Trump Fires the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/trump-brown-joint-chiefs-of-staff-firing/2025/02/21/id/1200049/

Friday, 21 February 2025 10:45 PM EST

(1/2)

President Donald Trump abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign led by his defense secretary to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.

The ouster of Brown, only the second Black general to serve as chairman, is sure to send shock waves through the Pentagon. His 16 months in the job had been consumed with the war in Ukraine and the expanded conflict in the Middle East.

“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. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family,” Trump posted on social media.

Brown’s public support of Black Lives Matter after the police killing of George Floyd had made him fodder for the administration's wars against “wokeism” in the military. His ouster is the latest upheaval at the Pentagon, which plans to cut 5,400 civilian probationary workers starting next week and identify $50 billion in programs that could be cut next year to redirect those savings to fund Trump’s priorities.

Trump said he's nominating retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next chairman. Caine is a career F-16 pilot who served on active duty and in the National Guard, and was most recently the associate director for military affairs at the CIA, according to his military biography.

Caine’s military service includes combat roles in Iraq, special operations postings and positions inside some of the Pentagon’s most classified special access programs.

However, he has not had key assignments identified in law as prerequisites for the job, including serving as either the vice chairman, a combatant commander or a service chief. That requirement could be waived if the “president determines such action is necessary in the national interest.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a statement praising both Caine and Brown, announced the firings of two additional senior officers: Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Jim Slife.

Franchetti becomes the second top female military officer to be fired by the Trump administration. Trump fired Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan just a day after he was sworn in.

A surface warfare officer, Franchetti has commanded at all levels, heading U.S. 6th Fleet and U.S. Naval Forces Korea. She was the second woman ever to be promoted to four-star admiral, and she did multiple deployments, including as commander of a naval destroyer and two stints as aircraft carrier strike group commander.

Slife led Air Force Special Operations Command prior to becoming the service's vice chief of staff and had deployed to the Middle East and Afghanistan.

(2/2)

He told The Associated Press on Friday: “The President and Secretary of Defense deserve to have generals they trust and the force deserves to have generals who have credibility with our elected and appointed officials. While I’m disappointed to leave under these circumstances, I wouldn’t want the outcome to be any different."

Trump has asserted his executive authority in a much stronger way in his second term, removing most officials from the Biden administration even though many of those positions are meant to carry over from one administration to the next.

The chairman role was established in 1949 as an adviser to the president and secretary of defense, as a way to filter all of the views of the service chiefs and more readily provide that information to the White House without the president having to reach out to each individual military branch, according to an Atlantic Council briefing written by retired Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro. The role has no actual command authority.

Trump acted despite support for Brown among key members of Congress and a seemingly friendly meeting with him in mid-December, when the two were seated next to each other for a time at the Army-Navy football game.

The firing follows days of speculation after a list of officers, including Brown, to be fired was circulated on Capitol Hill — but notably was not sent via any formal notification to either of the Republican chairmen of the House or Senate armed services committees.

Sen. Roger Wicker, GOP chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, didn't mention Caine's name in a statement Friday.

“I thank Chairman Brown for his decades of honorable service to our nation,” Wicker said. “I am confident Secretary Hegseth and President Trump will select a qualified and capable successor for the critical position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

Congressional Democratic leaders called out the firings as a direct attempt to politicize the military.

“A professional, apolitical military that is subordinate to the civilian government and supportive of the Constitution rather than a political party is essential to the survival of our democracy," Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement late Friday. “For the sake of our troops and the well-being of every American, elected leaders — especially Senate Republicans — must defend that enduring principle against corrosive attempts to remake the military into a partisan force.”

Brown’s future was called into question during the confirmation hearing for Hegseth last month. Asked if he would fire Brown, Hegseth responded, “Every single senior officer will be reviewed based on meritocracy, standards, lethality and commitment to lawful orders they will be given.”

Hegseth had previously taken aim at Brown. “First of all, you gotta fire, you know, you gotta fire the chairman of Joint Chiefs,” he said flatly in a podcast in November. And in one of his books, he questioned whether Brown got the job because he was Black.

“Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but always doubt — which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn’t really much matter,” Hegseth wrote.

As he walked into the Pentagon on his first day as defense chief on Jan. 27, Hegseth was asked directly if he planned to fire Brown.

“I’m standing with him right now,” said Hegseth, patting Brown on the back. “Look forward to working with him.”

Pentagon: 5,400 Civilian Workers to Be Cut Next Week

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/pentagon-darin-selnick-firings/2025/02/21/id/1200062/

Friday, 21 February 2025 10:34 PM EST

The Pentagon will be dismissing close to 5,400 probationary civilian workers next week as part of President Donald Trump's goal to "maximize efficiency and productivity" in the federal government.

