Trump announces replacement of top US military officer

US Air Force General Charles Brown Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testifies at a Senate Appropriations Committee Defense Subcommittee hearing on “A Review of the President’s FY2025 Budget Request for the Department of Defense,” on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on May 8, 2024. President Donald Trump announced February 21, 2025 he is replacing top US military officer General Charles “CQ” Brown less than two years into his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

United States President Donald Trump announced Friday he is replacing top US military officer General Charles “CQ” Brown less than two years into his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Trump thanked Brown for “his over 40 years of service to our country” in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The president also said that he is “honored to announce that I am nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan ‘Razin’ Caine to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

“General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur and a ‘warfighter’ with significant interagency and special operations experience,” Trump wrote.

An US Air Force biography of Caine said he served in positions including associate director for military affairs at the CIA, as well as in various operational and staff roles, including more than 150 hours in combat as an F-16 pilot, an aircraft in which he has logged more than 2,800 hours.

Brown was the second Black officer to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — after Colin Powell from 1989 to 1993.

He was commissioned as an officer in 1984 and is an experienced pilot with more than 3,000 flight hours, 130 of them in combat.

Brown has commanded a fighter squadron and two fighter wings, as well as US air forces under the Central Command and Indo-Pacific Command.

He had served as Joint Chiefs chairman since October 2023.