Latest news with #Franchetti
Politico
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Politico
Rahm Emanuel teams up with fired Navy admiral
Retired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, who was unceremoniously fired by the Trump administration as leader of naval operations for the United States, has teamed up with Rahm Emanuel on a program that encourages young people to continue their ROTC service in college. 'I'm focused on and am passionate about developing the next generation of leaders,' Franchetti said of the Children First scholarship fund that Emanuel, a former ambassador to Japan and critic of President Donald Trump, started with Chicago Public Schools to benefit students in the ROTC programs. It's Franchetti's first public statement since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired her in a management shift with the new administration. In an exclusive interview, Franchetti declined to talk about her controversial exit or recent executive orders affecting the military — but she opened up about promoting military service no matter who sits in the White House. 'ROTC and, more broadly, military service, opened the doors of opportunity for me 40 years ago, and I am confident it will do the same for today's scholarship recipients,' said Franchetti, who met Emanuel while he was ambassador of Japan and was pushing for an overhaul of the Navy's Japanese shipyard used by allied countries. The project was completed earlier this month. 'I think there are opportunities available to anyone who wants to raise their hand,' Franchetti said. Pressed on the new policy that bans transgender people from the military, Franchetti said, 'I don't want to make comments on any specific policies because I think the military is a great opportunity for everybody to serve.' On Monday, Franchetti is set to join Emanuel at Rickover Naval Academy, a high school in Chicago, to announce 12 recipients of the inaugural Admiral Lisa Franchetti ROTC Scholarship. The scholarship program has special meaning to Franchetti. She was an ROTC graduate who studied journalism at Northwestern University, where a chance meeting with ROTC students led to her getting a scholarship. 'I was the eldest of seven, and my dad said, 'Look around and see if there are any scholarship possibilities so everyone [in the family] can go to college,'' she recalled. 'I signed up and I never planned to make the military a career,' Franchetti said, describing the scholarship offering free books, tuition and a chance to see the world. She said she stuck with the military 'to serve something bigger than myself.' After 40 years of service, she said she hopes the new scholarships in her name help provide similar opportunities. The scholarship has meaning for Emanuel, too. His son joined the Navy Reserves, which helped influence the former Chicago mayor's decision to start a scholarship program for students interested in national service. Emanuel, who also studied at Northwestern, said 'it's frustrating' that Franchetti's military career ended so abruptly. 'I think this is wrong on a thousand levels,' Emanuel said of her firing. 'The Navy was better. Our Armed Forces were better and our values and our interests were better protected when Lisa Franchetti was on point.' But he adds, 'We're lucky to have her thinking and protecting and caring about service men and women' through the scholarship program.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Honey badger' admiral emerges as top contender for Navy chief
Adm. Daryl Caudle — a longtime admiral who has demanded accountability from America's ailing shipbuilding industry — has emerged as the front-runner for the Navy's top officer post, according to five people with knowledge of the process. The likely selection of Caudle, a four-star admiral who heads the command that trains and equips the Navy's sailors, comes just two months after President Donald Trump fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first female in that role. He terminated her in an abrupt purge of top military leaders, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown. A three-decade Navy officer who has commanded submarine fleets, Caudle could prove a fairly safe choice. Unlike Navy Secretary John Phelan, he has significant Pentagon experience. Democrats, who are angry about Franchetti's sudden dismissal, may find it harder to oppose a well-regarded career officer. 'He's a no-nonsense guy, you can't bullshit him,' said one former Navy colleague, who like others was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. 'He goes and finds problems, he turns over the rock, and whatever's underneath it, he chews it up, spits it out and comes back.' Caudle, if selected, would inherit a fleet that has struggled with embarrassing and costly shipbuilding delays and which is now 14 times smaller than China's. He would join as Phelan is examining what to cut in the service's contracts and as Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency investigates the Navy's shipbuilding efforts. The admiral traveled with Phelan in late March off the southeastern coast and to the Connecticut shipyard where the Virginia-class submarine is built. He also has spent the past two weeks visiting senators, two people familiar with the conversations said. He would replace acting Navy chief of staff Adm. James Kilby, who has been on the job since Franchetti was dismissed. U.S. Fleet Forces Command declined to comment. The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment. POLITICO previously reported that a number of top military officials were in the running for the post. This included Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. Samuel Paparo and his predecessor, retired Adm. John Aquilino; Vice Adm. Brad Skillman, who runs the Navy's Office of Operations for Integration of Capabilities and Resources; and retired Rear Adm. Keith Davids, who served as the director of the White House military office during the first Trump administration. Paparo, who was a leading contender for Navy chief during the Biden administration, took himself out of consideration, according to a person close to the White House. He and Caudle interviewed for the Navy's top military post in July 2023 but lost out to Franchetti. