Trump’s Most Dangerous Move Yet?

Politicizing the military

General CQ Brown Jr., former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (credit: Getty Images)

Donald Trump has abruptly fired several high-ranking members of the U.S. military command. And his new, personally loyal secretary of defense promises a culture shift for the armed forces, with politics at its core. This is among Trump’s most reckless decisions to date, if not THE most. And that’s saying something, given his second term so far.

Not to minimize the firing of thousands of government employees, including people who were working to keep bird flu from spreading to humans and those who were ensuring the country’s nuclear weapons are kept safe, etc., etc. All of this reeks of authoritarianism, with a capital A.

If you’re looking for a legitimate reason for the firings, good luck. Here’s the bottom line: Trump purged the U.S. military leadership of officers he believes are loyal to the Constitution, instead of to him personally. This is a very big deal, with short- and long- term consequences for America’s defense.

Beginning last Friday, Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown Jr. The dubious firings continued with five additional high-level terminations, including the Navy’s top admiral and the Air Force vice chief of staff. Trump’s endgame has become blatantly obvious across the executive branch and the military: be unblinkingly loyal to me or be fired.

The top U.S. military leadership is nonpartisan by design. Traditionally, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the country’s most senior military position, serves a four-year term that straddles administrations. Brown was appointed by President Biden in 2023, after Trump nominated him in 2020 to be the Air Force chief of staff.

Though no reason was given for Brown’s ouster, he has been criticized by some Republicans for being too “woke” because of his commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. New Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth suggested in his book The War on Warriors that Brown, a four-star general with four decades of service and experience, got his many promotions because of his race. General Brown is Black.

Brown’s replacement, General Dan Caine, is a retired three-star general whom Trump met in Iraq in 2018. In an oft-told story, Trump recounts that Caine put on a red MAGA baseball cap while in uniform and said, “I love you, sir. I think you’re great, sir. I’ll kill for you, sir.”

If the story is true, and that’s a big if — former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who was on the trip, said it never happened — Caine’s quote is disqualifying. So is wearing the hat.

Next on Trump’s hit list were the Judge Advocates General (JAG). JAGs are the Army, Navy, and Air Force’s top lawyers. They are the backstop for the military, someone to tell commanders that a certain president is about to do something illegal.

You may remember former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, from Trump’s first term. Esper has said Trump asked if the U.S. military could shoot civilians who protested George Floyd’s murder. According to Esper, Trump asked then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley, “Can’t you just shoot them, shoot them in the legs or something?”

Esper and Milley told the president no. Who will tell him no next time?

Senator Jack Reed, who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Army major, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” to discuss the terminations.

“What was also startling in the weekend was firing all the advocate generals of the armed forces. If you’re going to break the law, the first thing you do is you get rid of the lawyers. So we’re looking at a very dangerous undermining of the values of our military,” Reed said.

Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot who ran for Senate in 2020, took to social media to explain the move. “Here’s what is going on. When you start firing the military’s top lawyers, that means you are getting ready to order the military to do unlawful things. Trump replaces those JAGs with men who will justify any future unlawful and unethical actions that he wants the military to do.”

Hegseth has done nothing to dispel these suppositions. The firing of the JAG corps was about making sure they “don’t exist to be roadblocks to anything that happens,” Hegseth said on Fox. That’s not saying the quiet part out loud. That’s admitting the likely illegal part on national television.

David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, raised the alarm on Bluesky. “Trump tried a seizure of power in 2021. It didn’t work, because he relied only on a violent mob. The military and FBI stayed loyal to the Constitution. This time, with approval of the Republican Senate, Trump has installed anti-constitutional putschists at FBI, DoD, and Pentagon.”

Don’t worry if you don’t know what a putschist is — I had to look it up. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a putschist is a person who believes that a government should be removed by force.

Democratic Party attorney Mark Elias echoed Frum’s warning. “Now that Trump has captured the intelligence services, the Justice Department, and the FBI, the military is the last piece he needs to establish the foundations for authoritarian control of the U.S. government.”

All of this on the heels of Elon Musk’s dismantling of two agencies crucial to supporting and promoting democracy around the world: the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

NED was created by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. Republicans in Congress have supported the NGO, and many have served on its board. According to its website, NED “has remained on the leading edge of democratic struggles everywhere, while evolving into a multifaceted institution that is a hub of activity, resources, and intellectual exchange for activists, practitioners and scholars of democracy the world over.”

In other words, USAID and NED work to combat authoritarianism around the world. No wonder Trump and Musk want to shutter them.

The closing of these agencies and the firings at the Pentagon have nothing to do with efficiency or DEI. They have everything to do with wanting leadership in government and the military that will do whatever is ordered, legal or otherwise. And what might all of this mean if Trump should decide to force an illegal third term for himself? A question to ponder as we consider these latest moves with the country’s armed forces.

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Dan