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Opening arguments begin on Tuesday in the trial of a 73-year-old man accused of murdering a Palestinian-American boy in an attack in the US state of Illinois which police have linked to the Israel-Hamas war.Joseph Czuba has pleaded not guilty to murder, attempted murder and hate crime charges in connection with the October 14, 2023 stabbing which left six-year-old Wadea Al-Fayoumi dead and his mother, Hanan Shaheen, seriously wounded.A jury was seated on Monday for the trial, which is taking place at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet and is expected to last about one week.According to the Will County Sheriff’s Office, the victims were targeted “due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis.”Czuba, who was the family’s landlord, allegedly stabbed the boy 26 times.Speaking to reporters ahead of the trial, Joseph Milburn, an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he was praying for a life sentence for Czuba “so we can send a message that hate crimes against anyone on the basis of their religion and national origin are not tolerated.”Then-president Joe Biden condemned the attack as a “horrific act of hate” that “has no place in America.””The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek — a refuge to live, learn, and pray in peace,” Biden said. “As Americans, we must come together and reject Islamophobia and all forms of bigotry and hatred.”

Republican billionaire businessman Vivek Ramaswamy kickstarted his campaign for governor of Ohio on Monday, one month after quitting US President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.Ramaswamy had co-led the DOGE with tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and Trump’s biggest donor, in its mission to gut federal staffing and spending.”President Trump is reviving our conviction in America, we require a leader here at home, who will revive our conviction in Ohio,” Ramaswamy said in a speech on Monday. A former 2024 presidential primary candidate, Ramaswamy went on to endorse Trump, who returned the favor by appointing him to the DOGE. His departure from the commission was announced soon after Trump’s inauguration in late January. There were already reports then that he intended to run for governor of the state.Trump endorsed his bid on Monday evening.”I know him well, competed against him, and he is something SPECIAL. He’s Young, Strong, and Smart!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “He will be a GREAT Governor of Ohio, will never let you down, and has my COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT!” he added. Ramaswamy ignited controversy among conservatives in late December when he defended visas for highly skilled foreign workers, who are widely employed in Silicon Valley. He had suggested that companies prefer foreign workers because they lack an “American culture,” which he said venerates mediocrity.”A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” he had posted, warning that, without a change in attitude, “we’ll have our asses handed to us by China.”The election for Ohio governor will take place on November 3, 2026. 

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Monday that peace cannot mean the “surrender” of Ukraine, but said talks with US President Donald Trump had shown a path forward despite fears of a transatlantic rift.Meeting at the White House on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, the two leaders said there was progress on the idea of sending peacekeepers to Ukraine, although Macron insisted on US security guarantees for Kyiv.Their talks came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for peace “this year” as he met European leaders in Kyiv — amid mounting fears that Trump is pivoting towards Russia’s stance.Early Tuesday, air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine as authorities warned of a wide missile attack.They later reported at least five people were wounded and multiple buildings were damaged. Authorities in neighboring Poland said they scrambled military aircraft in response to the missile attack. At the United Nations, the United States sided with Russia twice on Monday, as Washington sought to avoid any condemnation of Moscow’s invasion of its pro-Western neighbor.”This peace cannot mean the surrender of Ukraine,” Macron told a joint news conference with Trump. Macron said Trump had “good reason” to re-engage with Russian President Vladimir Putin but said it was critical for Washington to offer “backup” for any European peacekeeping force.The French president said he would work with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who visits the White House on Thursday, on a proposal to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine in the event of a deal.”After speaking with President Trump, I fully believe there is a path forward,” said Macron.- ‘End it within weeks’  -The French president rushed to Washington after Trump sent shock waves around the world when he declared his readiness to resume diplomacy with Russia and hold talks to end the Ukraine war without Kyiv.Trump’s recent embrace of Russia has sparked fears not only that it could spell the end of US support for Kyiv, but for the rest of Europe too.The US president said Monday he was confident of bringing an end to the war, and that he expected Zelensky at the White House in the next two weeks to sign a deal granting Washington access to Ukraine’s rare minerals. “I think we could end it within weeks — if we’re smart. If we’re not smart, it will keep going,” Trump said earlier in the Oval Office alongside Macron.Macron later agreed that a truce was possible in “weeks,” in an interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier.Trump meanwhile added that Putin was ready to “accept” European troops deployed in Ukraine as guarantors of a deal to end fighting.But billionaire tycoon Trump repeated his demands that Europe bears the burden for future support of Ukraine, and that the US recoups the billions of dollars in aid it has given Kyiv.He also declined to call Putin a dictator — despite calling Zelensky one last week — or to comment on the UN resolutions.For his part, Putin has been biding his time since his ice-breaking call with Trump less than two weeks ago.Putin said in an interview with state television Monday that European countries can “participate” in talks to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, his first sign of flexibility on the issue.