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This is an adapted excerpt from the Aug. 27 episode of “The ReidOut.”
Now that Donald Trump is trying to get elected again, he’s pretending to care about America’s military service members and veterans — or at least trying to get you to forget all the ways he’s denigrated them.
This weekend marked six years since Vietnam War hero Sen. John McCain died. It also marks six years since Trump had to be shamed into releasing a formal statement on the senator’s passing. Trump’s pettiness in the wake of McCain’s death is just one example of his pattern of disrespect for America’s military.
Trump’s pettiness in the wake of McCain’s death is just one example of his pattern of disrespect for America’s military.
He has reportedly called fallen soldiers “losers and suckers” and told aides he didn’t want to see disabled veterans at events. He recently said the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest presidential civilian award, is better since recipients of the Medal of Honor, the highest military award, are either dead or have combat wounds.
He’s also denigrated the generals who’ve served under him, suggesting the execution of the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and calling his former White House chief of staff and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly “stupid.”
Now, another general who served under Trump, former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, is giving his inside account of the former president’s chaos. In a new book, McMaster writes about how Russian dictator Vladimir Putin manipulated Trump by playing to his “ego and insecurities with flattery.” McMaster also says Trump set the stage for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 by entering into negotiations with the Taliban.
Trump’s threats to our country’s military aren’t just in the past. If he wins a second term, Trump has expansive and draconian plans for the military. He’s already plotting to fire top military leaders who don’t share his vision — an idea straight out of Project 2025:
“There’s woke at the top. They want there to be woke but these guys aren’t meant for woke….I would fire them. You can’t have woke military….You need people that want to win. They want to win wars. That’s what their purpose is, to win wars not to be woke.”
Firing top officers is one of many ways Project 2025 seeks to rebuild a military it refers to as “Barack Obama’s general officer corps.” In addition to calling for firing and freezing promotions for generals, Project 2025 also wants to rebuild and retrain the military. It would require all public schools to administer the military entrance exam for recruitment. The document also calls for the reinstatement of active-duty members who refused Covid vaccines and restoring their rank.
Project 2025 pushes for abolishing diversity, equity and inclusion offices and staff — ostensibly to make the military whiter and reduce women’s roles. It also calls to expand support for the Department of Homeland Security’s border protection operations. In plain English, that means deputizing the military to round up migrants.
It’s clear Project 2025 would enable Trump’s worst instincts when it comes to his role as commander in chief. The prospect of handing the reins of our military back over to him should terrify us all.
Join Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow and many others on Saturday, Sept. 7, in Brooklyn, New York, for “MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024,” a first-of-its-kind live event. You’ll get to see your favorite hosts in person and hear thought-provoking conversations about what matters most in the final weeks of an unprecedented election cycle. Buy tickets here.
Allison Detzel contributed.
