President Donald Trump fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as part of a campaign led by his defense secretary to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.

The ouster of Brown, the second Black general to serve as chairman, is sure to send shock waves through the Pentagon. His 16 months on the job had been consumed with the war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East. Brown’s public support of Black Lives Matter after the police killing of George Floyd had made him fodder for the administration’s wars against “wokeism” in the military. His ouster is the latest upheaval at the Pentagon, which plans to cut 5,400 civilian probationary workers and identify $50 billion in programs that could be cut to redirect those savings to fund Trump’s priorities.

Here are more Trump administration headlines:

More sparring over transgender athletes: President Trump and Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills had a heated exchange after she told the president, “See you in court” over the issue of trans women in sports. The clash happened during a meeting of governors at the White House. Trump questioned Mills on whether her state would adhere to the federal mandate that bans transgender women from female sports.

Court sides with whistleblowers: The Supreme Court temporarily kept on the job the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over Trump’s agenda. The justices said in an unsigned order that Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, could remain in his job at least until Wednesday, when a lower- court order temporarily protecting him expires.

Trump orders database shutdown: President Trump ordered the shutdown of the first nationwide database that tracks misconduct by federal officers. The move fulfills a campaign promise to reverse police reforms that came out of the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. The Justice Department confirmed to The Washington Post that the database has been shut down.

— From wire and Sinclair National Desk reports