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command did not respond to a request for comment. Caudle has been unusually blunt in calling out failures in the defense industrial base. 'I am not forgiving of the fact they're not delivering the ordnance we need,' Caudle said in 2023 when defense contractors were slow to restock the Navy's depleted weapons arsenal. He has also criticized the service's lack of public shipyards to maintain warships and said the Navy should be 'embarrassed' that it can't develop lasers to provide air defense aboard ships. He joined the Navy more than three decades ago and commanded nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines before taking over the service's submarine fleet in the Atlantic and serving as a vice director on the Joint Staff. He earned the call sign 'honey badger' due to his tenacity and ability to solve hard problems, the former Navy colleague said. He has led the U.S. Fleet Forces Command since 2021. Caudle has taken on an even more public profile in recent months, praising the Navy's efforts to patrol U.S. territorial waters after the Trump administration ordered more military assets to the southern border. He appeared in a Navy video in March that touted the deployment of guided missile destroyers to waters off the U.S. coast for the border mission. The longtime admiral referred to the location as the Gulf of America, which Trump renamed from the Gulf of Mexico in an executive order. 'Our Navy is answering the call to safeguard America's southern border,' Caudle said after the USS Gravely left Norfolk, Virginia, in a campaign-style video that featured soaring music and stock footage of U.S. warships. 'He's really astute and he's aware of all of those problems,' the former Navy colleague said. 'He's spread his talent across the entire fleet." Caudle has had to deal with everything from the high rate of suicide aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the condition of barracks, barges and parking at the old shipyard. 'The solutions are out there, we've just got to have open and honest conversations about the problems,' Caudle said at the Sea Air Space conference this month. We need to 'find ways to unite our collective energies behind solving those problems without a Pearl Harbor or a 9/11 event being required to motivate us.' Paul McLeary and Connor O'Brien contributed to this report.
Politico
14-04-2025
- Business
- Politico
‘Honey badger' admiral emerges as top contender for Navy chief
Adm. Daryl Caudle — a longtime admiral who has demanded accountability from America's ailing shipbuilding industry — has emerged as the front-runner for the Navy's top officer post, according to five people with knowledge of the process. The likely selection of Caudle, a four-star admiral who heads the command that trains and equips the Navy's sailors, comes just two months after President Donald Trump fired Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the first female in that role. He terminated her in an abrupt purge of top military leaders, including Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown. A three-decade Navy officer who has commanded submarine fleets, Caudle could prove a fairly safe choice. Unlike Navy Secretary John Phelan, he has significant Pentagon experience. Democrats, who are angry about Franchetti's sudden dismissal, may find it harder to oppose a well-regarded career officer. 'He's a no-nonsense guy, you can't bullshit him,' said one former Navy colleague, who like others was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. 'He goes and finds problems, he turns over the rock, and whatever's underneath it, he chews it up, spits it out and comes back.' Caudle, if selected, would inherit a fleet that has struggled with embarrassing and costly shipbuilding delays and which is now 14 times smaller than China's. He would join as Phelan is examining what to cut in the service's contracts and as Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency investigates the Navy's shipbuilding efforts . The admiral traveled with Phelan in late March off the southeastern coast and to the Connecticut shipyard where the Virginia-class submarine is built. He also has spent the past two weeks visiting senators, two people familiar with the conversations said. He would replace acting Navy chief of staff Adm. James Kilby, who has been on the job since Franchetti was dismissed. U.S. Fleet Forces Command declined to comment. The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment. POLITICO previously reported that a number of top military officials were in the running for the post. This included Indo-Pacific Command chief Adm. Samuel Paparo and his predecessor, retired Adm. John Aquilino; Vice Adm. Brad Skillman, who runs the Navy's Office of Operations for Integration of Capabilities and Resources; and retired Rear Adm. Keith Davids, who served as the director of the White House military office during the first Trump administration. Paparo, who was a leading contender for Navy chief during the Biden administration, took himself out of consideration, according to a person close to the White House. He and Caudle interviewed for the Navy's top military post in July 2023 but lost out to Franchetti. