Yesterday I wrote about how Trump is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief because of his unconscionable disparaging remarks about our military personnel. In typical Trump fashion he just doesn’t know when to shut up. Today the news wires are all lit up due to his remarks disparaging the very senior levels of the Pentagon.
“I’m not saying the military’s in love with me — the soldiers are, the top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy,” Trump told reporters at a White House news conference.1
Putin must be laughing his ass off. How is it that the Commander-in-Chief insults his entire senior military leadership in public? This type of irresponsible behavior is just unacceptable and yet another threat to the national security of this country by someone who is demonstrably unfit for this job.
This is the same person who just a couple of days ago was denying the article in The Atlantic about denigrating our soldiers and bragging about how he had increased the military budget. So, which is Donald? You can’t have it both ways. You’re the one who increased the damned budgets. If you’re unhappy about how the Pentagon is spending money, perhaps you shouldn’t have increased the budget. Or perhaps you shouldn’t have stood up the ‘Space Command.’ That doesn’t happen without a significant cost. Those were your decisions!!
It’s no secret that the relationship between Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, and Trump has been deteriorating for some time leading to speculation that Trump will replace him. Apparently Esper is on the outs because he publicly opposed Trump’s idea of invoking the Insurrection Act to be able to put US troops on the streets of American cities to deal with civilian protests.
Trump’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act has senior military leaders concerned enough that “for the last several weeks, top military officials — including General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — have been getting regular briefings on civil unrest in major cities across the country. The idea is to be ready with alternative plans for state-activated National Guard and other federal civilian law enforcement rather than have active duty troops potentially clash with protesters, according to several defense officials.”1
Trump has a habit of badmouthing people for a certain period of time before actually getting rid of them. This is probably all part of a strategy so that when he finally gets rid of someone, his base is fully behind the story that they were a ‘bad apple’ and Trump is doing the right thing. If I were paranoid, I’d think perhaps that is what’s going on with the senior military personnel.
Trump is keenly aware that most, if not all, of the senior Pentagon leaders are adamantly against deploying US military personnel against US civilians in support of the Insurrection Act. With Trump, nothing is ever far-fetched, so imagine what would happen if Trump did replace Mark Esper with an ‘Acting’ Secretary of Defense, who was a Trump loyalist and would support Trump’s desire to invoke the Insurrection Act. Or could Trump replace all of the senior military leaders, i.e. Secretary of the Army, Navy, Air Force with ‘acting’ personnel loyal to Trump?
I know this discussion seems absolutely absurd but if the current senior military leaders are concerned enough to get regular briefings on civilian unrest for the purpose of coming up with alternative plans so they won’t have to actually deploy active duty troops should the president order it, maybe it’s not that crazy at all.
We currently have a president who has denigrated, dismissed and denied the intelligence coming out of the US agencies. (See link to Heather Cox-Richardson’s blog below) He has denigrated and insulted people in the military all the way from the top brass at the Pentagon to the fallen soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. He has filled several key posts in the government with people whose sole qualification for their positions are loyalty to Trump and their ability to help him get reelected. What’s to keep him from doing the exact same thing with the military?
Trump can’t get reelected on his response to the pandemic. He can no longer get reelected on the strength of the economy. So ‘Law and Order’ is really his only ticket. I can imagine a scenario (nightmare!) in which Trump will continue to fan the flames of division and unrest, invoke the Insurrection Act to quell the unrest, and run on the argument that he was a decisive and strong ‘Law and Order’ president. The only thing he needs is a military willing to carry out those orders and that will more than likely require a change in some of the senior Pentagon personnel. If I were Mark Esper, I’d get my resume updated. And as an American citizen, I am scared to death that we have a man like Donald Trump in the White House whose actions cause me to think and write about things I never thought imaginable in my lifetime.
PS: On a completely different topic, I have included a link below to an open letter entitled, “Dear White Women, let’s not fall for Trump’s racist bet on us.”2 I thought it was well done and well worth sharing.
PPS: I also have to once again recommend Heather Cox-Richardson’s blog. She provides a great analysis of Volume 5 of the Senate Intelligence Report on Russian interference in the 2016 election and the connections to the Trump campaign. It is nothing short of alarming and depressing.3
Thanks Mike for your commentaries. They are appreciated.
Impulsive behavior is behaving without thinking and without realizing the risk involved in the behavior. Trump believes his “off the wall” comments and his impulsiveness are an attribute since he gets nothing but praise for them as long as he attacks the “Deep State” for his followers. Trump’s followers seem to get a rush of endorphins from his hate speeches and that I believe is from the cult he has created in them. I sometimes wonder who has the greater mental illness. Him or his followers.