ADM Linda Fagan, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, speaks with cadets during a visit to the Coast Guard Academy, in New London, Feb 28, 2023. U.S. Coast Guard Photo
WASHINGTON, Jan 21 (Reuters) – The Trump administration has fired U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Lee Fagan, the first female uniformed leader of an Armed Forces branch, for putting diversity issues over border security, Fox News Digital reported on Tuesday.
The report said she had been terminated by Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman.
The White House and Homeland Security Department did not immediately return a request for comment on the report.
The Coast Guard sent a message to its members confirming that Fagan had been removed.
Trump adviser Elon Musk, who leads the new administration’s effort to cut costs across the federal government, alluded to efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in an X post but did not explicitly confirm the termination of Fagan.
“Undermining the US military and border security to spend money on racist/sexist DEI nonsense is no longer acceptable,” Musk, the world’s richest man, wrote on X.
Trump has vowed to eliminate DEI programs in federal government agencies.
Earlier, Fox News cited an unidentified senior Department of Homeland Security official as saying Fagan had been fired over concerns about the border, recruitment and “erosion of trust.”
It cited the failure to address border security threats, to recruit and keep staff, mismanagement in acquisitions and an excessive focus on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Former President Joe Biden nominated Fagan to lead the Coast Guard in 2021. She became the first female uniformed leader of a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.
(Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Susan Heavey; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Chizu Nomiyama)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.
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