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command did not respond to a request for comment. Caudle has been unusually blunt in calling out failures in the defense industrial base. 'I am not forgiving of the fact they're not delivering the ordnance we need,' Caudle said in 2023 when defense contractors were slow to restock the Navy's depleted weapons arsenal. He has also criticized the service's lack of public shipyards to maintain warships and said the Navy should be 'embarrassed' that it can't develop lasers to provide air defense aboard ships. He joined the Navy more than three decades ago and commanded nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines before taking over the service's submarine fleet in the Atlantic and serving as a vice director on the Joint Staff. He earned the call sign 'honey badger' due to his tenacity and ability to solve hard problems, the former Navy colleague said. He has led the U.S. Fleet Forces Command since 2021. Caudle has taken on an even more public profile in recent months, praising the Navy's efforts to patrol U.S. territorial waters after the Trump administration ordered more military assets to the southern border. He appeared in a Navy video in March that touted the deployment of guided missile destroyers to waters off the U.S. coast for the border mission. The longtime admiral referred to the location as the Gulf of America, which Trump renamed from the Gulf of Mexico in an executive order. 'Our Navy is answering the call to safeguard America's southern border,' Caudle said after the USS Gravely left Norfolk, Virginia, in a campaign-style video that featured soaring music and stock footage of U.S. warships. 'He's really astute and he's aware of all of those problems,' the former Navy colleague said. 'He's spread his talent across the entire fleet.' Caudle has had to deal with everything from the high rate of suicide aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to the condition of barracks, barges and parking at the old shipyard. 'The solutions are out there, we've just got to have open and honest conversations about the problems,' Caudle said at the Sea Air Space conference this month. We need to 'find ways to unite our collective energies behind solving those problems without a Pearl Harbor or a 9/11 event being required to motivate us.' Paul McLeary and Connor O'Brien contributed to this report.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's High-Level Military Firings Send Several Disturbing Messages
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. President Donald Trump's decision to fire the military's top general (a Black man) and the Navy's top admiral (a woman)—a move that the Defense One newsletter called a 'bloodbath'—is sending a spate of distressing messages to officers of all ranks, races, and genders. First, and most obviously, it's telling Black and female officers that their prospects for promotion may be gravely limited. The senior officers fired over the weekend, Gen. Charles 'CQ' Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the chief of naval operations, were said to be emblems of 'wokeness' and 'DEI,' which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has decried as the scourge of the military. (Before coming to the Pentagon, Hegseth had targeted Brown and Franchetti specifically, saying they needed to be replaced by 'warfighters.') This view seems to be based on a preconception that Brown and Franchetti must have been promoted only because they were a Black man and a woman, and thus favored by President Joe Biden's 'woke' policies. Not only is this blatantly racist and sexist, but it's also wrong. Brown is an F-16 pilot who racked up 3,000 flight hours, 130 of which were in combat, before going on to be Air Force commander in the Pacific and the Middle East, then deputy head of U.S. Central Command. Franchetti's previous posts had been as the commander of the 6th Fleet—the Navy's force in the Mediterranean—and commander of two aircraft carrier battle groups. These are posts requiring deep knowledge, tactical and strategic skill, and steely engagement in life-and-death decisions far more complex than anything Hegseth—a major in the Army National Guard who commanded a platoon (about 40 soldiers, as opposed to the thousands of sailors under Franchetti's command)—ever had to face. A retired senior officer who has long known both Brown and Franchetti told me in a phone conversation Monday, 'The idea that they aren't 'warfighters' is nuts!' This former officer and another retired Navy officer told me that, in the 20 years they've known and attended meetings with her, Franchetti has seemed extremely intelligent, asking smart questions and devising creative solutions to problems. In her early days, she was one of a handful of junior officers chosen by Adm. Don Pilling—at the time the vice chief of naval operations, a brilliant destroyer commander with a Ph.D. in mathematics—to be one of his top aides for plans and policy. In