Trump Admin keeps getting rid of Women Military Bosses

Women ain’t up to job in the Trump admin?

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fired U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, who served as the U.S. military representative to the NATO Military Committee, the Pentagon confirmed to Axios.

The big picture: Chatfield joins a growing list of women and people of color who served in top military roles who have been ousted as President Trump and top officials conduct a purge of so-called “wokeness” in the military.

• Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve as the highest-ranking officer of the U.S. Navy, and Adm. Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead the U.S. Coast Guard, were both fired earlier this year.
• Trump also booted former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown Jr.
• Brown was the first Black chief of staff of the Air Force and the second Black general to serve as chairman.

Driving the news: Chatfield was removed from her post “due to a loss of confidence in her ability to lead,” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement provided to Axios.

• He added, “[t]he Defense Department is grateful for her many years of military service.”

What they’re saying: “Vice Admiral Chatfield is extraordinarily well-qualified and there is no reasonable justification for her removal,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said in a statement provided to Axios.

• Gillibrand, one of several senators who grilled Hegseth about his comments that women should not serve in combat roles during his confirmation hearing, called on Republicans to “join with us to demand an explanation.”
• Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, slammed the lack of transparency behind her firing as “unacceptable,” saying her ouster makes the country “less safe.”
• Her former role with NATO, he said, “is key to our ability to work with allies and partners in the face of interconnected threats and challenges coming from China and Russia, and to a lesser extent Iran.”
• Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement he was “deeply disturbed” by her firing.