A meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., in a luxury box during the Army-Navy football game last weekend may have scuttled Trump’s plans to target Brown. firing delayed, according to two people with knowledge of the conversation.
For months, Trump and his close associates have vowed to immediately fire U.S. military leaders they say are too focused on diversity initiatives, often citing Brown specifically. But the meeting went well, according to the two people with knowledge of the conversation.
Trump and Brown met Saturday during the second quarter of the annual military grudge match at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, the two people said. Trump and Brown spoke one-on-one in the owner’s box for about 20 minutes.
They got along well, and Trump “changed his tune” on Brown, the two people said, and it now appears Trump won’t fire him right away.
Brown “congratulated Trump on his election and made clear his willingness to work with the president,” said one of the people familiar with the conversation, adding that “[Trump] liked that.” Afterwards, Trump told someone traveling with him that the conversation went well and that Brown was “doing a good job.”
Trump is now more likely to keep Brown in his job, the two people said. Brown, known as ‘CQ’, assumed the role of chairman on October 1, 2023 and can continue in the role until his four-year term expires in 2027.
Brown seen as a source of stability
Several Republican lawmakers and retired generals have urged Trump not to fire Brown because, they say, doing so could be destabilizing and send the wrong message to members of the military, especially given Trump’s choice to leave the Defense Department lead, former Fox News personality Pete Hegseth, is fighting to be confirmed.
Brown would bring stability amid Hegseth’s controversial policies, lack of experience and concerns about his character, the two people said.
A Trump transition spokesman declined to comment on the matter.
A spokesperson for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs declined to comment.
Brown met Wednesday with members of the Trump transition team’s Pentagon landing team, including Michael Duffey, a former Pentagon official who leads the group, a defense official said.
“The chairman actively supports the transition team and the process,” the defense official said. “He is focused on ensuring that the president-elect and those on his national security team are well informed about both existing and potential threats.”
Last month, Hegseth said in a podcast that Brown should be fired.
“First of all, you have to fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Every general that was involved, general, admiral, whatever, that was involved in any of the DEI woke-s… needs to go,” Hegseth said on the “Shawn Ryan Show,” a podcast whose host calls himself describes as a former Navy SEAL and CIA contractor.
Hegseth said people should join the military for warfare and “that’s the only litmus test we care about.”
One of the people who has argued that Trump should not fire Brown is retired Air Force General Terrence “TJ” O’Shaughnessy, who works closely with Elon Musk at SpaceX.
Brown replaced O’Shaughnessy as commander of the Pacific Air Forces, known as PACAF, in 2020, and the two men met while on active duty. Trump then nominated Brown as Air Force chief of staff in 2020, making him the first Black U.S. service chief in the U.S. military.
When the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked protests across the US in 2020, Brown released an emotional video about the challenges and prejudices he faced in his personal life and during his decades on active duty in the Air Force. He also described the advice he gives his sons about the dangers they face as young black men in America.
“I think about how full of emotions I am, not just for George Floyd, but for the many African Americans who suffered the same fate as George Floyd,” Brown said in the 2020 video. “I think about our two sons and how we should prepare them to live in two worlds.”
The candid and raw video from Brown, who is known as an introvert with a calm demeanor, surprised many officers serving alongside him. In it, a visibly emotional Brown said, “I think about my career in the Air Force, where I was often the only African American in my squadron or, as a senior officer, the only African American in the room.”
He added: “I cannot solve centuries of racism in our country, nor can I solve decades of discrimination that may have impacted members of our Air Force.”
Just four days after Brown released the video, on June 9, Trump praised him in an online post, saying he is “excited to work even closer with General Brown, who is a patriot and a great leader!”
Tensions over recruitment memo
Two years later, on August 9, 2022, Brown co-signed a memo setting targets for officer recruitment in the Air Force and Space Force, broken down by race, ethnicity and gender.
While it said the targets were not intended to undermine the merit-based recruitment or promotion process, Republicans denounced the memo, arguing it imposed racial quotas on the military and calling for a reduction in the number of white officers in the air force.
During Brown’s confirmation hearing to become chairman in 2023, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., pressed him about the memo, asking: “Do we have too many white officers in the Air Force?” Schmitt denounced what he called “race discrimination.” based politics is being injected into our military.”
“Somehow we’ve gotten to a place where an Air Force general is advocating for racial quotas, whether it’s candidates or officer numbers or maybe overall units, and I just think that’s wrong. is,” says Schmitt. said. “I just don’t know how we can continue to have leadership advocating for these divisive policies.”
Brown countered that the memo only outlined objectives for applications for officers in the Air Force and Space Force.
Brown became chairman of the Joint Chiefs after serving as Air Force chief of staff for just over three years. During his 40 years in the Air Force, he flew primarily F-16s as a fighter pilot and commanded U.S. forces in the Middle East and Pacific.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