other words, the retired Navy officer told me, 'Franchetti went up the standard career ladder and she did it very well. She is not a token.' Trump announced that he would replace Brown with Dan Caine, a little-known recently retired Air Force three-star general. This is unprecedented on several levels. By law, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff must have been either a four-star officer or a combatant commander. Caine has never been either. In picking Caine, Trump passed over the U.S. military's 200-some active-duty three- and four-star generals and admirals, many of them commanders of combat units, telling them—and the rest of the world—that he does not trust them. He has delivered the same message to all the service members working under those officers. A third nerve-racking message lies in the reason Trump gave for choosing Caine. It turns out Trump met him during his first term as president on a trip to Iraq. Caine, who was deputy commander of a small special-operations unit involved in fighting ISIS, told Trump of a better strategy to defeat the Islamist militia—or, at least, that's what Trump recalled in announcing the nomination. Trump said that Caine wore a red MAGA hat during their meeting and that he told the president, 'I will kill for you, sir.' That, plus Caine's nickname, Razin (a play on 'Raisin' Cain'), led Trump to regard him as 'a real general.' (One is reminded that Trump in his first term hired Jim Mattis as defense secretary because the general's nickname was Mad Dog; however, Mattis was at least a retired four-star and a former combatant commander.) This story may not be true. John Bolton, who was Trump's national security adviser at the time and who accompanied him on that trip, says that Caine neither wore a MAGA hat (doing so would have been a violation of the military's strict policy of avoiding politics) nor made that remark. The New York Times reports that, in private conversations with acquaintances, Caine has denied the story as well. Either way, two things can be said for sure. First, Caine's remarks on anti-ISIS strategy, whatever they were, seem to have had no impact on the course of the war. A retired senior officer who helped lead those battles told me that the strategy to defeat ISIS was unchanged from that adopted by Ashton Carter, the previous secretary of defense under President Obama. Second, whatever Caine's political leanings, Trump now regards him as his general. He expects loyalty—and advice that conforms to the advice he wants to hear. This is particularly dangerous, as the main job of the JCS chairman is to provide the president with professional military judgment. If this judgment is even perceived to be driven by political loyalty, it will be suspect. One of Caine's last jobs in the Air Force was as military liaison to the CIA. A former senior intelligence officer, who met with Caine many times, recalled him to me as 'articulate, personable, and engaging, if a bit solicitous.' That last phrase—'a bit solicitous'—bolsters suspicions that he may tell Trump what he thinks Trump wants to hear. Whatever his degree of loyalty, Caine is probably not quite ready for prime time. Referring to the role of JCS chairman, a retired four-star officer told me, 'There's not a three-star in the world who could do this job.' It requires a level of 'wisdom, depth, and breadth'—as well as 'experience in the bloodbath' of 'the political arena'—that jobs for three-stars don't involve. There's a reason the law requires JCS chairmen to have four stars on their shoulders or to lead a combatant command. The president could sign a waiver to this law—but no president ever has. President John F. Kennedy brought Gen. Maxwell Taylor out of retirement to be JCS chairman. But Taylor had been a four-star Army chief of staff, and he had criticized certain policies of the previous president, Dwight Eisenhower, that Kennedy was in the process of changing. Donald Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush's defense secretary, brought Gen. Peter Schoomaker out of retirement to be Army chief of staff. But Schoomaker had also been a four-star general who headed U.S. Special Operations Command, and Rumsfeld wanted to reorient the Army to emphasize special operations. In other words, on the rare occasions when past presidents or secretaries fired top generals or brought generals out of retirement for high-ranking slots, they did so for a reason. Trump fired Brown and Franchetti for no reason—or, more to the point, for a fictitious reason ('DEI')—and hired an entirely unsuitable retired three-star to replace Brown. (He hasn't yet announced Franchetti's replacement to head the Navy.) The Times reported that Trump was determined to fire Brown because of a four-minute video that the general recorded after the police killing of George Floyd. It's a moving video, one that Brown made after a conversation with his son, reflecting on his own experiences as a Black Air Force pilot and a rising officer, including the obstacles he faced in doing so. But he concluded that, at the heart of everything, he is a United States Air Force combat pilot. It is also worth noting that Trump, in his first term, named Brown the Air Force chief of staff (the position he held before Biden promoted him to chairman of the Joint Chiefs)—and boasted that he was the first African American officer to hold that vaunted rank. That was then. The political winds have since changed. Trump helped change the winds and intensified the storm.
