In the spirit of the season, the Washington Examiner has identified 12 issues we believe will shape and influence 2025 and beyond. The incoming Trump administration has made the fight against illegal immigration and the use of tariffs its flagship policy items. The U.S. will also possibly undergo a health revolution, while very real questions need to be answered on everything from social security reform to the military to the changing landscape of the energy sector. Part 4 is on reform of the military.
There has been speculation that President-elect Donald Trump could create an outside board to review the performance of senior military leaders, but he doesn’t have to in order to reshape the Pentagon in his image.
Leaders of the U.S. military serve at the pleasure of the president, and once Trump is inaugurated next month, he will have the power to relieve anyone he chooses. He is seemingly prepared to rectify the mistakes of his first administration by putting in place loyalists who are committed to carrying out his decisions without pushback.
“We all serve at the pleasure of the president,” Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters in November.
“I know myself, as an appointee, serves at the pleasure of the president,” she added. “Just for explanation purposes and [for] what it’s worth, you know, the commander, the secretary, the head of the agency can always make a decision to remove anyone that they, you know, choose to because of lack of confidence.”
Her remarks to reporters came days after the Wall Street Journal had reported the president-elect was considering signing an executive order once he’s inaugurated that establishes a “warrior board” of retired senior military personnel with the power to review senior military leaders and to recommend removals of any deemed unfit for leadership. The specific requirements or judgments remain unclear and raise questions about whether the intention will be to remove generals solely based on their performance or on the beliefs they hold.
Trump has said he would go after the “woke” generals.
Robert Wilkie, who served as secretary of veteran affairs during the first Trump administration, is leading Trump’s policy implementation teams for the Pentagon and the VA during the transition. He told the Washington Examiner that they’re working with the America First Policy Institute in preparing executive orders for the president-elect’s first days in office and he has not seen one related to the creation of a military review board.
“We’ve drafted executive orders and secretarial directives, and we did not draft anything along those lines,” he said, adding, “Doesn’t mean it’s not out there, but it’s not something that I have seen.”
Wilkie also said he would recommend against the creation of such a board. While the president has this unilateral power, Trump has threatened to impose it with regard to personal vendettas and in much broader terms than just the military.
One of Trump’s potential targets is Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as his predecessor, retired Gen. Mark Milley, who Trump appointed to be the chairman during his first term. Trump and Milley increasingly clashed with Trump toward the end of his term and once Trump was out of office.
The former Joint Chief chairman implicitly referred to Trump as a “wannabe dictator” in his retirement speech and reportedly called him “fascist to the core,” whereas Trump has accused the retired Army general of committing a “treasonous act” by communicating with China surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
“This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States,” Trump said on Truth Social in September 2023. “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”
Milley retired from the military during President Joe Biden’s administration at the end of his tenure as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The Biden White House is reportedly considering issuing him and others preemptive pardons due to concerns that the Trump administration could come after them, according to the Washington Post.
“These generals and admirals serve at the pleasure of the president. That’s the way it is,” Gene Moran, a national security expert and former adviser to multiple Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs in the early 2000s, told the Washington Examiner. “Unfortunately, the water has been tainted now with these sorts of brash public comments … I think it would have been much more effective if Trump would have just had a private conversation. But that’s not his style.”
Trump’s relationship with Brown, whom he nominated to serve as the chief of staff of the Air Force in August 2020, has largely been respectful. During his swearing-in ceremony, Trump praised his unanimous confirmation by the Senate.
“This is an incredible occasion,” Trump said at the time. “There’s only one thing I worry about: Charles was confirmed 98 to nothing. That makes me a little bit concerned, right? Ninety-eight — (laughter). I’ve never heard — I’ve never heard that before. You understand what that means: 98 to nothing. So that’s an achievement.”
Brown and Trump were photographed together at the Army-Navy football game in mid-December.
Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, wrote a book last year that included a list of dozens of current and former officials whom he deemed to be a part of the “deep state.” Milley, former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper — who served during Trump’s first administration, current Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and former U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Frank McKenzie were among the names on Patel’s list.
The chairman hasn’t verbally crossed Trump in the way Milley has, but he has gotten himself into conservative crosshairs due to his comments about race in 2020 following the police killing of George Floyd.
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s selection to lead the Pentagon, specifically said Brown should get fired due to his support of diversity initiatives, which Hegseth and other conservatives argue has come at the expense of the military’s lethality.
“First of all, you gotta fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Hegseth said on the Shawn Ryan podcast shortly before Trump nominated him to be the next secretary of defense. “Any general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI woke s***, has got to go. Either you’re in for warfighting, and that’s it. That’s the only litmus test we care about.”
In his book, Hegseth questioned Brown’s promotion and wondered aloud if his race played into Biden’s decision to nominate him to be the chairman.
“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,” he wrote.
Hegseth has faced scrutiny over his past actions following his nomination. He was accused of sexual assault years ago, an encounter he maintains was consensual, and later agreed to a settlement with the woman, who remains anonymous. Hegseth has also faced allegations of mismanaging funds during his time as the leader of two veteran non-profits and of having a drinking problem, both of which he has denied. Hegseth has told senators he would refrain from drinking alcohol if confirmed. His nomination had once seemed on the verge of sinking, but his continued meetings with senators have seemingly saved his nomination for now.
Hegseth talked openly about what he views as the problems that need correcting in Trump’s administration and did so during that podcast appearance, some of which he has walked back.
The former Fox host said in the podcast last month that women should not be in combat, and he wrote in his book this year that gay people serving openly in the military is part of a larger “Marxist” agenda, and he has since distanced himself from those positions.
He has reiterated his belief that the military should be more focused on its lethality than on promoting diversity, and the department’s DEI efforts will likely be on the chopping block once the new administration is in place.
It’s unclear how many leaders could be fired once Trump is inaugurated, but a widespread dismissal is “going to have an impact to operations that’s going to have an impact to morale and that is going to have an impact on the department,” Singh added.
The deputy Pentagon spokeswoman compared such a scenario with Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) 10-month hold on military promotions and nominations last year over the department’s policies on abortion. His hold went on for so long that, at one point, more than 450 top military nominations were stalled.
Hegseth, if confirmed, could overturn the department’s policy of reimbursing service members or their family members for the travel expenses accrued to travel out-of-state for a medical procedure that isn’t available, like an abortion, due to local laws.
“I’m not going to speak to the hypothetical of what you’re referencing, but you know, when whenever you have or put a strain on the system where there are not enough people in a position or not enough people sharing the burden of work, of course, it’s going to strain the system,” Singh explained.
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Earlier this month, the Senate confirmed Army Lt. Gen. Chris Donahue to serve as the next commander of U.S. Army Europe after his promotion had been held up for weeks. He is widely recognized for his role in overseeing the final withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan in 2021. There were reports that Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) was behind the hold, but his office never publicly confirmed it.
Trump and many Republicans have spoken critically of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, despite Trump’s desire to leave the country as well. McKenzie was the head of U.S. Central Command at the time of the withdrawal.