the depth of military leaders who will not follow any illegal orders by a tinhorn draft dodger.
Dango bong
great news. fire them all! this is what the voters wanted
bass4funk
Like what? And why didn’t they win, if they did do such a good job? Take your time, you still have a bit of rope left.
Then you need to purchase a TV, read the paper or look at the internet
https://www.thewrap.com/msnbc-cnn-fox-news-ratings-after-trump-election/
bass4funk
Then they will be drummed out. Either they resign or they will be relieved from duty. No one elected these people to anything.
stormcrow
A convicted felon is making plans to burn the house down.
Sh1mon M4sada
Long overdue! FBI too.
The deep state is now openly embarrassing the Democrats image, destroying its brand, they (Dems) should thank Trump from the bottom of their heart for helping them (and democracy) to survive.
bass4funk
Yes, and the voters are giddy about it. I personally am.
Peter Neil
bass4funkToday 07:29 am JST
“Then they will be drummed out. Either they resign or they will be relieved from duty. No one elected these people to anything.”
what would anyone here who has never been in the military know? nothing.
and the fox news guy is being heralded as the least qualified nominee in the history of america.
the buyers remorse is going to be off the chart this time next year.
bass4funk
Again, no one elected them to the executive branch, I don’t care one iota what they think or want, they don’t like it, take off that uniform, but on a suit and declare your candidacy for public office.
Which makes him that much more qualified to clean out the old moldy establishment military officials that have become fossilized in the halls of the pentagon.
Doesn’t seem seem so, except for the libs.
geronimo2006
Hilarious. Hire some totally unqualified MAGA loyalist to fire people in government in order to promote MAGA loyalists. No competency required or even considered. No push back allowed. What a joke.
bass4funk
Yes, or should he appoint people that are against his agenda? That just makes no sense what you said, you hire and put people in place that agree with your agenda, common sense.
If that’s true then why are the left having a hissy panic attack?
The left can push back, they can try. Best of luck.
FizzBit
excellent news.
ok1517
Well, looking at things the way they are right now ....
.... Donald will appoint the most unqualified people and dump those who have the (military) knowledge!
Replacing 4 Star Generals with National Guard Majors, may I add they got that Major rank after 20 years of service - not an achievement at all!!
As long as they keep their mouth shut and obey what Donald tells 'em - they should have no problems!
V Campbell
Anybody in the Pentagon who put their hate of Trump above the safety and defense of America should be fired the first day. Their job was not to try to persuade politics, their job was to keep America safe. That's what Departments of Defense are supposed to do. The voters, despite 24-7 pressure from the corrupt American media, sided with Trump. The Department of Defense should be for the defense of America.
wtfjapan
WOW a convicted felon with a mugshot as presdient and his appointed US AG Gaetz also with a mugshot, being investigate for sex trafficing and under age sex, think they know better than the US military on national security . LOL
wtfjapan
Their job was not to try to persuade politics, their job was to keep America safe.
their job and oath is to the US constitution, not attacking Americans within America
bass4funk
We don’t know anything yet.
kohakuebisu
If Musk is going to reduce government spending, this is the place to start.
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/pentagon-audit-2666415734/
wtfjapan
should thank Trump from the bottom of their heart for helping them (and democracy) to survive.
project 2025 isnt democracy, its fascism, coming from the convicted felon that wants generals that are loyal to him not the US constitution. and magats still wonder why people call Trump, Hitler
Antiquesaving
I don't know much about Hegseth but I find it interesting how MSM were all making fun of him and his name (which is strange seeing they went crazy when people mispronounced Kamala) and how they all laugh at his being a FOX commentator but like in this article leave out he has received 2 bronze stars has a BA from Princeton and a Master's from Harvard (Masters of public policy).
No idea if he is a good choice but I am willing to bet he has a far better education than those laughing or criticizing him.
bass4funk
Yes
He should because the ones with so-called knowledge got us into constant wars and bad geopolitical decisions.
Again, you want to run for office, take off that military uniform or resign. Those are the only options these military officers have.
Yes and No, most of these people need to go. If you want to dismantle the deep state you need to get deep down to the root.
bass4funk
It’s not going to happen, relax.
Which makes zero sense, no correlation whatsoever
Blacklabel
great! There are consequences for what he did.
Tokyo Guy
don't know much about Hegseth but I find it interesting how MSM were all making fun of him and his name (which is strange seeing they went crazy when people mispronounced Kamala) and how they all laugh at his being a FOX commentator but like in this article leave out he has received 2 bronze stars has a BA from Princeton and a Master's from Harvard (Masters of public policy).
No idea if he is a good choice but I am willing to bet he has a far better education than those laughing or criticizing him.
There's been a lot of evidence recently that a high level education doesn't necessarily equate to a high level of morality...let alone common sense.
PTownsend
Cue music to play while the country's being driven over the cliff, Trump and his cult are doing what they've long proposed which is inflict as much damage to the US as is needed to make sure Trump spends zero time behind bars and is able to continuing grifting, along with his cult members. Trump has won the revolution, maybe not head chopping for his enemies within, perhaps a detention center followed by re-education camps, the despots in the axis of totalitarianism and the anti-Americans in the U S and around the world are grinning, thinking about all the things in the US Trump might put up for sale to the highest bidders. What side hustles will Trump have this time beyond selling pardons..