- ‘Decisive break’ -Sanctions-hit Moscow is meanwhile also eying the economic side, just as Trump is. Putin said Monday that US and Russian companies were “in touch” on joint economic projects — including strategic minerals in occupied Ukraine.Putin added in his interview with state television that Zelensky was becoming a “toxic figure” in Ukraine — in comments that have been echoed by Trump.Trump and Putin are eyeing a possible meeting in the coming weeks in Saudi Arabia.Zelensky, who has said he would step down in exchange for peace with a guarantee that Ukraine could join NATO, called on Monday for a “real, lasting peace” this year.Putin’s decision to launch the invasion in February 2022 set off the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides and of Ukrainian civilians.Trump has however accused Ukraine of starting the war, as he rapidly moves to abandon Democratic predecessor Joe Biden’s support for Kyiv.The Republican spelled things out on Monday, saying he was making a “decisive break” with traditional US foreign policy which he called “very foolish.”In a sign of Washington’s pivot, the US sided with Moscow and North Korea as it pushed its own language in a vote in the UN General Assembly that declined to blame Russia for the war.The United States then hailed a “landmark agreement” with Russia after the UN Security Council later adopted a US resolution that also contained no criticism of Moscow’s aggression.

They hugged, they gripped hands, they touched knees and they backslapped. But they did not agree on everything.French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump rekindled the most touchy-feely bromance in world politics as they met on Monday for talks on Ukraine.The pair have a long history of public displays of affection dating back to Trump’s first term in power — and as Macron returned for Trump 2.0, it seemed like another lovefest.But as they met in the Oval Office, tensions over Trump’s sudden pivot to Russia over the Ukraine war bubbled up to the surface, even if Macron softened the blow with yet another physical gesture.The French president — unusually for any visitor to the Oval Office — interrupted his 78-year-old counterpart when Trump repeated a false claim that Europe was merely loaning Ukraine money and would get it back.”No, in fact, to be frank,” said Macron, touching his US counterpart’s arm to stop him mid-sentence, “We paid 60 percent of the total effort and it was — like the US — loans, guarantees, grants.”Trump smirked and said after Macron spoke: “If you believe that, it’s ok with me.”- ‘Smart customer’ -But while they don’t see eye to eye on Ukraine, they still only seem to have eyes for each other.”He’s a smart customer,” said Trump, tapping Macron affectionately on the upper arm after telling a story about a meeting in Paris, when he discovered that what the French leader had been saying in his native tongue about a trade deal was not what he had told him.Macron responded by gripping Trump’s hand and they laughed together, with the 47-year-old even appearing to wipe a tear of mirth from the corner of his eye.On the way into the West Wing, they shared an embrace and another crushing handshake.Then in their joint press conference, they broke off after their opening statements to share yet another grip and grin, before heaping compliments on each other.Macron hailed their “friendship from your first term” while Trump lavished praise on the Frenchman for the restoration of the fire-damaged Notre-Dame cathedral.”Say hello to your beautiful wife,” Trump said at the end of the press conference.International diplomacy is always heavy with symbolism, but Macron and Trump have always been unusually blatant in the way they use body language as a power play.Since they first met, Macron has appeared keen to resist Trump’s habit of using overbearing handshakes to put other world leaders — both literally and figuratively — off-balance.- ‘Friendly but firm’ -The mother of all handshakes came when they met for the first time in Brussels in 2017, the year they both started their first presidential terms.Grimacing with effort, the much younger Macron grabbed Trump’s hand until the US president was forced — twice — to release his grip.Photos showed white finger marks on Trump’s hands left by Macron’s intense palming.Their charm offensive continued a year later when Trump took Macron’s hand and practically dragged him into the Oval Office in 2018.But Macron’s bromantic overtures failed to persuade Trump to stay in the Paris climate agreement and an international deal with Iran to limit its nuclear program.The relationship cooled during Trump’s wilderness years, but Macron was quick to strike after his reelection in November 2024.Trump was delighted to be invited to attend the reopening of the Notre-Dame cathedral in December, an early reintroduction to the world stage.True to form, the leaders engaged in yet another muscular, awkward handshake — this time lasting a full 17 seconds.British journalist Piers Morgan, a long-term friend of Trump, said their latest display at the White House showed that Macron knew what he was doing.”No world leader handles Trump as well as Macron. Friendly but firm, respectful but not afraid to stand up to him when he thinks he’s wrong. And Trump respects him for it,” Morgan said on X.

