'These are dictator moves': Defense officials alarmed as Trump installs more loyalists at the Pentag

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

Source: Business Insider

President Trump is continuing to remove senior defence officials and replace them with loyalists, creating growing alarm in the Pentagon that his rapid overhaul of key staff could undermine national security.

Since Trump fired Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Monday, three other Defense Department officials have either resigned or been sacked. Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Anderson quit on Tuesday after clashes with the White House over its attempts to insert controversial figures into top Pentagon positions.
Snip----
One defense official was quoted by CNN as saying: "This is scary. It's very unsettling" adding that "these are dictator moves."
snip----
House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith said in a statement on Tuesday that the "gutting" of the department ought to "alarm" Americans.

Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-installs-loyalists-at-the-pentagon-officials-sound-alarm-2020-11

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Trump is a certifiably insane madman, just like Hitler.

[Mike 03]

1. Strong, frightening quotes in this article:

However, officials told the Washington Post that Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist could be the next White House target for dismissal.

House Armed Services Chairman Adam Smith said in a statement on Tuesday that the "gutting" of the department ought to "alarm" Americans.

"It is hard to overstate just how dangerous high-level turnover at the Department of Defense is during a period of presidential transition. The top policy professional in the Department resigning the day after the Secretary of Defense was fired could mark the beginning of a process of gutting the DoD — something that should alarm all Americans," he said.

In separate remarks, Smith, the Democrat representative for Washington, told Politico: "If this is the beginning of a trend — the President either firing or forcing out national security professionals in order to replace them with people perceived as more loyal to him — then the next 70 days will be precarious at best and downright dangerous at worst."

[llmart]

3. "ought to "alarm" Americans."

I, for one, am alarmed. However, I doubt most Americans are alarmed. We've already seen that millions of them think he's worthy of reelection.

The building of that fence and the so-called "vacation" that Pence was whisked away on alarms the hell out of me.

[StClone]

42. Back in Iowa: *"Trump is a Fighter and that is why we want him as our President"

We are now a Southern Red State and join shit-hole states like N, S, Dakota and yearn to be "Free' under the authoritarian rule of the Greatest President of all time.

*Actual quote from relative in the Beautiful Land of Iowa. What happened to the once proud people of Iowa is pretty scary and we should take note. Guess they are aging, white, and have WHO and WMT hate radio booming Rush and Hannity.

[llmart]

49. That's pretty sad for you.

But I grew up in Ohio and I'm dismayed how that's turned out too. Glad I don't live there any longer.

[StClone]

50. I live in Wisconsin now

But am still all-Iowan at heart. And sad too.

[Lonestarblue]

2. At the moment, the bigger problem is senior Republicans egging him on.

I really don’t know what they hope to accomplish. After much digging, they have found no credible evidence of ballot fraud. Courts will throw out their cases, and based on the margin of Biden’s win, I doubt even the Trump Supreme Court would take the case. I don’t think Roberts wants to be in the middle of something like this.

That leaves Republican legislatures appointing their own slate of delegates to the EC, which will also be overturned in the courts because the vote in each state where this might be tried supports Biden by the thousands and they need credible evidence of fraud to do this, which they do not have.

What are Republicans gaining from this charade?

[Escurumbele]

7. I believe he has compromised many of them, and they know he will spill the beans on them

if they don't follow the line...

I have read enough USA history, but not enough to become an expert, but in my view, the republican party has always had a lot of bad apples, even Theodore Roosevelt (republican) had to fight them, but never in the history of that party have there been so many corrupt officials. The republican party today is rotten to the core, they need to be cleansed, which will be very difficult because it seems the young republicans have been learning from these corrupt people and they believe in their methods.

I hope that Biden/Harris manage to up the education system, the USA needs people to become educated, when they do they will reject corruption and thus the republican party.

[CentralMass]

37. They are a traitorous bunch. This is a coup.

[bringthePaine]

4. fucking Russian bullshit - time to fire up another impeachment ASAP

[DENVERPOPS]

13. If there was a list of:

What would Putin do....????? This would be high on the list............

