You may have missed it amid a flurry of news about President Donald Trump‘s disastrous “Liberation Day,” which sent stock markets into a tailspin and sparked fears of a recession. But late last week, Trump made yet another politically-charged personnel change to our nation’s armed forces. While it’s easy to miss news like this thanks to Trump’s “flood the zone” media strategy, this is something we should all be paying attention to. Here’s why.

Last Friday, President Trump removed Gen. Timothy Haugh from his dual roles as director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and commander of United States Cyber Command (CYBERCOM). The enormous power of these two positions cannot be overstated. Gen. Timothy Haugh isn’t just another senior military officer; he held one of the most sensitive and powerful jobs in America. These abrupt changes in leadership are yet another manifestation of how the Trump administration is moving to seize control over critical American institutions, both inside and outside government. The removal of Gen. Haugh is wrong and disturbing on so many levels that it’s difficult to know where to start. Turning control of the NSA and CYBERCOM over to Trump loyalists should be of concern to every American.

The politicization of our military is now indisputable. If Gen. Haugh’s “sin” was that he was recommended for his positions by Gen. Mark Milley, then by this metric none of our senior officers are qualified to serve in this administration. Nearly all of our generals and admirals change position every two or four years. As a result, all of our senior officers have been put into their current roles by former President Joe Biden and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the recommendations of Gen. Milley or Gen. Charles Brown and Biden-appointed civilian leaders like myself. Those recommendations were based on the officers’ long records of faithful, professional service to their country under presidents of both parties. No professional military leader should be fired because the president, without evidence, presumes they are not loyal to him personally. There is no precedent for this, and it directly politicizes our military.

If anyone thought the earlier firings would be the end of the Trump purge of the military, that assumption just went out the window. Navy Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield’s more recent firing just reinforces this point. America has just under 40 generals of four-star rank. Trump has now fired 10 percent of them, all without cause. This is completely unprecedented.

Every serving military leader is now painfully aware that the rank and position they have spent their entire careers attaining is on the line if they say or do anything that earns the president’ s disfavor. Even worse, they need to fear the wrath of the president’s unofficial advisors, such as Laura Loomer, a political extremist who was such a political liability to the Trump campaign that her high visibility access to Trump during the campaign was terminated. All general officers know that they serve at the discretion of the president; do they now also serve at the discretion of a 31-year-old conspiracy theorist?

I know Gen. Haugh well. Like all of our most senior officers he has served with distinction and professionalism over a decades-long career, proving repeatedly his maturity, leadership ability, and professional judgment. In Gen. Haugh’s case, he has a special skill set, technical intelligence, and cyber warfare that very few other military officers possess. He has served in multiple administrations from both parties. He has always given every civilian he reported to, including myself, the two things they most need from our military professionals: his best military advice and professional execution of the decisions and orders he has received. Like all of the officers Trump has fired, he would have given the same to this administration. He would have also given the American people the other thing we, and most presidents demand—loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law. In the world of cybersecurity and espionage, adherence to the rule of law is of extreme importance. Our own freedom depends on it.

Taken together, NSA and CYBERCOM concentrate in one place an unprecedented and unique set of powers. This is where America and the world’s most sophisticated tools and techniques are developed and used to penetrate computer networks and systems, to monitor communications around the globe, and to attack those systems when national security demands. U.S. legal constraints severely limit the use of those tools, especially their use in the United States and against American citizens and businesses. I am confident Gen. Tim Haugh would ensure compliance with those laws. We don’t know who his replacement will be, and we can only hope that he or she will perform the jobs as professionally as Gen. Haugh did.

The move to install leadership loyal to Trump personally at NSA and CYBERCOM is one more disturbing part of the Trump administration’s pattern of abuse of power, coercion, and disregard for the rule of law. We see this pattern everywhere. It is evident in the Trump approach to immigration enforcement, education, voting rights, the practice of law, and the authority of the courts, just to name a few. We will now have the opportunity to see how these features of the Trump administration manifest themselves at NSA and CYBERCOM. Every American should view this development with alarm.

Frank Kendall was the secretary of the Air Force during the Biden administration. He served as undersecretary of defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics in the Obama administration. He is a graduate of West Point and retired from the Army Reserves as a lieutenant colonel.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.