US President Donald Trump on Monday called for the revival of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline project opposed by environmental activists that was blocked under his predecessor Joe Biden.Biden formally rescinded a permit for the pipeline — first proposed in 2008 — by executive order on his first day in office in January 2021 over environmental concerns, reversing course from Trump during his first term.While the project had long been backed by Canada, Keystone XL had been opposed by environmentalists and Indigenous groups, who organized rallies against it in Washington, Ottawa and in other affected areas.”The company building the Keystone XL Pipeline that was viciously jettisoned by the incompetent Biden Administration should come back to America, and get it built — NOW!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, referring to the Canadian company involved in the project.The company, TC Energy, had argued that bringing so much oil from friendly, neighboring Canada would reduce US dependence on oil from more adversarial countries.The 1,210-mile (1,950-kilometer) pipeline, part of which was completed, was to transport up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from the Alberta oil sands to Nebraska, which then would travel through an existing system to refineries in coastal Texas.Canadian regulators approved the project in 2010, but it was then blocked by US president Barack Obama in 2015 due to environmental concerns — a decision that his successor Trump reversed in 2017.

Dutch Merrick isn’t really in a party mood for this year’s Oscars.As for many below-the-line Hollywood workers, life has been hard for the veteran prop master, and became even more difficult when he lost his home in the deadly fires that ravaged Los Angeles in January.The personal tragedy couldn’t have come at a worse time for Merrick.Between the historic twin strikes that paralyzed Hollywood for much of 2023, the upheavals linked to streaming and the exodus of production projects from California, he hasn’t had a big job in two years.”Work disappeared,” says Merrick, who specializes in supplying and ensuring the safe use of weaponry on sets.”I don’t think anyone in our generation could fathom that this workflow would just turn to a trickle.”He is now dependent on a food bank run by IATSE, the union for those working in Hollywood’s technical trades — editors, set designers, camera operators, costumers and makeup artists.Volunteers see about 40 families every week at their premises near the Warner Bros. studios, stocking up on fruits, vegetables and other necessities.Launched during the writers’ and actors’ strike in 2023, the initiative looks set to become a fixture, says union representative DeJon Ellis. “The industry is in a contraction period, and it’s slow compared to the past seven years,” with around a third fewer jobs available, says Ellis.”The fires compounded the problems.”- Streaming bubble bursts -Film and television built Los Angeles, and has for decades played a significant role in the city’s economy.But 2024 logged the lowest number of days of filming in the region since records began — with the exception of the pandemic standstill of 2020.The reasons are complicated but, Ellis says, the bursting of the streaming bubble was a significant contributing factor.Gone are the days when each studio tried to imitate Netflix, launching frequent glossy, high-budget TV series.Shareholders are now looking for a return on their investments and want profits, instead of just the promise of growth.As a result, studios are producing less and relocating what they do make — if Los Angeles isn’t losing out to other US destinations like New Mexico or Georgia, it’s facing competition from tax-efficient destinations like Thailand, Hungary and South Africa. “I think the very foundation of Hollywood has been shaken to the core,” says Merrick.”I honestly think tax incentives started the race to the bottom.”Much like departing automakers hollowed out Motor City, Merrick worries that Los Angeles could become a shell of its former self.”I’m originally from Detroit, Michigan, and we’ve seen this script play out before,” the armorer said.”We’ve seen an entire industry outsourced to other regions where they can get cheaper and cheaper labor.” – Artificial intelligence – Lawmakers under pressure to preserve a major industry are planning to double the tax credits available to companies filming in California.But Veronica Kahn doubts that this will be enough in the face of fundamental changes in the way the audience thinks.”People spend more time watching tons of 30-second videos on TikTok; they have less time to watch movies and series,” the 42-year-old sound engineer told AFP.And even very short productions are not being made the way they used to be.”For the Super Bowl this year… there was a lot of artificial intelligence, and a lot of animation. So our jobs are already disappearing,” she said.Strikes by actors and writers that