Joint Chiefs’ Top Lawyer Leaving Trump Admin Early
The senior legal adviser to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine is stepping down nearly a year before his expected retirement, becoming the latest senior Pentagon official to depart since the start of President Donald Trump’s second administration.
Brig. Gen. Eric Widmar told ProPublica that he was leaving the position for “personal reasons” after serving as the chairman’s senior legal counsel since 2024.
“Earlier this year, my wife and I reflected on the demands of this role, which have required me to live apart from my wife for the past two years and created additional challenges for me and my family,” he said in a statement to the outlet.
“After careful consideration, I decided it was time to place my family at the center of my life and focus on our next chapter together,” he added, per the left-wing outlet.
Widmar’s departure follows a series of high-profile leadership changes at the Pentagon over the past 18 months.
Among them was Gen. Christopher Donahue, the former commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, who reportedly left his post last week after being removed before completing his expected term by War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Earlier this year, Hegseth also replaced Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, ending his tenure roughly halfway through what is typically a four-year assignment.
The leadership changes continued late last year when Hegseth removed Adm. Alvin Holsey as commander of U.S. Southern Command, despite roughly two years remaining in his expected term.
Holsey had been overseeing operations that included drone strikes targeting suspected drug-smuggling vessels in waters near South America.
Shortly after taking office in February 2025, Hegseth also dismissed the top uniformed legal advisers for the Army, Air Force and Navy.
At the time, he said he did not believe they were “well-suited” to provide legal guidance on military orders.
The dismissals drew concern from some legal scholars and former military officials, who argued the changes could weaken the military’s traditional system of legal oversight and adherence to the laws of armed conflict as the Pentagon emphasized a more combat-focused “warrior ethos,” The Hill reported.
All said, however, Trump, as commander-in-chief, and Hegseth, as head of the War Dept., are entitled to service commanders who share their vision for the military. If those officers do not share a similar vision or have their own ideas about how things should be run, they shouldn’t remain in their positions, experts have noted.
But there is no indication that Widmar held a different vision for the military or that he was in disagreement with any of Trump’s policies and vision.
Caine, the principal military adviser to Trump and Hegseth, said in a statement to The Hill that Widmar “is a fantastic Officer and Lawyer” who served the entire U.S. and thanked him for his “remarkable” service.
“I’m personally deeply grateful for Eric and his Family’s service and deeply respect his decision to prioritize his family as he moves on to the next chapter,” Caine said.
“He is deeply respected and admired by all. … We will miss his legal counsel, incredible expertise and experience, and his understanding of our responsibility to always speak truth to power,” Caine added.
A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Widmar has served in the Army for more than 28 years.
Before becoming senior legal counsel to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he served as staff judge advocate for U.S. Central Command, where he oversaw a team of more than 150 legal professionals representing all five branches of the U.S. military, said The Hill.
According to a December CNN report, Widmar advised Caine in November that military commanders who believe they have received an unlawful order should request retirement rather than resign in protest or openly challenge the directive.
The reported guidance came amid ongoing debate among lawmakers and legal experts over the legality of U.S. military operations targeting suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
Trump ‘Briefed With Options’ Amid Stalled Iran Talks
The Trump administration on Wednesday continued to express optimism about negotiations with Iran, even as Iranian officials insist that no direct talks have taken place, according to reports.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister said no face-to-face meeting had occurred in Doha and that no direct negotiations with the United States were currently planned.
Despite Tehran’s position, President Donald Trump described the discussions as “very good,” apparently referring to indirect contacts involving U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner communicating through third-party intermediaries.
Vice President JD Vance struck a firmer tone the same day, warning that the United States could escalate its response if Iran refuses to cooperate or takes actions that further destabilize the Middle East.
His remarks underscored the administration’s message that while it remains open to a diplomatic resolution, additional measures remain on the table if negotiations fail.
“If Iran attempts to rebuild its nuclear program, threaten its neighbors and support terrorism, President Trump has options to deal with it,” Vance noted, without elaborating.
Earlier, a Wall Street Journal report claimed that Trump had been briefed on several military options, including “all-out war,” but Trump said he wanted to give diplomacy more time.
Vance additionally stated that the US “dropped bombs on Iran because it fired on ships, and we used leverage to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”
He went on to suggest that the U.S. could take that course of action again.
Vance also said the current talks are “to discuss the details and flow of maritime traffic.”
The vice president, addressing U.S. military personnel at a naval base in Virginia on Wednesday, also said that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back decades.
“If you look at what our own intelligence says about their nuclear program, they are further away from developing a nuclear bomb than they have ever been since basically the last 20 or 30 years,” Vance said, though he stopped short of Trump’s claim that the program had been “totally obliterated.”
“What the president asks you to accomplish is to destroy the defense industrial base of that country, so that if they ever decided to rebuild their military, or if they ever decided to rebuild that nuclear program, they would be harmless to do it. You did that exactly as well,” Vance added, per the Times of Israel.
The VP went on to say that Trump is now “negotiating from a position of strength because of you.”
“If the Iranians try to rebuild the nuclear program, the President’s got options. If the Iranians try to threaten their neighbors or fund terrorism, we’ve got options,” Vance continued.
“But what we must never do is drop bombs just for the sake of dropping bombs. And that is what the president will never ask you to do,” Vance added.
“He’ll ask you to go to war, yes. But when he asks you to go to war, he’ll tell you exactly what you’re going for,” the veep noted further.
“And I think that is what you should expect out of your political leadership.”
“What I noticed about the people who are attacking the administration for negotiating is that they are the very same people who, for example, encouraged us to just go a little bit further and just drop a few more bombs in places like Afghanistan,” he said.
“If you go back to the mistakes that were made, those very same people refused to say what we were dropping bombs for,” he added.
“We dropped some bombs a couple of days ago… Because the Iranians were shooting at commercial ships… We applied some leverage, and we’ve had free commercial transit for the last three days,” Vance told the naval personnel.