Antiquesaving
True, just look at spending over a billion dollars still ending up in the red and losing.
ArtistAtLarge
Only simpletons think it's easy to fire American generals and admirals.
JJE
Amusing to see the left defending a bunch of brass with scrambled eggs, petrified some might get fired. They are now passionate for that five-sided-fistagon in the main photo and the unending warmongering that went there in the Biden years.
PTownsend
By creating another government agency? How much will that cost, especially after Musk and his fellow nutjob partner partner take their shares and give some back to Trump.
bass4funk
Trump is that lifeline
Not sure what all that crap means, but the important thing is that we clean out the bureaucracy and the entrenched power structure that makes up the Pentagon.
No, but the Department of education should be abolished
Aka: Liberals, socialists, Marxists, Fascists and Communists
What?
dutch
Hegseth is another junkyard dog, Homerun appointee.
Hes on record saying women are NIOT suited for combat roles.
America's enemies are on notice. The US military will not be the embarrassing woke joke it is right now.
Tokyo Guy
No, but the Department of education should be abolished
As a matter of curiosity, with what, if anything, should it be replaced? I believe there are still parts of the USA, namely the east and west coasts in general, where it's considered a virtue to be intelligent.
Maybe they could have their own, independent department of education, and the rest of the country would be happy enough being homeschooled (either literally or euphemistically) by cousin Mary-Beth.
Antiquesaving
So let me guess, you and the rest of " the sky is falling" crowd are billionaires, right?
You and the rest have Harvard educations or equal, established multi billion dollars businesses, built cars and Rockets, and managed companies with several thousands of employees, right?
browny1
Heh, Heh.
This is going to be enjoyable. Not for the same reasons noted by some supporters of the moves.
The joy of watching 4 years of decisions that will crack wide open the state and start the real crumble.
Hegseth as top military knob in the country? Kennedy as the top Health knob in the country? Musk as ...well the top knob in the country etc etc.
Appointments based on Bro-ism and vengeance will have a short bang and a longer clean up afterwards.
Waiting for the first episode on prime time.
Apologies to my dear US friends from San Diego to St Petersburgh to Maine - you have to experience it in real time.
Tokyo Guy
So let me guess, you and the rest of " the sky is falling" crowd are billionaires, right?
People who genuflect before others just based on their financial value are by far the most easily scammed people in the world.
BB
Sure. Fire the people focused solely on doing the job and replace them with yes-man lackeys. That's been a great strategy for managing the military over the centuries. Reminds me of the time the US won the Vietnam war.
Wasabi
The USA is going down the toilet very fast with trump. Maybe he will flush many time. The genius is back.
Tokyo Guy
Reminds me of the time the US won the Vietnam war.
I wonder if part of the plan to dismantle the Department of Education is to gradually phase in textbooks in which this actually happened.
N. Knight
Parrot
Tokyo Guy
By an interesting coincidence, this quote just turned up on my social media feed:
"This process includes the replacement of all first-rate talents, regardless of their political loyalties, with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is the best guarantee of their loyalty".
Blacklabel
I’m sure fat boy Milley is stress eating right now, knowing he will be recalled to actor duty for a well deserved court martial.
WoodyLee
Could it be a DICTATOR IN THE MAKING !!?? we shall wait and see.
Wasabi
Is it real? The USA really need less education and more gun. The Taliban are doing the same, good job trump.
Peter Neil
guys filling the coke machine get bronze stars.
nothing more stupid than telling your adversaries that the u.s. military will be in chaos, disarray, with leaders summarily dismissed for political reasons and a mediocre, at best, major is in charge.
the stupidity is staggering.
bass4funk
Impossible, we are beyond the toilet, we are in the sewer, Trump is getting us out of it.
To get the stench off from this administration
Yup!!!
bass4funk
Indeed.
Why does Trump have to keep military leaders that go against his agenda, why does he have to keep military leaders that are so hell-bent on wanting to go to war or resume change, no one elected these people for anything, these are people that take orders and nothing more, they take orders in they execute the orders, but they are not in the position of the executive branch, so their feelings don’t matter, their expertise doesn’t matter, there are thousands and thousands of military leaders that will execute the president’s plan, and who are qualified to do an exemplary job, he doesn’t need snakes in the Pentagon to undermine his agenda. He did that last time and he’s not doing that again.
Antiquesaving
Yes you are right it is staggering.
Especially you deliberately leaving out he graduated Princeton and Harvard with a master's degree.
I am guessing you did better, right?
Zaphod
I am of mixed mind about this. Of course it makes sense for a sane leader to get the woke insanity out of the military. On the other hand, I liked the woke destruction of this military, as it put brakes on American interventionism. (For the same reason, Putin said he would have preferred Harris.)
Thankfully, the Trump team are not warmongers, so they want to have a strong military that is not used for misguided proxy wars.
