Pentagon Fears Purge Under Trump Presidency

Date: 11 November 2024 - 21:44

News ID: ۱۳۳۴۶۶

WASHINGTON (Reuters) --
During his campaign for re-election, Donald Trump vowed to purge the military of so-called “woke” generals. Now that he is president-elect, the question in the halls of the Pentagon is whether he would go much further.
Trump is expected to have a far darker view of his military leaders in his second term, after facing Pentagon resistance over everything from his skepticism toward NATO to his readiness to deploy troops to quell protests on U.S. streets.
Trump’s former U.S. generals and defense secretaries are among his fiercest critics, some branding him a fascist and declaring him unfit for office. Angered, Trump has suggested that his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, could be executed for treason.
Current and former U.S. officials say Trump will prioritize loyalty in his second term and root out military officers and career civil servants he perceives to be disloyal.
“He will destroy the Department of Defense, frankly. He will go in and he will dismiss generals who stand up for the Constitution,” said Jack Reed, the Democrat who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Culture war issues could be one trigger for firings. Trump was asked by Fox News in June whether he would fire generals described as “woke,” a term for those focused on racial and social justice but which is used by conservatives to disparage progressive policies.
“I would fire them. You can’t have (a) woke military,” Trump said.
Some current and former officials fear Trump’s team could target the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, a widely respected former fighter pilot and military commander who steers clear of politics.
The four-star general, who is Black, issued a video message about discrimination in the ranks in the days after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, and has been a voice in favor of diversity in the U.S. military.
Trump’s vice president-elect, J.D. Vance, voted as a senator last year against confirming Brown to become the top U.S. military officer, and has been a critic of perceived resistance to Trump’s orders within the Pentagon.