crippled Hollywood were in part about protecting them from the use of artificial intelligence and to demand better pay.But Kahn says while the actors and the writers won, people like her lost.When filming resumed in early 2024, “I was told that with all this extra money that they had to pay to the writers and the actors, they couldn’t afford an additional person for sound.”Since then, “each time I’m meeting with producers, they tell me that it’s for work outside of Los Angeles,” she sighs.Despite having cut back on eating out and — ironically, perhaps — cancelled her streaming subscriptions, Kahn still finds herself short and is grateful for the IATSE food bank.”It really helps, any little bit helps,” she says, gesturing to a bag filled with lemons, avocados and eggs.Since the fires, studios have provided millions of dollars to help those affected, including the people who rely on them to make a living.But in his union hall, Ellis would prefer those studios do something else. “If you really want to help all the fire victims, make more movies and TV shows here in Los Angeles,” he says.

Months after trekking through the treacherous jungle between Colombia and Panama, Saudy Palacios abandoned her hopes of a new life in the United States and joined other migrants going home to South America by sea.”There’s no American dream anymore,” said the 27-year-old Venezuelan, who was traveling with her husband and 11-year-old son.”There is no hope. No dream. Nothing,” she told AFP.Palacios said she had waited nine months for a chance to seek asylum, before US President Donald Trump canceled the appointments and vowed mass deportations after taking office on January 20.She is part of a reverse flow that has seen hundreds of migrants, including children, board boats in recent days from the island of Carti off Panama’s Caribbean coast for a roughly 12 hour journey to a port in Colombia.The sea route enables them to avoid migration controls and the arduous return trek by foot through the Darien Gap between Central and South America.But while they avoid dangers including fast-flowing rivers, wild animals and criminal gangs, the journey is not without risk: an eight-year-old Venezuelan girl died after one of the boats sank on Friday.- ‘No future’ -Going home only adds to the cost of the failed attempt to reach the United States. Palacios and her family said they had spent more than $2,000 on the return trip alone, relying on relatives in Venezuela to send them $250 to pay for the boat.Most of the migrants going home came from Mexico without documents and in debt after spending between $5,000 and $10,000 on their unsuccessful journeys.They have slept in shelters or on the street, gone hungry and sold candy at traffic lights to pay for buses or boats back to their countries.When Astrid Zapata arrived from Mexico with her husband, four-year-old daughter and a cousin a few days ago at a migrant shelter in the Costa Rican capital San Jose, the first thing she did was hang the Venezuelan flag in their small sleeping cubicle.”There’s no future now in the United States. But I’m afraid. It’s very hard to go back into the jungle. One mother lost two children there. I saw them drown in the river,” she told AFP.Karla Pena was one of 300,000 migrants who crossed the Darien in 2024, along with her two-year-old baby, daughter, son-in-law and a grandson.The experience “was the worst thing in my life,” the 37-year-old Venezuelan said at a shelter in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, where she traveled to from Mexico. “Going back is hard. It’s been hard because we move from country to country, without passports, and now to think that the jungle or a boat awaits us ahead,” she said.For these women and their families — part of the exodus of eight million Venezuelans in the past decade — the risk of being kidnapped and extorted again in Mexico meant staying there was not an option.- ‘Broken dreams’ -Maria Aguillon abandoned her home in a small town in southern Ecuador in December with her husband, three children and three grandchildren. “We had to leave because there was a lot of killing. I lost a son,” she told AFP, in the San Jose shelter.They crossed the Darien from Colombia, but her husband was stopped and sent back from Panama, so she continued without him, hoping to join two children living in the United States.Now the 48-year-old is trying to find a job in Costa Rica.Yaniret Morales, a 38-year-old mother staying at the shelter in Tegucigalpa, said she was “starting from scratch.”She decided to return to Venezuela with her 10-year-old daughter, but only “to save up some money and emigrate to another country” — not the United States.Although Central American governments say they are trying to help migrants go home, it is a chaotic process.Panama and Costa Rica are confining migrants to shelters in remote border areas.”They promised humanitarian flights, and nothing. Pure lies,” Palacios said.”We’re returning to our country with broken dreams.”

