Many Democrats are angry over President Donald Trump's dismissal of Air Force General CQ Brown (pictured above) as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but Republican senators say Trump has won the right to build his administration with people, especially his closest advisors, who support him.
Even if that means replacing only the second African American to hold the position.
As part of his war on "woke generals," Trump fired Brown late Friday and announced Air Force Lt. General Dan "Razin" Caine as his replacement.
As chief of staff of the Air Force, Brown pushed to get more African American and other minorities as officers by telling commanders to recruit more for the "applicant pool" so as to get around explicitly calling for racial quotas.
Also under his tenure, Trump's nominee for Under Secretary of the Air Force, former Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier, was fired from Space Force Command after publishing a book on Marxism spreading in the U.S. military and discussing it on a podcast, Breitbart News reports.
"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," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family."
In the same post, the president said he has directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to seek nominations for "five additional high-level positions" that will be announced soon.
"I'm concerned that he's going to have to go deep," Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) told Washington Watch Monday. "It's not that these people aren't competent. It's not that these people aren't dedicated or that these individuals didn't serve with honor. You have to build a team that believes in President Trump's agenda."
Before terminating Brown on Friday, Trump was responsible for the rise in his career, having appointed him as the nation's first black military service chief when Brown took over the Air Force in 2017.
At the time, he called the day "historic" and Brown a "patriot and great leader."
Playing the race card
At some point in the past seven years, those feelings changed. And with influential black voices saying Trump's decision is motivated by race, the pushback has been fierce.
"What is going on?" MSNBC's Symone Sanders-Townsend asked on a weekend show. "I’m just going to say it — we need to ask the question: was CQ Brown fired because he was black? Because it's not that he's unqualified, right?"
Representative James Clyburn (D-South Carolina) was much more direct.
"When they say DEI, we know what that means. They are substituting these acronyms for the N word," he said on CNN last Friday. "Why would you apply the term 'woke' to CQ Brown?"
Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) on Sunday told Kristen Welker on NBC's "Meet The Press" that Clyburn is way off the mark.
"Unfortunately, Congressman Clyburn constantly pulls the race card out. This has nothing to do with this," he said.
He maintained that Trump's decision on Brown – and decisions still to come – are about trust and teamwork.
"We're a civilian force, and the president gets to choose his closest advisors, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is his closest advisor," Mullin explained. "The president has the right to pick people around him that he trusts, and at some point, he chose to go a different direction. This has zero, absolutely zero to do with race."
Sen. Scott agrees.
"President Trump got elected. He's the commander in chief. He gets to put together his team. This is exactly what a president should do," he told Tony Perkins. "This is absolutely clear what he's doing with regard to picking the military leaders that he believes will help defend this country."
Milley's disastrous example
Trying to change a government with inherited staff won't work. Sen. Scott pointed out that Trump's contentious relationship with retired Army General Mark Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, proves that.
"Milley was a disaster as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff," Scott noted.
Speaking as a former businessman, he said Trump is making the right moves.
"It's no different than what you should be doing if you build a business," he asserted. "You build your own team of people. You build a team that believes in your mission. That's what he's doing right here."
The Senate will give a lot of leeway to Trump as he builds his staff.
"We know the commander in chief was elected to lead our troops. It's something we'll take into consideration when we approve or not approve officers," Sen. Scott said.
