Members of President-elect Donald Trumpʼs transition team are compiling a list of Pentagon military personnel they plan to fire. It may include members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee.
This was reported to the Reuters agency by sources.
Layoff planning is at an early stage and is subject to change.
It was also unclear whether Trump himself would support the plan, although he has been vocal in the past against defense department leaders who have criticized it. During the campaign, Trump also talked about firing those responsible for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in 2021.
A Reuters source said the new administration is likely to focus on US officers believed to be linked to Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Journalist Bob Woodward, in his book War, quoted Milley as calling Trump a "fascist to the core," and Trump allies targeted him for alleged disloyalty to the Republican.
“Every single person that Milly promoted and appointed will leave. There is a very detailed list of everyone who was associated with Millie. And they will all go," sources say.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff are made up of the most senior officers of the United States Armed Forces, who head the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, National Guard, and Space Force.
The announcement of plans to fire top US military leaders comes a day after Trump tapped Pete Hegseth, a Fox News commentator and veteran who has said he is ready to clean up the Pentagon, to be his secretary of defense.
Hegseth also took aim at Milleyʼs successor, Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, asking whether he would have gotten the job if he hadnʼt been black.
Some current and former US officials have played down the possibility of such a large-scale Pentagon purge, saying it would be "unnecessary and disruptive" at a time of global turmoil, with war raging in Ukraine and the Middle East.
However, other sources suggested that the Trump camp felt it necessary to cut the Joint Chiefs of Staff because of red tape.
Who Trump chooses for his team
Trump is gradually assembling his team in the White House. On November 11, he announced that he had chosen Elise Stefanik, a representative of the Republican Party, for the position of the US ambassador to the United Nations.
On November 12, Trump officially appointed Republican Mike Waltz as his national security adviser.
Tesla and Space X founder Elon Musk and millionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran for president in the Republican primary, will lead the new US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
For the position of the head of the Pentagon, Trump offers Pete Hegseth, a presenter of Fox News and a veteran of the US army who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the Republican plans to appoint the governor of South Dakota Kristi Noem as the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Also, he has already elected Mark Rubio to the position of the US Secretary of State, former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard to the position of Director of National Intelligence, and Congressman Matt Gates to the position of the US Attorney General.
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