Trump ready to name new Joint Chiefs chairman
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is expected to name Gen. Mark A. Milley, the Army chief of staff, to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top-ranking military position in the country, administration officials said Friday.
Mr. Trump teased the decision in remarks to reporters at the White House on Friday, saying that he would make an announcement at the Army-Navy football game Saturday in Philadelphia.
“I can give you a little hint: It will have to do with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and succession,” the president said.
Mr. Trump, who made several staff change announcements Friday, met two weeks ago with Gen. Milley and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein, the two men believed to be in contention to succeed Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. of the Marines, whose term as chairman expires next autumn.
It is unusual for a successor to the top military job to be chosen so early, but the president has long been known to have a preference for Gen. Milley. That preference was at odds with Mr. Trump’s defense secretary, Jim Mattis, who is believed to have wanted Gen. Goldfein for the job.
Mr. Trump lately has been overriding Mr. Mattis on a number of issues, most recently the decision to send U.S. troops to the border with Mexico to counter caravans of migrants making their way north from Central America. But Pentagon officials said Mr. Mattis, a retired Marine, was perfectly willing to work with Gen. Milley, a graduate of Princeton University who also holds a master’s degree in international relations from Columbia University.
Gen. Milley has a long military pedigree with some of the Army’s legendary units, like the 82nd Airborne Division and the 10th Mountain Division. He has served multiple combat deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Before he was appointed Army chief in May 2015, Gen. Milley was head of Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg, N.C.