The growing list of military ousters under Trump 2.0
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Decades of experience have been wiped from the highest levels of the U.S. military, the result of retirements and removals in the first year of the second Trump administration.
Why it matters: Ask anyone — seriously, anyone — in the national security space and they'll tell you: Expertise greatly matters, especially at this precarious moment in history.
Driving the news: In recent days, Defense Innovation Unit boss Doug Beck abruptly resigned and Defense Intelligence Agency director Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse was sacked.
- The DIU did not respond to a request for comment. The DIA referred questions related to timing and reasoning to the Pentagon. (The New York Times reported the dismissal was due to a "loss of confidence," a vague description used across the services.)
- Kruse's ouster came shortly after the sudden retirement of Gen. David Allvin, the Air Force chief of staff. He's served only two of the four years typical of that role.
Zoom in: Here's who else has been booted in the last few months, plus the roles they held.
- Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown Jr., Joint Chiefs chair
- Gen. Tim Haugh, head of the NSA and Cyber Command
- Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations
- Adm. Linda Fagan, Coast Guard commandant
- Gen. James Slife, Air Force vice chief of staff
- Vice Adm. Nancy Lacore, Navy Reserve chief
- Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, senior NATO official
- Rear Adm. Jamie Sands, Naval Special Warfare Command boss
Context: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has railed against Brown as well as alleged "woke" ideology and DEI initiatives in the military.
- While the administration hasn't provided explanations for each individual firing, Hegseth and others have emphasized Trump's authority to bring in leaders he trusts.
What they're saying: "The firing of yet another senior national security official underscores the Trump administration's dangerous habit of treating intelligence as a loyalty test rather than a safeguard for our country," Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in a statement reacting to Kruse's exit.
- Warner is the vice chair of the chamber's intelligence committee.
Go deeper: Trump's D.C. utopia