Desert Tortoise
Promotion to and among the flag ranks, i.e. Generals or Admirals, requires Senate confirmation. Article II, Section 2 of the U.S Constitution states that the President “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice an Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other Public Ministers and Counsels, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all Other Officers of the United States, whos appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law.”
The elected representatives of the people approve all of our senior military officers. They all will have served the US faithfully under Presidents and Congresses of all parties over their careers. It is a perhaps uniquely non-partisan position.
Desert Tortoise
Princeton, Harvard and being a junior military officer offer no preparation whatsoever for leading the DoD. I was a junior military officer just like him, but in the US Navy. Later in life I worked as a Navy civilian in the weapons procurement and support side of the house. Very little of my fleet experience prepared me for the things I needed to know to succeed in defense procurement. Basic leadership skills applied but the process of getting from a requirement to an end item was Greek Braille. It has to be learned and it takes time. There is a formal school you go through that takes about four years to complete, doing classes in addition to your day job to earn the qualifications you need to be certified in you job.
The budget process a SECDEF has to know inside out is not something you pick up in a few days on the job. The process to develop, test, produce and field systems takes many years of working your way up through the ranks to learn. It takes over a decade to develop the systems engineering skills required of a program manager just to lead one procurement program. A SECDEF has to manage hundreds of such programs across all four branches of the Armed Forces, juggle requirements against available budget, and most importantly get a workforce of a few million all working towards the same ends. Not easy and maybe not even possible for someone coming out of a broadcast studio with no experience leading any kind of big organization and no experience dealing with big defense contractors who play games with the DoD. It can be doable if you rely on subordinates to help you but denigrating half your workforce right out of the gate and threatening to fire the senior uniformed leadership your first week is not going to earn him any kind of respect and nobody is going to knock themselves out to help him if he keeps talking down to minorities and women. They are a major part of our military and if you lose them you will have a very tough time keeping people.
One of the lessons in leadership I learned a very long time ago is that if you want to be successful as a leader you have to make the people who work for you successful. If they do well and excel, so will I as their leader. I don't know that Mr. Hegseth learned that lesson, at least not from the way he speaks.
Desert Tortoise
You apparently were asleep in Code of Conduct training. As an officer you take an oath to protect and defend the United States, its laws and its Constitution. Nowhere in the officers oath is there a requirement to obey the orders of the President.
This is a deliberate choice by the US Congress in 1947 in the aftermath of WWII when all of the laws governing the military and the oaths service members take were re-written. The impetus for this were the post WWII war crimes trials where one after another, Nazi and Japanese officers tried to excuse their war crimes by arguing they were only following the orders of those above them. The US Congress made a deliberate choice that no US military officer would ever be able to make such an argument. Instead as an officer you are required to know the difference between a legal order and an illegal one, and if given an illegal order what we were told was to run, not walk, to the JAG (Judge Advocate General, the military's attorney force) and tell them what is going on. They also told us that if we obeyed a legal order we'd be courts martialled.
Anyone trying to courts martial General Milley is going to have to show he disobeyed a legal order or otherwise broke the law. Good luck with that ! He hasn't broken any laws. Not one. In retirement you do not surrender your first Amendment rights to speak freely.
Desert Tortoise
Sigh. I should have said:
They also told us that if we obeyed an illegal order we'd be courts martialled.
Dango bong
things will 100% be better 4 years from now for EVERYONE now that the incompetent morons are being ousted, including Biden and Harris
Antiquesaving
So tell us, what ivy league school you graduate from and how you did in combat?
Love to see the armchair intellectuals and military experts, tell us how a man that actually did something isn't fit for a job!
Waiting to hear your credentials on how you know better!
Antiquesaving
I am still waiting for all those saying Pete Hegseth doesn't have the credentials to do the job, to tell us all their great educational background and how they are far more successful than Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
The delusional left is getting unhinged. When the View's Whoopi worth over $ 60 million, making $3 million a year makes fun of Pete Hegseth name then tells us she is a "working class" person, the disconnect from reality is clearly apparent, not just her but the audience that believes her.
I used to think the true Trump MAGA base was nuts and to some extent still do.
But the present Dem base has taken the lead in the race to which side can be more disconnected with reality and the regular person in the street.
ClippetyClop
Gotta hand it to MAGA. Appointing kiddy fiddlers, conmen and lunatics to run the country is high-level trolling. Putin and Xi must be grinning from ear to ear.
We believe this like we believe that you don't support Putin's invasion
kohakuebisu
I'm not a fan of Musk and expect him to fail.
I just wanted to point out that the Pentagon is the US' most wasteful government department.
From the little I saw of them, Musk and the bio guy at the pre election rallies were telling people about scrapping education, the FBI, the IRS etc. to huge cheers. Waste in such departments will be small compared to the Pentagon's. The easiest way for the US government to save money would be to slash the (vast) defense budget and force the Pentagon to stop wasting money on stuff that has been bought but cannot be accounted for. As my link says, this is trillions (!!!) This is nothing to do with supporting or not supporting the troops or about any particular foreign policy.