"We anticipate reducing the Department's civilian workforce by 5-8% to produce efficiencies and refocus the Department on the President's priorities and restoring readiness in the force," Darin Selnick, acting undersecretary for personnel and readiness at the Department of Defense, said in a statement.

"We expect approximately 5,400 probationary workers will be released beginning next week as part of this initial effort, after which we will implement a hiring freeze while we conduct a further analysis of our personnel needs, complying as always with all applicable laws.

On Thursday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out his priorities for his tenure, which will focus on slashing fiscal fraud, waste, and abuse at the Department of Defense and looking for ways to reallocate the military's budget.

"We want you, the American people, the taxpayers, to understand why we're making the decisions that we're making here," Hegseth said, adding that with the Department of Government Efficiency, "we're focusing as much as we can on headquarters, on fat and redundancies and top line stuff that allows us to reinvest elsewhere."

Selnick said in his statement, "As the Secretary made clear, it is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission-critical. Taxpayers deserve to have us take a thorough look at our workforce top-to-bottom to see where we can eliminate redundancies."

If the planned reductions of 5% to 8% eventually go through, the military would be cutting 47,500 to 76,000 of the roughly 950,000 civilian employees, according to CNN.

CNN reported on Wednesday that the planned layoffs could be in violation of Title 10 Section 129a of the U.S. code, a law that mandates the Defense secretary conduct "an appropriate analysis" of how major dismissals could impact the U.S. military's lethality and readiness before implementing.

"The media wants to call these exclusively 'cuts.' It's not a cut," Hegseth said. "It's refocusing and reinvesting funds into building a force to protect you, the American people."

Karoline Leavitt to Newsmax: Trump Holding Full Cabinet Meeting Next Week

https://www.newsmax.com/newsmax-tv/karoline-leavitt-trump-cabinet/2025/02/21/id/1199969/

Friday, 21 February 2025 11:13 AM EST

President Donald Trump's "exceptionally talented" Cabinet has been confirmed in record time, and he is looking forward to hosting his first full meeting with its members next week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Newsmax Friday.

"We just have a few more people to get sworn in, and then the entire cabinet will be complete," Leavitt said on Newsmax's "National Report." "All of his nominees have moved through this process swimmingly because they are talented individuals, they are qualified for these jobs, and they are coming to the table with an array of experience in their respective fields."

The White House is looking forward to swearing in Kash Patel as FBI director Friday afternoon, even though he's not part of the official Cabinet, she added.

"He's the first public defender to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and this is a fulfillment of President Trump's campaign promise to remove politics from the FBI and end the weaponization of our justice system," Leavitt said.

Trump has also promised to cut wasteful spending in government, and Leavitt said it is not easy to understand why Democrats oppose the moves being made by the administration and DOGE, led by Elon Musk, to make that happen.

"They are not only incredibly out of touch with the American people, but they're only in opposition to this idea now because it's President Trump who is delivering on it," she said. "If you roll the tape of Democrats for decades, they have been promising this exact same thing."

DOGE, she added, has identified billions of dollars in wasteful spending and fraud.

Leavitt also updated Newsmax on the status of issues at the Federal Aviation Administration and said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has continued to be transparent about efforts to increase aviation safety in the United States.

She also denied reports that air traffic controllers are being fired, stating that the FAA is hiring new controllers.

"We are hiring those individuals based on merit and skill, not based on their skin color or their sexual preference like the previous administration was prioritizing," she said. "Secretary Duffy is wholeheartedly committed to hiring the best and brightest at the FAA but he's also focused on updating the archaic systems that run our aviation industry in this country, and that air traffic controllers have been forced to use."

Meanwhile, Trump has been taking Ukraine to task this week, accusing President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of being a "dictator without elections."

"Ukraine has not held elections in the past few years," Leavitt said. "Zelenskyy did implement martial law on the Ukrainian people."

Trump increased the pressure campaign on Ukraine because "he wants to make a deal for peace," she added.

"He wants to stop the killing in this war," Leavitt commented. "It has been going on for years, and the American taxpayers have been funding this war. If it were not for the American taxpayer, Zelensky wouldn't have a country anymore."

Trump has also spoken with Zelenskyy several times, and is "frustrated" over the Ukrainian president's comments and "his lack of acknowledgment of the support that the American taxpayer has given to this effort." she said.

Finally, Leavitt discussed the ongoing tragedies being reported out of Gaza with the release of hostages and decried the news that the body that was returned to Israel this week was not that of the mother of two young children, whose bodies were also sent back.

