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Trump removes US Coast Guard Commandant Linda FaganTrump removes US Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan

Within hours of being in office the Trump administration terminated Admiral Linda Fagan as Commandant of the US Coast Guard (USCG).

Barry Parker, New York Correspondent

January 22, 2025

2 Min Read
Admiral Kevin LundayCredit: USCG

The first military officer removed from a Command role under newly implemented Trump administration measures was the Commandant of the USCG, Admiral Linda Fagan. Admiral Fagan, who held the Commandant post since June, 2022, has been replaced by Adm. Kevin E. Lunday, who had been Vice Commandant since mid-2024.

Fagan’s career had included a stint as Captain of the Port in the Sector New York and the Commander of the USCG First District.

The exact rationale for Admiral Fagan’s removal, which came about in the late evening hours of  President Trump’s first day in office, is still emerging.

The Day 1 Trump executive orders included a measure eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives from military agencies, as well as dictates aiming at heightened border security. A message from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the USCG, signed by  Benjamin  Huffman, Acting DHS Secretary praised Admiral Fagan, saying that she “served a long and illustrious career, and I thank her for her service to our nation.”

Various “inside the Beltway” media reports linked her removal to issues related to ineffective deployment of USCG assets to support border security (including interdiction of drugs being smuggled in aboard vessels), and a focus on DEI policies that allegedly took away from efforts in acquisition of assets including copters and icebreakers. There were also issues, according to these reports, surrounding Admiral Fagan’s handling of long-standing investigations of sexual assault at the US Coast Guard Academy (in New London, Connecticut).

In a statement issued on 21 January the USCG announced “immediate action” on President Trump’s executive orders related to border security. “The US Coast Guard is the world’s premiere maritime law enforcement agency, vital to protecting America’s maritime borders, territorial integrity and sovereignty,” said Adm. Lunday.

Adm. Lunday said he’d directed operational commanders to immediately surge assets—cutters, aircraft, boats and deployable specialised forces at key border points including the US border approaching Florida, southwest maritime border between the US and Mexico in the Pacific, and the maritime border between Texas and Mexico.

According to the USCG biography new Commandant, Adm. Lunday, a Coast Guard Academy graduate (as is Admiral Fagan) who subsequently earned a legal degree, as well as studying at the Naval War College, is “Experienced in operational and technical cyberspace operations, Admiral Lunday served as Commander, US Coast Guard Cyber Command where he directed the operation, maneuver, and defense of the Coast Guard Enterprise Mission Platform as part of Department of Defense (DoD) networks.

“He also directed remote and deployable cyberspace operations to protect US maritime critical infrastructure from cyberattack. Prior to this role he served as Director of Exercises and Training (J7), US Cyber Command where he directed the joint training and certification of the DoD Cyber Mission Force, the joint US warfighting force in cyberspace.”

Resource:

Message from US Department of Homeland Security

https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCG/bulletins/3cdd8a2

Read more about:

USCGUSAMexico

About the Author

Barry Parker

New York Correspondent

Barry Parker is a New York-based maritime specialist and writer, associated with Seatrade since 1980. His early work was in drybulk chartering, and in the early 1990s he moved into shipping finance where he served as a deal-maker and analyst with a leading maritime merchant bank. Since the late 1990s he has worked for a group of select clients on various maritime projects, also remaining active as a writer.

Barry Parker is the author of an Eco-tanker study for CLSA and a presentation to the Baltic Exchange Freight Market User Group on the arbitrage of tanker FFAs with listed tanker equities.

 

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