Current WaPo article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/25/us/politics/esper-trump-defense-military.html
The Pentagon is facing a hemorrhage of talent as senior officials resign amid continued efforts by the White House to purge those perceived as political foes, including the Army lieutenant colonel who testified in the House impeachment hearings.
The challenge of managing White House pressures and concerns about morale inside the Pentagon confronts Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, who is already in a precarious position with President Trump. Mr. Esper angered the president this month by breaking publicly with him over whether active-duty military troops should be sent to control the wave of protests in American cities.
From the start of his term, Mr. Trump has had trouble with both the military and civilian hierarchy at the Pentagon, which likes to present itself as apolitical.
Mr. Trump’s first defense secretary, Mr. Mattis, ran afoul of the president on a number of issues, from deploying troops to the southwest border to the withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal to Mr. Trump’s order to pull American troops out of Syria. The man Mr. Trump chose to succeed Mr. Mattis, Patrick M. Shanahan, only lasted six months before resigning amid an F.B.I. investigation into episodes of family violence.
Last November, Mr. Trump fired his Navy secretary, Richard V. Spencer, amid a dispute between the president and his own senior military leadership over the fate of a SEAL commando in a war crimes case.
In December, Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific affairs, resigned. In January, Eric Chewning, Mr. Esper’s chief of staff, followed suit. In February, the president fired Mr. Rood, who was part of the Pentagon team that told Congress that Ukraine had made the necessary changes to justify sending the country $250 million in promised security assistance. The certification undermined a key argument that Mr. Trump’s defense team made during his impeachment battle: that the president withheld the aid because he was concerned about corruption in Ukraine.
In April, the acting Navy secretary, Thomas B. Modly, resigned after his efforts to appease Mr. Trump resulted in a bungled response to a coronavirus outbreak aboard the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, engulfing the Navy in a command crisis and a public relations disaster.
etc., etc.
Or The Borowitz report:
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/donald-trump-blasts-mark-milley-this-is-not-the-military-i-avoided-serving-in
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a series of angry tweets on Thursday, Donald J. Trump lashed out at the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, declaring, “This is not the military I avoided serving in.”
Calling Milley’s apology for appearing in last week’s controversial church photo op “a disgrace,” Trump said, “The United States military of my youth was known for courage and valor, which is why I got a podiatrist’s note to get out of being a part of it.”
Recalling that episode from a half century ago, Trump said, “As I watched my podiatrist dictate that note, I thought about the great institution of the U.S. military, which I would be exempted from participating in. That institution is unrecognizable today.”
With his apology, Trump claimed, “Mark Milley has besmirched the memories of all the Americans who fought so hard to avoid fighting.”
In his most caustic broadside against Milley, Trump questioned the general’s ability to lead U.S. forces and said that he might have to find “someone else” to launch the American invasion of Seattle.
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