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More than a dozen senior generals and admirals have been fired since President Trump returned to the White House in January, including the first women to lead the Navy and the Coast Guard and the second Black man to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Trump administration has offered few explanations, but speculation, informed and otherwise, has run the gamut from a straightforward downsizing of bloated leadership ranks to a more politically motivated purge of leaders seen as insufficiently loyal to the White House or those seen as diversity hires promoted under previous regimes.
The most recent high-level military officer sent packing was Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He was fired Friday, only weeks after a classified DIA assessment of the U.S. strikes on Iran was leaked to media.
The assessment contradicted the Trump administration’s contention that the bombing mission demolished Tehran’s nuclear program. Defense Department officials said the DIA’s pessimistic report was based on limited intelligence gathered the day after the strike.
Sen. Mark R. Warner, Virginia Democrat and vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, blasted the sacking of Gen. Kruse. He said the Trump administration has treated intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for the country.
“It is perhaps unsurprising that General Kruse’s removal as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency comes on the heels of a DIA assessment that directly contradicted the president’s claims to have ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear program,” Mr. Warner said in a statement. “That kind of honest, fact-based analysis is exactly what we should want from our intelligence agencies, regardless of whether it flatters the White House narrative.”
Gen. Kruse was fired days after Gen. David Allvin announced his retirement halfway into his traditional four-year term as Air Force chief of staff. Gen. Allvin said he would remain in the position until the Senate confirms his replacement.
“I think these firings are unjustified and unnecessarily risky. Removing fully qualified officers who don’t meet some politically driven narrative put forward by Secretary [of Defense Pete] Hegseth is a mistake,” retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery told The Washington Times. “With regards to Lt. Gen. Kruse, the last thing Secretary Hegseth needs are senior officers who are unwilling or uncomfortable telling him the facts as they know them, which is all Kruse did.” --->READ MORE HERE
| AP Photo/John Minchillo, File |
Adm. Daryl Caudle took over as the Navy’s highest-ranking officer Monday, ending a six-month vacancy created by the Trump administration’s firing of his predecessor.
Caudle became chief of naval operations as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ousted a growing list of military leaders with little or no explanation. Remarks at a swearing-in ceremony at Washington Navy Yard offered several nods to the admiral being in close alignment with the Trump administration leaders above him.
In February, Hegseth fired Caudle’s predecessor, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, without explanation. Neither Caudle nor Navy Secretary John Phelan addressed the ouster at the ceremony Monday, though Franchetti was among several former chiefs of naval operations in attendance.
Franchetti had been the second woman ever to be promoted to four-star admiral and is among several female military leaders fired by the Trump administration. She was ousted the same day as Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Phelan, the Navy’s civilian leader, described the sea service as rife with issues like “decaying shipyards, inadequate maintenance, enormous cost overruns (and) delayed delivery and repair rates” and unspecified traditions that were stifling innovation. --->READ MORE HEREFollow link below to a relevant story:
+++++Pentagon shakeup: Why Trump is dismissing America’s top brass+++++
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