Who, exactly, made the decision to shut down the Stars and Stripes?

[Baitball Blogger]

14. +1

I did conclude that Trump, through Esper, wanted the paper gone.

This was my response to the right-winger:

Let's look at the Timeline: In June 2019, Trump appointed Mark Esper as Secretary of Defense. We all know how Trump operates. He appoints loyalists. From the beginning, Esper said there would be budget cuts: "Esper has said since his Senate confirmation to become defense secretary that he would review the Pentagon’s spending on support agencies that aren’t directly involved in warfighting, including so-called Fourth Estate programs.

“We will reform the department, beginning with the Fourth Estate,” Esper said during his confirmation hearing in July 2019. “No reform is too small.” This was in July 2019, as reported in the Stripes.

In the months that followed, both the Stripes and The Military Times would post articles or polls, unfavorable to the president. And we all know how much Trump hates the media. So the budget cut request was sent to Congress, and directly tied to the Administration: Per USAToday:

"The memo ordering the publication’s dissolution claims the administration has the authority to make this move under the president’s fiscal year 2021 defense department budget request. It zeroed out the $15.5 million annual subsidy for Stars and Stripes. "

And finally, almost hidden in a caption in Forbes magazine: "The Trump administration previously ordered the paper's dissolution" So, yes, this happened because Trump wanted it to happen.