Sacking of CQ Brown makes good on Trump promise to fire "woke" generals

President Donald Trump removed Charles Brown from his post as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, eliminating one of the senior-most military officials responsible for implementing some of President Joe Biden’s most contentious social initiatives in the military.

Brown managed to survive for roughly one month into the Trump administration, but was not long for the office after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth secured confirmation to his post, promising to reorient the military’s priorities toward lethality over "diversity."

The termination appeared cordial and Trump declined to castigate Brown's performance when announcing the move. Instead, he called Brown a “fine gentleman and an outstanding leader” and further wished “a great future for him and his family."

Brown’s termination was a near-certainty in light of Trump’s promise to fire  generals he and/or Hegseth considered "woke" and Hegseth’s vision for a de-politicized military free of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and other comparable programs. Prior to becoming secretary of Defense, Hegseth directly addressed Brown’s promotion to chairman of the joint chiefs, indicating that his focus on racial issues called into question the reasons for his elevation.

Putting DEI ahead of preparedness

“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,” Hegseth wrote in “The War on Warriors” of Brown’s promotion. “But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesn’t really much matter.”

Brown was in fact promoted by Trump in 2020 to become the Air Force chief of staff. Brown later, secured Senate confirmation in September of 2023 during the Biden administration. Despite that, some Democrats have pounced on the issue. He went on to carry many of his policies from his time at the top of the Air Force to the military more broadly. Here’s a look at some of Brown’s most memorable efforts while a senior military official.

Public support for Black Lives Matter

Brown was a vocal supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement during the 2020 George Floyd riots. Brown issued a public statement in uniform during which he explicitly addressed his time in the military as an African-American and the deaths of African-Americans at the hands of police.

“I’m thinking about how full I am with, with emotion, not just for George Floyd, but the many African Americans that suffered the same fate as George Floyd,” he said, according to The New York Times. “I’m thinking about my Air Force career, where I was often the only African American in my squadron, or, as a senior officer, the only African American in the room.” The Times also reported that "Trump advisers point[ed] to a video that Brown recorded in the furious days after Floyd, a black man, was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.

“I hire for diversity”

In response to the George Floyd riots, Brown ordered a sweeping review of racial inequality within the Air Force, creating a task force to survey the troops on racial and diversity-related matters that reportedly received hundreds of thousands of responses. It also launched an Office of Inspector General review of the same issues.

“We’ve had, across the Air Force, a number of small group sessions where Airmen can get together and talk through what they’re feeling, what they’re thinking,” Brown said in November of 2020, according to Air and Space Forces Magazine. “The feedback I have, as I go to different locations and talk to our leadership teams, is they really get pretty raw, and get pretty emotional. But, at the same time, they’re very eye opening.”

Brown was instrumental in the establishment of that branch’s DEI office in 2021, according to Defense One. In 2023, the outlet described him as a “full-throated leader” on DEI initiatives. The office continued the work of Brown’s 2020 task force and was designed to service both the Air Force and Space Force chiefs of staff.

Throughout his tenure, Brown was a vocal proponent of hiring explicitly on the basis of diversity, race and other background characteristics. "I hire for diversity, because they all bring a different perspective, which makes my decisions that much better, because I hear different sides of the argument," he said, according to Fox News.

"They all see it differently, you know,” he insisted. “Hearing from all these different groups provides a perspective, you know, ‘I didn’t think about that part.’ It makes us stronger as an Air Force, and I think it makes us stronger as a nation as well.”

Supported pregnant women flying fighter planes

One of the more controversial policies that attracted attention during his time in the Air Force was a policy permitting pregnant women to fly planes through the second trimester without a waiver. Initially implemented in 2019, the program gained attention in 2021 after then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson highlighted the military’s implementation of maternity flight suits. In 2022, Brown doubled down on the policy, issuing a clarification to Air Force staff that defended the program.

“As leaders, we trust our aviators to perform operational risk assessments and safely execute the mission every day,” he said. “Clarifying this policy is about enabling Airmen to make an informed, personal decision, and providing support to both the member and the waiver authority.”

The policy permitted women with an uncomplicated pregnancy up through the second trimester to fly without a waiver, provided they were informed of the risks. It further permitted all servicemembers to apply for a waiver.

Supported elimination of paper tests

Brown previously expressed interest in transitioning the military’s personnel policies away from decision-making on paper tests.

“We need to make sure that we actually have a broader group of candidates to choose from as we go forth, and that we expose some of these young people to certain opportunities they might not be able to afford, such as youth flight academies, as well as tweak the screening process, so it's not so reliant upon a paper test,” he told People Magazine in 2021.

Such musings came as major universities made standardized tests optional for admissions in a bid to increase diversity in incoming classes. Several universities, including Yale and Harvard, later walked back those policies and returned to standardized testing for admissions.