Trump rethinks firing Joint Chiefs chairman after one-on-one meeting, sources say
A meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and Joint Chiefs chairman General Charles Q. Brown, Jr. may have delayed Trump’s plans to fire him.
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 at the Army-Navy football game last weekend may have delayed Trump’s plans to fire Brown, 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 whom they deem too focused on diversity initiatives, often referring to Brown specifically. But the meeting went well, according to the two people with knowledge of the conversation.
Trump and Brown met during the second quarter of the annual military grudge match at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, on Saturday, the two people said. Trump and Brown spoke one-on-one for about 20 minutes in the owner’s box.
They got along well, and Trump is “changing his tone” on Brown, the two people said, and it now appears Trump will not fire him right away.
Brown “congratulated Trump on his election and made it clear he was ready to work with the president,” one of the people familiar with the conversation said, adding that “[Trump] liked that.” Afterward, Trump told someone traveling with him that the conversation went well and that Brown was “doing a good job.”
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