"This underscores the need to eradicate Hamas," she said. "It underscores the need to end this war in the Middle East as well … the president will see this war come to an end, and he will continue to take out terrorists that not only threaten Israel but threaten the United States of America. And the president will see through his promise to restore peace and stability in the Middle East, just like he did in his first term."

>>22632095

Wifeanon just asked me if I had heard anything about this.

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114047738854261552

You've got to be fucking joking.

https://truthsocial.com/@gatewaypundit/posts/114047678335115280

At least he admits to being wrong.

https://truthsocial.com/@marklevinshow/posts/114047575126029807

>>22632165

Who tha fuck are you, shill.

>>22632167

YOUdon't want DOGE because your inflow of monies is drying up.

So fuck right off back under your rock and shut up.

>>22632189

You're a fear monger.

Shut up.

>>22632289

Cabinet meeting this coming week.

Bet they discuss releasing material.

Material released Friday next week.

It goes mainstream.

Top names scared.

Suicide weekend the week after.

https://truthsocial.com/@jsolomonreports/posts/114047868379740147

What do you want to bet he is being forced by the gov to do this.

https://truthsocial.com/@gatewaypundit/posts/114047855657602915

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/nyc-mayor-adams-sues-trump-admin-80-5/

Putting chess pieces into place?

>>22632514

New FBI Director Kash Patel Plans to Relocate 1,500 Employees

https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/fbi-trump-patel-justice-department/2025/02/21/id/1200045/

Friday, 21 February 2025 06:56 PM EST

New FBI Director Kash Patel has told senior officials that he plans to relocate 1,000 employees at FBI headquarters to field offices around the country and move an additional 500 to a bureau facility in Huntsville, Alabama, according to a person with knowledge of the discussions.

The plans were communicated Friday, the same day Patel was sworn in at the White House. They reflect his long-stated determination to reduce the FBI’s footprint in Washington and have more of a presence in offices in other cities.

The person who discussed Patel’s vision did so on condition of anonymity to describe plans that have not been made public.

At his swearing-in ceremony, Patel called the opportunity to lead the nation's premier federal law enforcement agency the “greatest honor” of his life.

Patel was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday by a 51-49 margin, with two Republican lawmakers, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, breaking party ranks and voting against him.

“I think he’ll go down as the best ever at that position,” President Donald Trump told reporters Friday ahead of the White House swearing-in, which was conducted by Attorney General Pam Bondi and attended by Republican supporters in Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.

Trump added that the ”agents love this guy."

Patel will inherit an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Democrats had sounded the alarm about the appointment, saying they fear Patel will operate as a loyalist for Trump and abuse the FBI's law enforcement powers to go after the president's adversaries. They've cited past comments such as his suggestion before he was nominated that he would “come after” anti-Trump “conspirators” in the government and media.

Patel sought to assuage those concerns at his confirmation hearing last month, saying he intended to follow the Constitution and had no interest in pursuing retribution, though he also said at his swearing-in Friday that reporters had written “fake, malicious, slanderous and defamatory” stories about him.

Republicans angry over what they see as law enforcement bias against conservatives during the DemocratiBiden administration, as well as criminal investigations into Trump, have rallied behind Patel as the right person for the job.

Patel has spoken of his desire to implement major changes at the FBI, including a reduced footprint in Washington and a renewed emphasis on the bureau’s traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering work that has come to define its mandate over the past two decades as national security threats have proliferated.

He said Friday that the FBI's “national security mission” was equally as important as its efforts to fight violent crime and drug overdoses.

“Anyone that wishes to do harm to our way of life and our citizens, here and abroad, will face the full wrath of the DOJ and FBI," Patel said. "If you seek to hide in any corner of this country or planet, we will put on the world’s largest manhunt and we will find you and we will decide your end-state.”

A former Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor, Patel was selected in November to replace Christopher Wray, who was picked by Trump in 2017 and who resigned at the conclusion of the Biden administration to make way for his chosen successor.

Wray infuriated Trump throughout his tenure, including after FBI agents searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August 2022 for classified documents in one of two federal investigations that resulted in indictments against Trump that were dismissed after his election win.

https://truthsocial.com/@gatewaypundit/posts/114048034846905442

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/02/doe-launches-investigation-maine-just-hours-after-governor/

Hungary's Orbán: Soros-Backed Groups Press Europe for Money

https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/victor-orban-george-soros-donald-trump/2025/02/21/id/1200043/

Friday, 21 February 2025 06:57 PM EST

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán claimed on Friday that George Soros-backed "civil society organizations" are trying to get more money from European nations, now that the Trump administration is dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, reported Breitbart.

