Does Trump's Pentagon Purge Have Any Precedent?

In one broad stroke Friday evening, President Trump axed six senior Pentagon officials in a move never before seen in U.S. history.

The Trump administration, pushing back against Democrats, journalists and former military officials who have called the purge “unprecedented,” defended the decision by citing past examples of presidents sacking top military brass.

But experts say there is no record of so many top military leaders being ousted all at once.

“Two things are unprecedented. One is the scope, and the other is the lack of public explanation,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel who is now a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

“These things have happened in ones, singular events. Never across-the-board like this, and with so little explanation about why.”

Trump last week ordered the firings of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Air Force Vice Chief Gen. James Slife, and the judge advocates generals for the Army, Navy and Air Force. 

Not included in Friday’s announcement was a seventh dismissal, that of Air Force Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's senior military assistant, NBC News first reported. The Pentagon has not acknowledged her removal.

Trump, who had already fired Coast Guard Adm. Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead a branch of the military, within hours after taking office Jan. 20, had long promised to fire “woke” officers. In their place, he and Hegseth have promoted officers steeped in what they call a “warrior culture.” 

Neither man has offered a robust justification of Friday’s firings, with Hegseth only saying it was meant to put in place “new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars.”

Critics on the left have noted that Brown, a Black man, will likely be replaced by a less qualified white man in retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan "Razin" Caine. Franchetti was the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But Tuesday, the White House sought to push back on criticism or questions surrounding Brown's dismissal in particular.

“He thinks he’s doing a bad job and it’s time for a shake-up at the Pentagon,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a media briefing when asked Trump’s reasoning for firing Brown.

Leavitt also defended the move as “quite common” across administrations, and sought distance from comments Trump made when he swore Brown in as Air Force chief of staff in August 2020, when he called him a “great man” and a “great gentleman.” 

“They failed seven audits in a row, the trust in our United States military amongst the warfighters is low," she said. 

In defending the move, Republicans have pointed to former President Truman’s 1951 dismissal of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, a top commander during World War II and the Korean War. The two clashed over how to handle the Korean War, with MacArthur ignoring direct orders from his president, leading to his firing. 

They also cite former President Obama’s removal of Army Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, five months into office in 2009, as well as the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, McKiernan’s replacement. McChrystal was pushed out by Obama in 2010 after reportedly mocking White House officials in a Rolling Stone article.

Vice President Vance highlighted those generals in a post on social platform X defending Trump’s decision, writing Saturday that both MacArthur and McChrystal were fired. 

But experts say the sheer breadth of the dismissals under Trump sets an alarming precedent for the U.S. military, which has always sought to remain apolitical, and the federal government at large.

The move could also degrade the quality of the advice the military officers give their civilian leadership, as those who are fearful of running afoul of any of Trump’s political leanings would be less willing to speak up, experts say.

“Someday, there'll be a Democratic president. Is that Democratic president going to come in and fire half the Joint Chiefs, saying that they are all partisan creatures of the previous administration? Are we going to get into Democratic and Republican generals, where they feel like they have to pick a team? It’s very bad,” Cancian said of the fears surrounding the removals. 

Naveed Shah, the political director for Common Defense, a grassroots organization of U.S. military veterans focused on progressive issues, put it more bluntly.

“This is going to make it harder for senior leaders to do their jobs,” said Shah, an Army veteran. “It’s going to color what kind of military advice they’re giving to [the administration]...and also create situations where people have to decide or not to follow orders that may be lawful.”

Shah said he was most worried about firings of the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force, which Hegseth said Monday were necessary because they posed potential “roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander in chief.” 

“It is pretty scary and makes me wonder what they intend to use the military for,” Shah said.

What’s more, the four-year terms of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are meant to stretch the roles across presidential administrations to preserve institutional knowledge.

Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) addressed the firings Tuesday morning, saying he was “deeply troubled” that the dismissals appear to be part of a broader campaign by Trump and Hegseth to politicize the military.  

“The timing of these dismissals, and the lack of any explanation for why, risks politicizing the military and sending a chilling message to the ranks that political loyalty to President Trump supersedes loyalty to the Constitution,” Reed said at the nomination hearing for Stephen Feinberg, Trump’s pick for deputy secretary of Defense.