Trump administration ousts Coast Guard’s top officer

The Trump administration has ousted the Coast Guard’s top admiral, according to a message to the service’s members circulated Tuesday, in what could be the first of several changes to military leadership under the new commander in chief.

Adm. Linda Fagan, who in 2022 became the first woman to lead a branch of the U.S. military, was relieved of her duties as commandant by Benjamine Huffman, President Donald Trump’s interim homeland security secretary. Huffman’s message does not provide a reason for the decision.

“She served a long and illustrious career, and I thank her for her service to our nation,” it says.

Adm. Kevin E. Lunday, who had been the service’s No. 2 officer, was named acting Coast Guard commandant, Huffman’s message to the force says. Lunday became the service’s vice commandant in June after previously leading Coast Guard personnel on the East Coast.

The move, first reported by Fox News early Tuesday, could mark the first of several personnel changes affecting the most senior levels of the U.S. military. Trump has pledged to force out those he has called “woke” generals and admirals, and his nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said before he was selected for the position that he would fire the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., and others who have supported diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Brown attended Trump’s inauguration Monday and said he intends to stay in his role.

Coast Guard officials referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the service. An official with DHS said in a written response to questions that Fagan was “terminated because of her leadership deficiencies, operational failures, and inability to advance the strategic objectives of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

The statement blamed Fagan for “ineffective deployment of Coast Guard assets to support national border security, especially in interdicting fentanyl and other illicit substances”; insufficient coordination with DHS to prioritize operations along maritime borders; inadequate leadership in recruiting; mismanagement in acquiring icebreaker ships, helicopters, and other essential equipment; “excessive focus” on “non-mission-critical” diversity efforts; and an “erosion of trust” due to her alleged mishandling of Operation Fouled Anchor, an investigation in which service officials scrutinized numerous allegations of sexual assault and did not disclose them publicly.

The statement left out context in several of its allegations. Among them, while the Coast Guard struggled for years to recruit and retain personnel, it made its recruiting goals in 2024 after Fagan bolstered the number of recruiters and recruiting stations.

Under Fagan’s supervision, the Coast Guard in 2023 was rocked by revelations of a long-running coverup of sexual abuse allegations at its academy in Connecticut. An extensive report detailing the cases was completed in January 2020, during Trump’s first administration, but it was withheld from Congress and the public by the service’s commandant at the time, Adm. Karl Schultz. Fagan later apologized for not proactively making lawmakers aware of the problems, and Schultz told CNN late last year that he withheld the investigation because he was worried about the privacy of victims involved.

Fagan made history when President Joe Biden chose her as the first woman to lead a military service. As commandant, she led a force of about 45,000 active-duty personnel and 7,000 part-time reservists, overseeing a complex mission that includes lifesaving efforts at sea, drug and migrant interdiction efforts at ports and in waterways, and some missions to counter U.S. adversaries abroad as far away as the Arctic, the Middle East and the Pacific.

In March 2024, she warned that the challenges the Coast Guard face “are many,” and said the service was adapting artificial intelligence and other modern technology to bolster efforts.

Fagan, 61, joined the Coast Guard after commissioning at the Coast Guard Academy in 1985, initially serving on a polar icebreaker and then rising through the ranks to serve as the commander of Coast Guard forces in the Pacific and then the vice commandant.

At her confirmation hearing in April 2022, Republicans and Democrats on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee said she was qualified for the post and had served well in earlier jobs.

“Admiral Fagan understands the needs of the public, of the Coast Guard, and those who will be under her charge,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (Mississippi), then the ranking Republican on the committee. “She has the experience, judgment, and poise this Nation expects of its leaders and, yes, this is an important step for all women as she takes command of one of the branches of the nation’s armed services.

Retired Adm. Paul Zukunft, the Coast Guard commandant from 2014 to 2018, said in an email that he was “shocked and saddened” by the decision.

“It was obviously pre-loaded,” he wrote, “and sends a strong signal regarding diversity, equity and inclusion.”