The president took to social media to thank Brown for his service even as he was announcing his firing:

I want to thank General Charles “CQ” Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family.

Today, I am honored…

— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) February 22, 2025

The post in full:

I want to thank General Charles “CQ” Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family. 

Today, I am honored to announce that I am nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a “warfighter” with significant interagency and special operations experience. 

During my first term, Razin was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the ISIS caliphate. It was done in record setting time, a matter of weeks. Many so-called military “geniuses” said it would take years to defeat ISIS. General Caine, on the other hand, said it could be done quickly, and he delivered. 

Despite being highly qualified and respected to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the previous administration, General Caine was passed over for promotion by Sleepy Joe Biden. But not anymore! Alongside Secretary Pete Hegseth, General Caine and our military will restore peace through strength, put America First, and rebuild our military. Finally, I have also directed Secretary Hegseth to solicit nominations for five additional high level positions, which will be announced soon. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

What is the exact definition of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, you might ask. The position is used to synthesize military information for the president:

The role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs was established in 1949 as an adviser to the president and secretary of defense, as a way to filter all of the views of the service chiefs and more readily provide that information to the White House without the president having to reach out to each individual military branch, according to an Atlantic Council briefing written by retired Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro. The role has no actual command authority.

BREAKING: Trump just replaced Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles “CQ” Brown.

Dan Caine has been selected to replace him.

Woke is being removed from the military! pic.twitter.com/QuHawygLfj

— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) February 22, 2025

As we reported, Brown failed to notify Biden when then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin went AWOL for four days for a hospital procedure without bothering to tell his superiors.