The U.S. Air Force Academy Board of Visitors is getting a Trump make-over, but it will not impact the Colorado lawmakers on the board.
Over social media, President Donald Trump on Monday said he ordered the “immediate dismissal of the Board of Visitors for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Coast Guard. We will have the strongest Military in History, and that begins by appointing new individuals to these Boards.”
The dismissals only apply to the members who are presidential appointees. The president names six members of each of the boards, typically for three-year terms. The vice president appoints three, the Speaker of the House appoints four and one member is appointed each by the Senate Armed Service Committee and the House Armed Services Committee.
GOP Rep. Jeff Crank was appointed to the USAFA Board of Visitors by House Speaker Mike Johnson at the end of January, replacing former Rep. Doug Lamborn on the board. He remains on the board.
Sen. John Hickenlooper was appointed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2022 and will also stay on the board.
Former President Joe Biden appointed Jenna Ben-Yehuda, Eric Kenneth Fanning, Major General James C. Johnson, USAF (Ret.), Dr. Laura Junor-Pulzone, Dr. Hila Levy, and Lt Col. Wesley Spurlock, USAF (Ret.) to the USAFA Board of Visitors in April 2022.
Biden asked 18 Trump appointee members of service academy boards to resign in the fall of his first year in office. Those who did not resign were terminated. A couple of them were Trump loyalists, appointed in the final days of his administration. For example, Trump in December 2020 nominated his advisor Kellyanne Conway and Heidi Stirrup, a former White House liaison at the Justice Department, to the Board of Visitors for the USAFA.
The Board of Visitors for each service academy is tasked with making recommendations about the institution to the Pentagon and Congress, as well as to “inquire into the morale, discipline, and social climate” of students, among other issues.
