Trump withdraws the military back into the political and cultural wars

In his early days, President Trump fired the first woman who has ever headed military service, signed a command to send American US troops to the border and said he had reinstated. To take Covid vaccinations, a violation of military health rules.

And a portrait of his former high -ranking military consultant, to whom Mr. Trump was accused of unfaithful, was quickly reflected in the Pentagon.

Mr. Trump’s candidate for Defense Minister Pete Hegseth said during his hearing in his confirmation last week that the president had a military “laser -oriented on lethality, meritocracy, war struggle, accountability and willingness”.

It doesn’t start.

Instead, the military is again where it did not want to be historical: in the middle of political and cultural wars, which could undermine the support of the cross -party support and finally the support of the public for a military that should be apolitical.

The removal of General Mark A. Miley’s portrait, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, from a hallway, with portraits of others who had the job’s jobs.

General Mille appointed Mr. Trump in his first term. But the general annoyed him by speaking out against the use of troops with active service in 2020. He also pulled the president’s anger to the authorities had used tear gas and rubber bullets to open a peaceful demonstration.

“There will be troops who believe that Mille represents the fire brigade between lawful and illegal order” W. Bush and Barack Obama.

“It is like reducing the flag on half the mast,” said General Lute. “Not because everyone falls in love with Mark Milley far from it, but the fact that he, as chairman, believed that he was doing what was right and showing the story that he was on the right side of decision -making. “

Also gone is the commander of the coast guard, Admiral Linda L. Fagan, who was the first female uniformed leader of a branch of the armed forces. One of the reasons why it was released was “excessive focus on diversity, justice and inclusion”.

Admiral Fagan, who was previously the command of the service, completed the Coast Guard Academy as part of the sixth grade in 1985. It rose through the rows and served at sea on an icebreaker and on land as a marine security officer.

The admiral was told in the evening of the inauguration that it had been fired when she was waiting to take a photo with Mr. Trump to the commander -in -chief, said a military officer. The efforts to achieve Admiral Fagan for a comment were unsuccessful.

While the new Trump team sweeps into the Pentagon, other high -ranking military officers are on seeing whether they will have similar fates.

Mr. Hegseth, a former moderator of Fox News and a veteran, criticizes the Pentagon leadership for his inclusion efforts and said that women should not serve in combat roles. Of the nation’s 1.3 million active troops, 230,000 women and more than 350,000 are black.

In his book “The War against Warriors”, Mr. Hegseth refers to Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the head of the naval operations and the first woman who serves in the joint bosses as “another inexperienced first”.

Admiral Franchetti has been working in the Navy for 40 years and commanded aircraft carriers.

Mr. Hegseth has also demanded that General Charles Q. Brown Jr., who took General Milley, was released. General Brown is a four-star fighter plane with 130 battle hours and several commanding tours in the Asian-Pacific area and in the Middle East during his four decades.

“If you want to find a way to decimate the military and wipe out your leadership,” said Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint bosses under President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama, in an interview.

On Wednesday, the new Ministry of Defense held its first press conference to announce that there were 1,500 troops in the active service to the border to prevent migrants from entering the United States. You will connect about 2,500 troops that already do logistical and bureaucratic jobs such as vehicle maintenance and data input.

As part of this new wave, the first of around 500 Marines near the border south of San Diego arrived on Thursday. However, a sea officer involved in the operation said that the mission has so far been “planned”.

The officer, who spoke on the condition of the anonymity to avoid reprisals of high -ranking commanders, described this initial phase as a photo to please Mr. Trump, not an attempt to stop a border emergency.

During his first term in office, Mr. Trump declared a national security emergency on the southern border and ordered thousands of American troops to be used there.

Pentagon officials say that Mr. Trump’s command is a military abuse to train for fighting wars. The Posse Comitatus Act, a 146-year-old law, prohibits the application of armed forces for law enforcement purposes on US floor, unless the congress or the constitution expressly authorizes it.

This is the same logic General Milley and other leading national security officers who were used during the first Trump-At time when he advised the President not to use the Insurrection Act for the use of American troops with active service to use Black Lives Matter demonstrators suppress.

Each of the armed forces was instructed on Tuesday to comply with Mr. Trump’s various guidelines. The army, for example, received about two dozen commands. In any case, army officers were instructed to freeze the financing, to create a review body and to report on how the army intends to deal with the guidelines in 30 days.

Orders aimed at diversity offices and initiatives, transgender problems, climate change and financing of service members in order to travel to states after abortions or other reproductive health services if they are awarded in states in which abortion is now prohibited.

In the Pentagon, a soldier found on Wednesday that the campaigns of the new government have previously contained a repeated quality compared to the military, including the detection of troops to the border and the promotion of white men about women and members of minority groups.

There are even precedents, said the soldier that he has put down General Milley’s portrait. As early as 2019, the Trump White House asked the marine to hide a destroyer who was named after Senator John McCain to avoid the ship was recorded while Mr. Trump visited Japan. (Mr. Trump didn’t like the Arizona senator.)

Until late Wednesday, another portrait of General Mille was still hanging in the Pentagon, several gears and a floor of the now empty space in which its other portrait was once.

It is the general, when he was the army chief of staff, a job he left in August 2019 after Mr. Trump promoted him to the chairman of the joint heads of staff. In the Pentagon, some discussions were spoken about when the new Trump team would notice.

John Ismay Reported reports.