The Trump administration insists the firings are due to the military leadership's focus on diversity, saying that it has lost sight of its role as a combat force. But Rear Admiral Mike Smith, president of the National Security Leaders for America,

Democrat lawmakers and former national security leaders are furious over President Trump’s Friday night massacre of top Pentagon leadership, which they warned was a dangerous polarization of the military at a time of major geopolitical turmoil.

President Donald Trump has executed a significant overhaul of the U.S. military’s top leadership, dismissing Air Force General Charles Q. Brown Jr., the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, along with five other senior military officials.