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Donald Trump’s latest “Friday Night Massacre” is likely to do lasting harm to the integrity of U.S. armed forces. The Republican president fired Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman CQ Brown Jr., the country’s highest-ranking military officer. As dramatic as this was, the general’s ouster was part of a broader purge: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was also firing Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations, and Gen. James Slife, Air Force vice chief of staff.
In case these dubious terminations weren’t enough, the Trump administration also announced around the same time that it’s firing the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force. In fact, Steve Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, wrote via Bluesky that firing these judge advocates general (JAGs) “is just as bad as, if not worse” than Trump’s other Friday night firings.
In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Army paratrooper, helped explain why:
[F]iring the military’s most senior legal advisers is an unprecedented and explicit move to install officers who will yield to the president’s interpretation of the law, with the expectation they will be little more than yes men on the most consequential questions of military law.
It was against this backdrop that Hegseth appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and was asked to explain the move. His answer was far from reassuring.
“Ultimately, we want lawyers who give sound constitutional advice and don’t exist to attempt to be roadblocks to anything that happens,” the Pentagon chief said.
Hmm. In other words, the secretary of defense believes there might be things that “happen,” and he’s concerned that the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force might get in the way.
For those keeping a “saying the quiet part loud” list, it’s probably worth filing this quote away for future reference.
As for the larger context, it’s also worth emphasizing the apparent fact that Team Trump appears to be taking steps to eliminate watchdogs from the federal government. Indeed, the president’s first “Friday Night Massacre” targeted inspectors general, and his second targeted, among others, judge advocates general.
A few weeks ago, The New York Times published an editorial that argued the Republican White House “is moving to eliminate the tools of accountability in government in quick order.”
That war on accountability is far worse now.