For years we have seen Trump & RepubliCONs do horrific things to us that favor Putin's Russia. It's like they are going down Putin's wish list and checking them off when accomplished. Seriously........

[calimary]

33. That's always a smart way to look at it. What would Putin do?

What would ANY self-proclaimed oligarch or dictator (or in this case, the wannabe-dictator) do - or want to do? Or try to do?

[Hotler]

5. Well "Mr. One Defense offical" what are you going to do about? nt

[Escurumbele]

6. Well, this is a test to our military

Will they defend the country against domestic enemies?

[DENVERPOPS]

34. Agreed

It may come down to the Supreme Court, but also will come down to our military. With his actions taking out the top of the Military Defense Command, and putting in his lackeys, it is painfully obvious that they have something planned that involves the military of the U.S.

It is perfectly clear to this administration that they will need the U.S. Military to be willing to be ordered to back them up to pull off a "COUP", and their deepest fear being a military "Counter Coup" supporting the people not the RepubliCONs Fascist Agenda.....

[Firestorm49]

8. Yes. It's alarming. But what the hell are we supposed to do about it?

What can we do about it?
Who can intervene, since apparently that’s a possible consideration?

[BamaRefugee]

46. Exactly. We're all supposed to ba alarmed, be vigilant, fight the power, blah blah blah yet NO ONE

EVER gives us concrete ideas as to how to proceed.

[TNNurse]

9. Who is telling Trump what to do????

You know he cannot figure this out on his own.

[bdamomma]

41. his silence

is our answer. Lawrence O'Donnell said it best last night. His silence is his concession speech.

[TNNurse]

43. Oh, I agree but

these firings and the Pentagon appointments, who is doing that???

[bdamomma]

44. That is the scary part

but the military will not support him they obey the Constitution. And after listening to Lawrence O'Donnell last night I felt more reassured.

[mdbl]

10. I hope it alarms the internal workings of the military

they may end up having to save themselves until the emperor is removed.

[Mr. Ected]

11. One thing is for sure, Trump has exploited the unwritten rules of our Constitution

And in the process has undermined the integrity of our democracy once and forever.

Trump needs to be seen as Public Enemy #1, in spite of his "popularity". Trying to adhere to the constricts of a 250 year old piece of parchment when it, too, will burn when he brings us all down with it, is fools play.

[rocktivity]

12. And just in time for his "Million MAGA March" this Saturday

Hoping for violence (that he'll blame on BLM and Antifa) so he can call in the troops and institute martial law? He's getting marching orders from Putin, all right.


rocktivity

[DENVERPOPS]

15. It is becoming painfully obvious

that what ever "brain washing" technique Trump and RepubliCONs have used on their mass of voters, Putin has also used on Trump and the RepubliCON party, RepubliCON Senators, RepubliCON politicians, and this entire RepubliCON administration........

[jalan48]

14. What is our Democratic leadership saying about this? What's our message?

[Doodley]

17. I'm not seeing any strategy. This isn't something to sit back and let it develop. There needs to be

strong, clear messaging that reaches as many people as possible that completely undermines what Trump is doing.

[jalan48]

22. I agree. Credible people are speaking out about it.

What are we waiting for?

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

30. Maybe we won't know what the strategy is until they

lower the boom.

It's never wise to let your enemies know how you are going to attack them before you attack them.

[jalan48]

54. Like there's an iceberg approaching the ship but we're going to wait until it hits to tell

you what our strategy is going to be to deal with it?

[jmbar2]

16. Scary thread from Bill Kristol

These moves could be in prep for military action against Iran, which could then trigger the war powers act to keep tRump in power.

Link to tweet

[Doodley]

18. Trump wouldn't give a shit about nuking Iran to stay in office.

[thesquanderer]

23. Maybe such a command would finally persuade Pence et al to invoke the 25th. n/t

[Doodley]

25. When? After the nukes have been launched?

[thesquanderer]

27. When he requests the football. (n/t)

[Doodley]

31. I thought it was always in close proximity, no more than a moment away. There will be no time.

[DENVERPOPS]

39. As I understand the process

The president gives an order on the football, it goes to a group of 10 high ranking military officials that are always standing by, and they decide yes or no to agree/disagree and send the order on to the group that sends the info to missile silos, submarines, etc.