Orbán posted on X, "WARNING! Our fears have come true: the globalist-liberal-Soros NGO [nongovernmental organization] network is fleeing to Brussels, after President [Donald] Trump dealt a huge blow to their activities in the US. Now 63 of them are asking Brussels for money, under the guise of various human rights projects. Not going to happen! We will not let them find safe haven in Europe! The USAID-files exposed the dark practices of the globalist network. We will not take the bait again!"

The Orbán reference to USAID is directed at the Trump administration spending and budget review of the agency. Trump has blocked millions of dollars in spending on what he says are unnecessary if not fraudulent accounts and programs. Actions related to that administration policy continue.

A federal judge on Friday cleared the way for the Trump administration to pull thousands of USAID staffers off the job.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols removed his temporary block on the effort to remove all but a small fraction of USAID staffers from their posts and give those abroad a 30-day deadline to move back to the U.S. at government expense.

The Trump administration and the cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency tied to billionaire Elon Musk have moved swiftly to shutter USAID, asserting that its work is wasteful and out of line with the president’s agenda.

Orban has ordered his government to work to close down what he considers questionable nongovernmental organizations and some media outlets reportedly found to have accepted funding from USAID, according to Breitbart.

Trump Says Rare Earth Minerals Deal With Zelensky, Ukraine ‘Pretty Close’

https://conservativebrief.com/trump-with-4-89605/

February 22, 2025

President Donald Trump said on Friday that his administration is “pretty close” to finalizing a deal with Ukraine for access to its natural resources in exchange for the United States’ billions of dollars in support for the country in its conflict with Russia.

“You know, I think they want it, and they feel good about it,” Trump told reporters on Friday in the Oval Office after the swearing-in ceremony of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, per Fox News. “And it’s significant. It’s a big deal. But they want it, and it keeps us in that country. And they’re very happy about it.

“We get our money back. They should have been signed long before we went in. They should have been signed by Biden. But Biden didn’t know too much about what he was doing. The war should have never happened, No. 1. When it did happen, it could have been settled.”

Trump added: “The first week or two weeks after that, it got bad. It got really bad, but it should have been, it should have never happened. And it should have been settled, and it could have been settled very easily at the beginning. Now it’s tougher, but we’ll get it settled.”

The New York Post added Friday evening:

The Trump administration is close to a deal with Ukraine for access to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of mineral rights in a giant step toward ending Russia’s brutal war on the European nation just three days before the third anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, The Post can reveal.

Full details of the tentative agreement were unclear late Friday, but the good-cop-bad-cop approach of President Trump and his special envoy, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, helped close the gap between Washington and Kyiv.

Kellogg, one of the few Trump administration officials still supportive of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, started his two-day trip back to the U.S. without confirming a deal that the White House has strongly advocated for—yet one that high-level officials in Zelensky’s government regard as a shakedown.

“Any deal that can be made has to be mutually beneficial,” a spokesperson for the Ukrainian president’s office told The Post.

But then, not long afterward, Trump announced at the White House that the US and Ukraine were “signing an agreement, hopefully in the next fairly short period of time.”

After a week of tense exchanges between Washington and Kyiv, it was Kellogg’s visit on Friday to wounded Ukrainian veterans at Irpin Military Hospital, northwest of Kyiv, that helped mend relations and brought the deal closer to completion, sources familiar with the situation told The Post.

Hours earlier, Kellogg had also set himself apart from the rest of the administration by publicly praising Zelensky, The Post noted.

Former Proud Boys Leader Tarrio Arrested Near US Capitol

https://www.newsmax.com/us/enrique-tarrio-capitol-proud-boys/2025/02/21/id/1200038/

Friday, 21 February 2025 06:11 PM EST

Enrique Tarrio, the former national chair of the Proud Boys, was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police on Friday following what was billed as a press conference with other Proud Boys members and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes.

During a question and answer session with reporters, Tarrio was involved in a scuffle with a woman at the media event, according to The Hill. U.S. Capitol Police said Tarrio was charged with simple assault after the woman indicated she wanted to press charges following the alleged physical contact.

Tarrio promoted the event earlier in the day in a post on X: "It goes without saying that we expect attendees and members of the press to be on their best behavior. This is not a rally."

Tarrio received a long prison sentence for helping organize protesters to be in Washington for the Jan. 6, 2021, election protest but was granted a pardon by President Donald Trump. Tarrio said at the press conference prior to the altercation that he plans to file a lawsuit against the government for his prosecution.