{"id":37522,"date":"2025-01-21T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=37522"},"modified":"2025-01-21T21:11:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T03:11:09","slug":"trump-on-the-warpath-first-female-coast-guard-commandant-ousted-more-firings-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=37522","title":{"rendered":"Trump on the warpath: First female Coast Guard commandant ousted, more firings expected"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan,<\/u><\/a> who made history as the first female uniformed leader of a U.S. military branch, was unexpectedly ousted by President Trump less than 24 hours into his second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a message sent to all Coast Guard members, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman said he had relieved Fagan of her duties, <\/strong>thanking her for her service but offering no further explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in a lengthy Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statement released Tuesday, the department outlined five major reasons for her removal<\/strong>, many of which center on the Trump administration\u2019s vow to refocus U.S. military operations on readiness and lethality, in part by eradicating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fagan, 61, was terminated \u201cbecause of her leadership deficiencies, operational failures, and inability to advance the strategic objectives<\/strong> of the U.S. Coast Guard,\u201d a senior DHS official said in the release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The highlighted pitfalls<\/strong> included a failure to address border security threats through \u201cineffective deployment of Coast Guard assets \u2026 especially in interdicting fentanyl and other illicit substances,\u201d and insufficient coordination with DHS to prioritize operations along maritime borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DHS officials also accused Fagan of mismanagement of key acquisitions, prioritizing non-mission-critical initiatives such as DEI policies, and an erosion of trust<\/strong> following an internal investigation into sexual assault cases at the Coast Guard Academy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evidence of Fagan\u2019s time as the Coast Guard\u2019s leader was quickly wiped from government websites<\/strong> in the wake of her firing, with the service\u2019s official website for its senior leadership showing a blank space under \u201cCommandant\u201d and her biography page made unavailable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With her removal came the naming of 32 new officials<\/strong> sworn into the Defense Department, among them advisers and deputy assistant secretaries, who do not require Senate confirmation. The officials will help Trump run the Pentagon as his nominees for top roles make their way through Congressional confirmation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fagan, also the Coast Guard\u2019s first female four-star admiral<\/strong>, had served as the military branch\u2019s 27th commandant since June 1, 2022, after former President Biden chose her to lead the service of 42,000 active-duty, 7,000 reserve and 8,700 civilian personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following news of her firing, Democrats quickly criticized the move, including Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), who took to the social platform X<\/u><\/a> to declare her firing \u201can abuse of power<\/strong> that slanders her good name and outstanding record.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fagan\u2019s removal is the first of several personnel changes expected<\/strong> to affect top U.S. military members, as Trump has promised to oust the generals and admirals he has deemed \u201cwoke.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan, who made history as the first female uniformed leader of a U.S. military branch, was unexpectedly ousted by President Trump less than 24 hours into his second term. In a message sent to all Coast Guard members, acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman said he had relieved Fagan of her duties, thanking her […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":37523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[3611,10175,7629,1609,1230],"class_list":["post-37522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-coast-guard","tag-commander","tag-female","tag-fired","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37524,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37522\/revisions\/37524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}