Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown and U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd James Austin III (not pictured) hold a press conference on the third day of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meeting, in Marrakech, Morocco, October 11, 2023.
Susana Vera | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Friday terminated Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown Jr., the country’s highest-ranking military officer, from his position.
Brown Jr.’s dismissal comes amid a wave of administration shakeups as part of the president’s crusade to reshape the federal government.
“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Brown has held the post since Oct. 2023, after he was nominated by then-President Joe Biden.
Trump said he plans to nominate Air Force Gen. Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to replace Brown, calling him “an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience.”
