SEN TAMMY DUCKWORTH: Why Trump's pattern of purging our highest-performing military officers is dangerous

"Our standards volition beryllium high, uncompromising and clear." --Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s Message to the Force, January 25, 2025

President Donald Trump’s prime for the president of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Lt. Gen. Dan Caine (retired), possesses an bonzer grounds of service—in Iraq, successful peculiar entree programs and successful the National Guard. There is nary question of his capableness to lead, devotion to our country, character, courage or competence.

But those aren’t the qualifications required by instrumentality to beryllium the senior-most subject serviceman successful our Armed Forces. Federal instrumentality requires the president to beryllium progressive work and person served successful immoderate of 3 elder roles: vice chairman, service chief (except the Coast Guard) oregon commandant of a combatant command. Caine fails to conscionable 1 of these. 

The president tin waive astir of the qualifications if helium determines it is successful our "national interest." But the lone justification that President Trump has stated for waiving these ineligible standards successful this lawsuit is that helium remembers Caine stating helium "loved" Trump, would "kill" for Trump and that Caine proudly donned a MAGA chapeau which—as Trump gushed—would beryllium a usurpation of national law.

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Strangely, Caine has categorically denied that helium ever did immoderate of those things, which means either Caine lied—under oath—or that helium told the information and Trump has nary justification.

To President Trump, the "national interest" appears to mean idiosyncratic loyalty.

The information of Caine is conscionable the latest illustration successful a unsafe signifier of President Trump purging—in aggregate reckless and abrupt bursts—the subject of its highest-performing wide officers from mission-critical roles. Why? Because they promised loyalty to the Constitution alternatively of to him? These firings person thing to bash with upholding precocious standards astatine all—they are astir prioritizing fealty implicit qualifications and putting our nationalist information astatine hazard successful the process.

The lone crushed this chairmanship vacancy exists successful the archetypal spot is due to the fact that President Trump unceremoniously fired, without cause, Gen. CQ Brown Jr., who was serving—and excelling—in the role.

Gen. Brown didn’t conscionable just the ineligible qualifications to beryllium chairman—he embodied them. He brought his 40 years of honorable work successful the Air Force to overseeing U.S. subject operations successful astatine slightest six progressive warfare zones and advised the defence caput connected responses to 3 tense planetary crises. Prior to being chairman, Gen. Brown served arsenic main of unit of the Air Force, commanded Pacific Air Forces and flew much than 3,100 hours with implicit 130 successful combat.

By firing specified an exemplary serviceman and replacing him with idiosyncratic who President Trump—rightly oregon wrongly—believes declared fealty to him, our commander-in-chief is sending a unsafe connection to the unit that loyalty, not expertise oregon adjacent a committedness to upholding the law, volition beryllium rewarded.

The disgraceful attraction of Gen. Brown was not an isolated incident.

President Trump has fired astatine slightest 10 adept elder subject officers, astir of whom were women oregon radical of color, and respective of whom—unlike Caine—met the ineligible qualifications to beryllium chairman.

These were warriors astatine the apical of their game: Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the Navy’s archetypal pistillate to service arsenic main of naval operations, who had much than 2 decades of acquisition that included commanding bearer onslaught groups and destroyers. Adm. Linda Fagan, the archetypal pistillate Coast Guard commandant, who led connected each 7 continents. Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short, a bid aviator who completed much than 1,800 formation hours during her 30-year career. Lt. Gen. Telita Crosland, who was pushed retired from the Defense Health Agency aft her 32-year career, which included serving arsenic the lawman for each aesculapian operations.

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And conscionable this month, Trump fired Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, who had a storied 36-year career, including serving arsenic the archetypal pistillate president of the Naval War College, arsenic good arsenic Gen. Tim Haugh, the high-performing commandant of U.S. Cyber Command and manager of the National Security Agency.

These were each extraordinarily qualified subject leaders summarily fired, with Trump choosing to regenerate them by nominating profoundly unqualified appointees—while astatine the aforesaid clip shouting that helium lone hires the "best, astir qualified" people.

Trump’s hiring decisions marque a mockery of meritocracy, disrespect our work members’ sacrifices and bash thing to fortify our unit oregon our nationalist security. Even five erstwhile secretaries of defence agreed that "none of this is astir warfighting."

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Installing loyalists astatine the apical of the subject is the benignant of happening autocrats bash erstwhile they are trying to prehend power of government. Trump is aiming to ingrain a civilization of fearfulness that makes it harder for our work members to talk information to powerfulness and uphold their oath to enactment and support the Constitution.

What we saw hap with the information of Caine is not an aberration. It is portion of a deliberate purge of expertise from our subject that is eroding the precise instauration the American radical trust connected to support them safe. My Republican colleagues request to halt enabling Trump’s dictatorial tendencies and commencement doing much to support the work members who’ve sacrificed truthful overmuch for the remainder of us.