A US judge on Monday declined to immediately order the White House to restore full access to President Donald Trump’s events to the Associated Press news agency.District Judge Trevor McFadden denied the AP’s emergency request but set a date next month for a more extensive hearing about the dispute.The White House began blocking AP journalists from the Oval Office two weeks ago over the wire service’s decision to keep using “Gulf of Mexico,” despite a Trump executive order renaming the body of water as the “Gulf of America.”The AP, in a suit filed in Washington against three White House officials, said the move violates the First Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and of the press.Lawyers for the White House rejected the argument saying “the president has discretion to decide who will have special media access to exclusive events.”McFadden, a Trump appointee, declined the AP’s request to issue a restraining order temporarily restoring AP’s access to all Trump events and scheduled a March 20 hearing to revisit the case.The judge also appeared skeptical about the ban, according to US press reports, calling it “problematic” and saying the White House may want to reconsider its position.The White House welcomed McFadden’s initial ruling.  “As we have said from the beginning, asking the President of the United States questions in the Oval Office and aboard Air Force One is a privilege granted to journalists, not a legal right,” the White House said in a statement.Lauren Easton, an AP spokesperson, said the agency looks forward to the next hearing “where we will continue to stand for the right of the press and the public to speak freely without government retaliation.”The White House initially blocked AP journalists from the Oval Office and later extended the ban to Air Force One, where the news agency has long had permanent seats.- ‘Discretionary’ -White House chief of staff Susan Wiles, deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich and press secretary Karoline Leavitt were named as defendants in the AP suit.Their lawyers, in a motion filed with the court, said the case is not about prohibiting the AP from attending press briefings or using press facilities at the White House.”Instead, this case is about the Associated Press losing special media access to the President — a quintessentially discretionary presidential choice that infringes no constitutional right,” they said.”Most journalists have no routine access to the Oval Office, Air Force One, or the President’s home at Mar-a-Lago,” they said. “The President has discretion to decide who will have special media access to exclusive events.”In its style guide, the AP noted that the Gulf of Mexico has “carried that name for more than 400 years” and said it “will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen.””As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences,” it said.The 180-year-old AP has long been a pillar of US journalism and provides news to print, TV and radio outlets across the United States and around the world.

Employees of the US federal government on Monday faced a deadline imposed by Elon Musk that required them to explain their work achievements in an email or potentially lose their jobs.The demand represents the latest challenge from Musk against government workers as his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) works toward gutting federal staffing and spending.DOGE is a wide-ranging entity run by the tech entrepreneur and world’s richest person, though its cost-cutting campaign has faced increasing resistance on multiple fronts, including court rulings and some pressure from lawmakers.On Saturday, more than two million federal employees received an email from the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) — the government’s HR department — giving them until 11:59 pm Monday to submit “approximately 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week.”The message followed Musk’s post on X, which he owns, that “all federal workers” would receive the email and that “failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”As the deadline neared and confusion reigned on what to make of the threat, President Donald Trump defended Musk’s message, calling it “ingenious” as it would expose whether “people are working.””If people don’t respond, it’s very possible that there is no such person or they’re not working,” Trump told reporters.Non-responders would be “sort of semi-fired” or fired, Trump added without explaining his thinking further.Musk on Monday said Saturday’s email “was basically a check to see if the employee had a pulse and was capable of replying to an email.” “This mess will get sorted out this week. Lot of people in for a rude awakening and strong dose of reality. They don’t get it yet, but they will,” he added on X.- ‘Increase accountability’ -Creating confusion among an already anxious workforce, multiple US federal agencies — including some led by prominent Trump loyalists — told staff to ignore the email, at least temporarily.The list included the Defense Department, which posted a note requesting staff “pause any response to the OPM email titled ‘What did you do last week.'”US media reported that Trump administration-appointed officials at the FBI, the State Department, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence also instructed staff not to respond directly.Cyber security seemed to be a key concern, with staff at the Department of Health and Human Services told to “assume that what you write will be read by malign foreign actors” and that they should “tailor your response accordingly.”At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, workers were told their answers would stay within the department, at least for the present, and that an answer was not mandatory, according to an email to staff.Meanwhile, workers at the Treasury Department were directed to comply with Musk’s request as it “reflects an effort to increase accountability by the federal workforce, just as there is in the private sector,” said an email sent to Treasury staff, seen by AFP.As confusion spread across the federal workforce, speaking anonymously, an administration official told Politico that employees should defer to their agencies on how to respond to the email.