Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead a branch of the US Armed Forces, was among those removed by Trump on his first day.
The head of the United States Coast Guard has been removed from her position, as newly inaugurated President Donald Trump follows through with his pledges to fire top officials.
On Tuesday, US media published reports that four-star Admiral Linda Fagan had been ousted, less than 24 hours after Trump had taken office.
She was part of a wave of dismissals as Trump sought to swiftly reshape the executive branch, brandishing the catchphrase carried over from his time as a reality TV star: “You’re fired.”
Fox News was the first to report Fagan’s removal. In 2022, Fagan became the first uniformed woman to lead a branch of the US Armed Forces.
According to a statement sent to Coast Guard units and obtained by The New York Times, the incoming administration found Fagan unfit for several reasons.
“She was terminated because of leadership deficiencies, operational failures and inability to advance the strategic objectives of the U.S. Coast Guard,” the statement said.
It also alleged that Fagan had pursued an “excessive focus” on diversity, equity and inclusion policies, known by the acronym DEI.
Trump has pledged to dismantle DEI programmes within the federal government, calling them “illegal and immoral”.
On Monday night, shortly after he was sworn in, Trump issued an executive action to that effect, calling on federal agencies to “terminate” DEI initiatives.
“The public release of these plans demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination,” he wrote.
Fagan was one of several officials in Trump’s crosshairs on his first and second day in office.
Late on Monday night, Trump also posted a message on his platform Truth Social teasing widespread firings.
“My Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again,” he wrote.
The post identified four people to whom Trump offered the following message: “YOU’RE FIRED.”
They included General Mark Milley, a former Trump appointee-turned-critic who told the journalist Bob Woodward that the Republican leader was “fascist to the core”.
Another individual identified in the post was Spanish American chef Jose Andres, the founder of World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that provides meals in disaster zones.
Andres had served on the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition under Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, and Biden awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom earlier this month for his humanitarian work.
The chef clapped back at Trump’s “YOU’RE FIRED” post with a social media missive of his own on Tuesday.
“I submitted my resignation last week…my 2 year term was already up,” Andres wrote, the sentence punctuated by laughing and shrugging emojis.
“May God give you the wisdom, Mr. President, to put politics and name calling aside…and instead lift up the everyday people working to bring America together.”
