In March, Donald Trump hosted an Oval Office event to announce the new F-47, which the president seemed quite excited about — in part because of its military capabilities, and in part because the next-generation fighter jet was apparently given a designation in recognition of his term. (Trump is the nation’s 47th president.)
Standing just to the side of Trump and the Resolute Desk was Gen. David W. Allvin, the Air Force chief of staff. Little did we know at the time that the general would be ousted just five months later. The Washington Post reported:
The chief of staff of the Air Force, Gen. David Allvin, will retire two years into a four-year term, officials said Monday, marking the latest early ouster of a senior military officer under President Donald Trump. The Air Force disclosed the move in a statement, saying that Allvin had announced that he plans to retire in early November. No successor was announced, and Allvin will continue to serve until one is confirmed by the Senate, the statement said.
The Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, added that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “wanted to go in another direction,” and Allvin was told last week that he’d be asked to step down.
“It was certainly not his choice,” one insider told the newspaper.
Allvin, it’s worth noting for context, was first chosen for the Air Force leadership role by then-President Joe Biden, which was a detail that has been held against other senior military leaders.
Indeed, while Allvin’s ouster was notable in its own right, just as important is the degree to which it’s part of a larger pattern.
The broader purge also includes Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, who was both the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the National Security Agency; Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. James Slife, former vice chief of staff of the Air Force; Adm. Linda Fagan, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard; Adm. Lisa Franchetti; Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short; Lt. Gen. Joseph B. Berger III, the Army’s top military lawyer; Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer, the Air Force’s top military lawyer; and Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO’s military committee.
Earlier this year, five former defense secretaries — including retired Gen. Jim Mattis, Trump’s first defense secretary — condemned the firings as “reckless.” Their joint letter, addressed to Congress, asked that the House and the Senate hold “immediate hearings to assess the national security implications” of the dismissals.
Hegseth and the administration appear to have ignored the concerns, the purge is ongoing, and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill have scheduled no such hearings. Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who served as a Marine officer in Iraq and who now serves on the House Armed Services Committee, recently spoke to Politico about Hegseth’s purges, which the congressman described as politically motivated. “That’s a recipe not just for a politicized military, but an authoritarian military,” Moulton said. “That’s the way militaries work in Russia and China and North Korea.” The Massachusetts Democrat made those comments in May. The problem is worse now. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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