Donald Trump’s presidency has reached the ‘middle of the night firings of senior members of the military’ phase.
Seems early for that, but that’s where we are.
Meanwhile, the President is still battling his addiction to calling into Fox and saying exactly what’s on his mind. And he had a really awkward stand-up row with a governor in the middle of a nice lunch. Live on television.
Here’s everything Trump did over night that you need to know.
1. Sacked the chief of the armed forces
Trump unexpectedly fired General CQ Brown from the highest office in the armed forces last night – the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He was one year into a four-year term – and the Chairman usually stays in place even if the Presidency changes.
The ouster of Brown, only the second Black general to serve as chairman, is sure to send shock waves through the Pentagon. His 16 months in the job had been consumed with the war in Ukraine and the expanded conflict in the Middle East.
And it comes after Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, before his confirmation, said one of his first jobs in office would be to clear out any generals involved in “woke” or “DEI”.
Trump said he’s nominating retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine to be the next chairman. Caine is a career F-16 pilot who served on active duty and in the National Guard, and was most recently the associate director for military affairs at the CIA, according to his military biography.
2. Said he’s ‘tired of hearing’ people say Putin started the Ukraine war
Trump continued his criticism of Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday – moaning Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s trip to Kyiv last week to try to secure a deal to access Ukraine’s minerals was “a wasted trip.”
“Frankly I wish he didn’t go there, waste all of his time like that,” Trump seethed on an interview on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” on Fox Radio.
When he started to criticise Zelensky for his leadership as his country was destroyed by war, Fox host Brian Kilmeade said, “That’s Putin’s fault,” and Trump said. “I get tired of listening to it, I’ll tell you what.”
Trump continued complaining about Zelensky and said he “doesn’t think he’s very important to be at meetings” and that he’s been negotiating “with no cards, and you get sick of it.”
He said Putin wants to make a deal and added, “He doesn’t have to make a deal. Because if he wanted, he would get the whole country.”
3. Had a dramatic stand up row with the Governor of Maine
There are a relative handful of transgender people in the United States. And of those, an even smaller handful play sports of any kind – let alone to a competitive level.
And unless something quite unusual is going on there, almost none of them are likely to be in Maine.
Yet the state’s governor, Janet Mills has taken a stand against Trump’s ban on trans people taking part in sports.
And the Donald is not impressed.
While speaking to governors who were meeting at the White House, Trump asked Mills whether Maine would comply with his executive order barring transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams.
“I’m complying with state and federal laws,” Mills responded. Trump shot back: “We are the federal law.”
“You better do it because you’re not going to get any federal funding at all if you don’t,” he said, adding that Maine may be a Democratic state, but its residents largely agree with him on the issue.
“I’ll see you in court,” Mills responded.
“Good. I’ll see you in court,” he said. “I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after, governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
4. Got his DEI crackdown blocked by the courts – for now
A judge largely blocked Trump’s sweeping executive orders that seek to end government support for programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore granted a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from terminating or changing federal contracts they consider equity-related.
The plaintiffs – including the city of Baltimore and higher education groups – sued the Trump administration earlier this month, arguing the executive orders are unconstitutional and a blatant overreach of presidential authority. They also allege the directives have a chilling effect on free speech.
5. The world’s most predictable arrest happened outside the US Capitol
Former Proud Boys national leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested Friday near the US Capitol in Washington DC on a charge that he assaulted a woman protesting a gathering attended by him and other J6 rioters pardoned by Trump
Capitol police said officers saw Tarrio strike the protester’s cellphone and arm after the woman placed the phone close to his face as they walked near the Capitol. Tarrio had just left a news conference that had ended “without incident,” police said.
“The woman told our officers that she wanted to be a complainant, and the man was arrested for the simple assault,” police said in a statement.
Tarrio, of Miami, was serving a 22-year sentence – the longest among hundreds of Capitol riot cases – when President Donald Trump granted clemency last month to all 1,500-plus people charged in the attack.
6. Sacked his deportations chief
Trump ‘reassigned’ his top official in charge of carrying out mass deportations – because he doesn’t think it’s going fast enough.
Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that Caleb Vitello, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was “no longer in an administrative role, but is instead overseeing all field and enforcement operations.”
The statement didn’t give a reason for the move. Vitello is a career ICE official with more than two decades on the job. But White House officials have expressed frustration with the pace of deportations of people in the country illegally.
7. Admitted there aren’t actually any migrants being held at Guantanamo Bay
There aren’t actually immigrants being held in Guantanamo Bay at the time of writing.
The administration made a big show of flying 177 Venezuelan migrants to the infamous base in Cuba. But they’ve all now been sent back to Venezuela. It’s unclear why they couldn’t have been sent to Venezuela directly from the US.
“At the moment, there are no illegal migrants being held at Guantanamo Bay,” the U.S. Southern Command of the Department of Defense said Friday in an email.
Juan Agudelo, an emergency removal operations supervisor in Miami for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Guantanamo Bay is being used as a temporary staging facility for immigrants as they are repatriated abroad.