Pentagon anticipates major upheaval with Trump's return to White House

Source: Washington Post

Updated November 7, 2024 at 8:28 p.m. EST | Published November 7, 2024 at 6:31 p.m. EST


The Pentagon anticipates major upheaval once President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, amid fears that the once and future commander in chief will follow through on vows to deploy the military domestically against American citizens, demand fealty from key leaders and attempt to remake the nonpartisan institution into one explicitly loyal to him.

The trepidation harks back to Trump’s first term, when he smashed norms and frequently clashed with senior Pentagon leaders — including several of his own political appointees. He has shown no signs of altering course this time around, stating throughout his campaign an intent to use military force against the “enemy from within,” to fire any military officer associated with the chaotic evacuation from Afghanistan after he left office in 2021, and to reverse what he and his supporters have denounced as “woke” decisions by the Biden administration that include renaming several Army bases that had honored Confederates.

“The greatest danger the military faces” under a second Trump presidency is a “rapid erosion of its professionalism, which would undermine its status and respect from the American people,” said Richard Kohn, a professor and military historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Mr. Trump does not have a real understanding of civil-military relations, or the importance of a nonpartisan, nonpolitical military.”

A spokeswoman for Trump, Karoline Leavitt, said that with Tuesday’s vote, the American public had given him “a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/11/07/trump-military-pentagon/