From the time of the order from the President to launch is approximately 14 minutes as I understand it.

I am hopeful that that is true and that there are level headed people in the military officials who screen the order.

[thesquanderer]

47. I put it that way for brevity. The point is, once he decides to do it...

...enough other people and steps are involved to be able to stop him. It's not like he and the football carrier are alone, and he opens the briefcase, types in "Iran," hits a button, and kaboom. Pence or other senior advisors would have the opportunity to say "this is insane, we need to invoke the 25th."

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:tK-k00LhkeMJ:https://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-bomb-launch-procedure-us-government-president-2017-11+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[Eyeball_Kid]

38. Pence has never shown an iota of integrity. He'd rather...

hide up Trumpy's ass than invoke the 25th. He's useless.

[jmbar2]

19. More from Kristol

Link to tweet

[marie999]

24. The War Powers Act will not keep him in power.

On January 20, 2021, he is out of office. Of course, he could start a war while still in office, but there isn't anything in the Constitution that keeps him in power when Biden takes the oath of office. When Biden takes office, he can not order the military to do anything. I doubt that there will be a coup since he will not have the backing of the military. If there is a coup, the Secretary of Defense will have less power than the Joint Chiefs of Staff. If he goes too far, I think there will be a military coup to get rid of him.

[jmbar2]

29. Thanks - that is reassuring

[Crowman2009]

20. They won't be so loyal when they get infected with COVID.

[ananda]

21. This is alarming, but..

.. a coup would require the entire military to go along
with it; and I'm not even sure that would work because
we as citizens would rise up en masse.

I think it's just a lot of noise.

[dlk]

26. Could this be a coverup of shady deals selling arms & intelligence under the table?

We know Trump doesn’t miss a chance to grift and is usually up to no good. We also know American defense technology & intelligence is extremely valuable. What is he hiding?

[Bayard]

28. My understanding

Is that even the rank and file military can't stand him after the losers/suckers comments, and allowing Putin to put bounties on American soldiers' heads.

What does he think he's going to use the military for domestically? Especially when their oath is to the Constitution, not him.

[Doodley]

32. Other nations must be on high alert right now.

[disalitervisum]

35. This fucking filthy whore steps foot on Arlington and desecrates myself and my family

Get the fuck away from there! Cut your own throat for daring to pretend loyalty to brave women and men who died so you and your cocksucking children could be criminals. FUCK YOU RIGHT IN YOUR HEAD FOREVER.

[BobTheSubgenius]

36. I always view moves like his through the lens of:

"How would this advance his lust for power and craving - existential need - to stay in the White House?"

He can indulge his whims and shuffle civilian appointees around at will. Not being an expert, or even really well informed (as compared to many around here, not compared to the average Drumpf voter) about Constitutional Law and his powers therein, I'm not clear on his reach into the actual military hierarchy. THAT could be terrifying, if you believe, as I do, that he would absolutely change military leadership if he thought they would follow him into sedition, and he has the power to make those changes.

[NBachers]

40. He's putting a juicy America out on the corner, unprotected; hoping someone

comes along and attacks her. This will allow him to claim a national emergency and dissolve all controls and restrictions on him.

[McCamy Taylor]

48. Maybe Putin is about to invade some place....

[Blue Owl]

51. And just plain dick moves

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

52. Too bad the Repugs are chickenshits who put loyalty to Trump above country.

Fat Donnie's purge is the action of someone who is mentally incapable of fulfilling the duties of his office. The 25th Amendment would be appropriate, but not a single Republican will suggest it. We have to win in Georgia and then destroy the Republican Party.

[BlueWavePsych]

53. Time for 25th Amendment?

[BComplex]

55. Why are they quitting? Why don't they just stay there to stop any craziness from catching on?

That's going to leave nobody but idiots in the entire DOD.