Vaporizing Another Norm, Trump Goes Partisan Inside the Pentagon

[James48]

Source: GovExec.com

The generals tried hard to keep politics out of the Pentagon, but even they don’t have the firepower to stop Donald Trump.

The president went to the Pentagon on Thursday to deliver what was supposed to be a speech announcing the findings of the Defense Department’s missile defense review. Instead, the president used senior uniformed and civilian DOD leaders as a backdrop for a partisan political speech. This time, Trump bashed Democrats and previous unnamed presidents while proclaiming his own greatness on everything from missiles to the budget, the Iran deal, and the military’s overall strength.

It was unprecedented, even for a commander in chief who has used troops as backdrops since his 2016 campaign. Trump started his presidency by crossing unwritten lines — and perhaps Constitutional boundaries — by giving a politically charged speech inside CIA headquarters at Langley, Va. and, one month later, disparaging the American press before troops at the Tampa, Fla., headquarters of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command. Both drew sharp criticism, for politicizing America’s strictly apolitical intelligence professionals and troops who swear oaths to serve the Constitution and are expected to do theirs sometimes life-threatening jobs without regard to the party of the president.

More recently, when Trump visited troops in Iraq and in Germany, he was again criticized for the political nature of his rallies and message, especially after troops were permitted to bring red “Make America Great Again” hats for him to sign.

Paying the critics no mind, Trump made no attempt to keep his Thursday appearance politically neutral.



Read more: https://www.govexec.com/defense/2019/01/vaporizing-another-norm-trump-goes-partisan-inside-pentagon/154261/?oref=river

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He is damaging the Armed Forces of the United States.

[workinclasszero]

1. Hell Trump is forcing the US Coast Guard to work without pay!

Trump and the GOP brought back slavery!

That's the "good ole days" the Trump cult wants to force on the entire country!

[YOHABLO]

2. When Trump is visiting the troops, where ever, MSM seems to show that the troops really like him.

I wonder, just how well liked Trump really is liked by the troops. Has there been any polls done on this?

[watoos]

6. I'm afraid the vast majority of the military like Trump.

That's what I hear from people who have kids serving.

[Crowman2009]

11. If Drumpf told them to jump over the cliff like a bunch of lemmings, they would.

Sort of like the over-patriotic armies of the first world war who did close formation charges toward machine guns. There is a lot of group think in our military. A lot of it due to asskissers desperate for a promotion. This also translates to obeying horrible decisions by incompetent commanders, and leads to them coming home in a wooden box.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

13. The vast majority of the military

seem to have been indoctrinated into Republicanism (and hatred of Democrats) in general. Reason #1284536 why I would *never* want to be part of the military.

[tblue37]

17. Our all-volunteer military is drawn largely from the same demographic that makes up

Trump's base. Not entirely, of course, but largely.

[IronLionZion]

14. Active duty are not allowed to criticize the president

but people who recently left the service have spoken their mind about how shitty he is

[Rural_Progressive]

15. The UCMJ is very clear on this sort of thing

"Thou shalt not trash talk a superior officer" Since Donnie O is the "Toddler-in-Chief" he is, by definition, every military person's superior officer. As such, any criticism of the POTUS could potentially result in a Courts Martial or at a minimum have a detrimental effect on one's career in the military.

You're only going to hear how military people feel after they become veterans. Plenty of them support Donnie for what reason I can not understand but plenty of us don't.

[Cold War Spook]

7. I don't know about the troups,

but I have doctors at 3 clinics in Jacksonville and Wilmington NC. The most vocal veterans are followers of Trump. I ask them intelligent questions about the wall and have yet to receive an intelligent answer. Other veterans that will talk to me one on one are against Trump. Since I can not talk to all the veterans, a guess would be 2 to 1 in favor of Trump.

[Crowman2009]

12. How many of these vocal veterans are officers & SNCO's?

Because those ranks tend to be chock full of right-wing assholes.

[Cold War Spook]

21. I don't know.

Most veterans wear a patch of some kind stating service or wars, but very few show rank. The percentage of Whites that are for Trump is much higher than the percentage of Blacks and Browns. Remember also that this is just 3 clinics in a southern state with a Democrat Governor but highly Republican in the state house.

[fierywoman]

3. Is this the speech where, I read this morning, that when he started the partisan

stuff, there was dead silence on the part of the audience?

[TeamPooka]

4. yes and they say so in this one too

[Doitnow]

18. I watched and listened (ugh) to the whole speech. There was one applause when he was introducing

some official and then total silence thereafter. Not. One. Clap. It was on YouTube. If you search Trump speech at Pentagon 1/17/2019 you too can watch and listen.....and then, throw up.

[fierywoman]

20. Thanks for the info. I started listening (all of about 1 minute) and then couldn't

anymore -- nice to know the silence was really there !!!

[Achilleaze]

5. Five-time republican Draft-Dodger disgraces himself

and pisses on our American military. Again.

Deplorable.

[lark]

8. This isn't about "damaging" them, it's about recruiting them to his side.

He wants them voting for him naturally, but this is being done to prep them to killing the "disloyal, anti-America" Dems on demand if we riot when he tries to overturn our constitution.

[EarthFirst]

9. He should go visit with Coast Guard commanders and enlisted personnel

Try his luck at politicking in front of unpaid service members.

[Hugin]

10. Yet another blatant violation of several laws goes unpunished.

This would have ended any previous Presidency, cold.

This is all on McConnell at this point.

[onetexan]

16. the crazy orange man neither knows, nor cares, of any norms to be observed

he only cares to use any occasion for publicity to denegrate his detractors, tout his non-existent achievements, and spew more lies in classic communist-style propaganda. I'm sure Putin has been coaching him.

[Doitnow]

19. Why do you suppose he visits all those autocrats----picking their brains on how they got where he

wants to be, I'd say!!