New York Times
22-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Hegseth Fires Navy's Top Officer
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that he was firing Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first female officer to rise to the Navy's top job of Chief of Naval Operations, and would be looking for her replacement. The announcement came in a statement emailed to reporters Friday night, shortly after President Trump said he was firing Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mr. Hegseth said in his statement that he would also replace Gen. James C. Slife, the Air Force's vice chief of staff, as well as the top uniformed lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force. Both Admiral Franchetti and General Slife 'have had distinguished careers,' Mr. Hegseth said, adding 'We thank them for their service and dedication to our country.' 'Under President Trump, we are putting in place new leadership that will focus our military on its core mission of deterring, fighting and winning wars,' he added. According to her official biography, Admiral Franchetti received her commission in 1985 through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Northwestern University, just seven years after the Navy ended its prohibition on women serving on ships at sea. She became a surface warfare officer at a time when women joining the fleet in that role were typically limited to serving on auxiliary ships — noncombat vessels that carry cargo, fuel, ammunition or specialized equipment to repair submarines. The prohibition against women serving on warships ended in 1993, opening the door for officers like Admiral Franchetti to compete equally with their male counterparts. Women were not allowed on submarines, however, until 2010. She spent roughly half of her 40-year career at sea, rising to command the destroyer U.S.S. Ross, and later a destroyer squadron, two aircraft carrier strike groups, all naval forces in Korea and the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. Admiral Franchetti became the 33rd Chief of Naval Operations on Nov. 2, 2023, making her the first woman to have a permanent seat as a member of the Joint Chiefs. At the time, the White House cited Admiral Franchetti's 'extensive operational and policy experience' as among the reasons President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had picked her. The firing of a service chief such as Admiral Franchetti is vanishingly rare, though President Trump fired another four-star female admiral less than 24 hours after his second inauguration. That was Adm. Linda L. Fagan, who as commandant of the Coast Guard shattered a glass ceiling to become the first woman to lead a branch of the armed forces. The last Chief of Naval Operations to not complete a full four-year term in office was Adm. Mike Mullen, who became the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2007. A decade earlier, Adm. Jeremy M. Boorda, a Chief of Naval Operations who was the first person in Navy history to begin their service as an enlisted sailor before becoming a four-star admiral, died by suicide in 1996. Thirty years before that, the Navy's chief during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Adm. George W. Anderson, retired early in 1963 after clashing with Robert McNamara, who was the defense secretary at the time. During his second administration, Mr. Trump has shown personal animus toward high-ranking military officers, both those on active duty and some who retired years ago. Mr. Trump has suggested that Gen. Mark A. Milley, his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who retired in 2023, should be executed for engaging with his Chinese counterpart during the turmoil surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection. General Milley's official portrait as chairman was removed from the Pentagon on Inauguration Day. A week later, Mr. Hegseth revoked General Milley's government-funded personal security detail, which was provided to the retired general because of the death threats he has received from Iran following the U.S. strike that killed a powerful Iranian general in early 2020. Mr. Trump's supporters have also threatened General Milley over his contacts with his Chinese counterpart during the first Trump administration, assuring them that the United States was not seeking to strike them, or trigger a military crisis.