- ‘Dose of compassion’ -Unions quickly opposed Musk’s request, with the largest federal employee union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), vowing to challenge any unlawful terminations.Several recent polls indicate that most Americans disapprove of the disruption to the nationwide federal workforce.Concern has begun to emerge on Capitol Hill from Trump’s own Republican party, which controls both the House and the Senate.”If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like, ‘Please put a dose of compassion in this,'” said Senator John Curtis of Utah, whose state has 33,000 federal employees.”These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages,” Curtis said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”Dozens of lawsuits against Musk’s threats or demands have yielded mixed results, with some requests for immediate halts to his executive orders being denied by judges.One federal judge on Monday barred the Education Department and the Office of Personnel Management from sharing sensitive information with the Musk-led department.

President Donald Trump has launched a sweeping shakeup of the Pentagon, firing top officers and moving to lay off thousands of civilian workers as he seeks to align the US military with his priorities.The removal of the officers has pushed the Pentagon into the political spotlight, with Democrats accusing Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of seeking to politicize the military and ensure it is led by people personally loyal to the president.Remaining above the political fray is a core principle for the US armed forces, with troops even barred from engaging in some types of political activity in order to maintain the military’s neutrality.Hegseth has insisted the president is simply choosing the leaders he wants, saying “there is civilian control of the military. Nothing about this is unprecedented.”Trump “deserves to pick his key national security and military advisory team,” Hegseth told “Fox News Sunday.”But Senator Jack Reed — the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee — argued that “what Trump and Hegseth are trying to do is to politicize the Department of Defense.””It’s the beginning of a very, very serious degradation of the military,” Reed said on ABC’s “This Week.”Trump announced late Friday that he was firing top US military officer General Charles “CQ” Brown less than two years into his four-year term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.Hegseth then said he was also seeking a replacement for top US Navy officer Admiral Lisa Franchetti, as well as the Air Force vice chief of staff and three top military lawyers.The shakeup of senior personnel came after the Pentagon announced it aims to cut at least five percent of its more than 900,000-person civilian workforce, saying the decision was taken “to produce efficiencies and refocus the department on the president’s priorities.”- Undermining ‘competence and capability’ -Representative Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Trump fired Brown as well as thousands of federal employees “not because they weren’t competent or good at their jobs, but because Trump wants sycophants.””Anyone who doesn’t pledge loyalty has to go,” Smith said in a video posted on X, adding: “That really undermines the competence and capability of the people serving our country.”Trump administration officials have defended the firings, with Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson arguing that the removal of the senior officers is in keeping with past presidential actions.”Truman fired General MacArthur. Lincoln fired General McClellan. Obama fired General McChrystal. Yet the Fake News still claims we’re in ‘uncharted territory,'” Wilson wrote on X.But those generals were fired due to specific problems — Douglas MacArthur for overstepping his authority and defying orders, George McClellan for insufficient aggression on the battlefield and Stanley McChrystal because he and his aides reportedly criticized US officials.No accusations of misconduct have been made against the recently removed officers, with Hegseth saying Brown is “an honorable man” but “not the right man for the moment.”Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that while there are various examples of senior officers being relieved, “it has generally been for competence issues.””This does not appear to have been, at least to a significant degree, about the competence of General Brown, for example,” and if the removals were not based on performance, “then this is uncommon.”Jones said he does not however think that “at this point… the vast majority of the uniformed military has been politicized.”It is when civilian and uniformed leaders disagree that “you judge whether the military has been politicized. Are they giving their best military judgment on an issue, which is what they’re sworn to do? So we’ll have to see,” he said.