By Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Members of President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team are drawing up a list of military officers to be fired that could include the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two sources said, in what would be an unprecedented change at the Pentagon.

Planning for the layoffs is at an early stage after Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory and could change as the Trump administration takes shape, said the sources, who are familiar with Trump’s transition and spoke on condition of anonymity. talk honestly about plans.

One of the sources questioned the feasibility of a mass fire on the Pentagon.

It was also unclear whether Trump himself would support the plan, although in the past he has railed widely against defense leaders who have criticized it. Trump also spoke on the campaign trail to fire “woke” generals and those responsible for the troubled 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The second source said the incoming administration is likely to focus on US military officers believed to be linked to Mark Milley, Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Milley was quoted in Bob Woodward’s book “War,” which was published last month, calling Trump “fascist to the core,” and Trump allies have targeted him for a perceived lack of loyalty to the former president.

“Anyone who was picked up and named by Milley will be gone,” the second source said.

“There is a very detailed list of everyone who was affiliated with Milley. And they will all be gone.”

The Joint Chiefs of Staff include the highest-ranking officers in the U.S. military and include the heads of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, National Guard, and Space Force.

The revelation of plans to fire top US military leaders comes a day after Trump picked Pete Hegseth, a Fox News commentator and veteran who has expressed a desire to clean house at the Pentagon, as defense secretary.

“The next president of the United States must radically overhaul the leadership of the Pentagon to prepare us to defend our nation and defeat our enemies. A lot of people need to be fired,” Hegseth said in his 2024 book The War on the Warriors: Behind. Betrayal of the people who keep us free.”

It is unclear whether Hegseth’s lack of managerial experience could complicate his Senate confirmation, and whether a more traditional alternative for the position would carry out such radical dismissals.

GENERAL BROW WILL BE AMONG THE FIRST TO RESIGN

Hegseth also took aim at Milley’s successor, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown, questioning whether he would have gotten the job if he hadn’t been black.

“Was it because of the color of his skin? Or his skill? We’ll never know, but we’ll always doubt it – which, on the face of it, seems unfair to CQ. But since he made the race book one of the bigger business cards of his, no It doesn’t matter much,” he wrote.

The first source familiar with the transition planning said Brown will be among the many officers to leave.

“The chiefs of joint chiefs and all deputy chiefs will be fired immediately,” the source said, before noting that this was still only early planning.

Some current and former US officials have played down the possibility of such a major change, saying it would be unnecessary and disruptive at a time of global turmoil, with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

The first source said it would be bureaucratically difficult to fire and replace a wide range of senior US military officials, suggesting the planning could be crass and the attitude of Trump allies.

But the second source suggested that Trump’s camp believed the Joint Chiefs of Staff needed to shrink because of perceived red tape.

Such cuts could be borne in an organization the size of the US military, the source said.

“These people are not irreplaceable. They are very replaceable. And then also the other thing is there is no shortage of people to step up,” the source said.

“In World War II, we were very quick to appoint 30-year-olds or able-bodied men to be generals. And you know what? We won the war.”

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali; Editing by Don Durfee and Suzanne Goldenberg)