Former Joint Chiefs chair sounds alarm about Trump’s politicization of military

Prominent military veterans, from retired U.S Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling to retired U.S Navy Adm. William H. McRaven, are sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's purges at the Pentagon — which, they warn, is hurting the military's preparedness. Another is former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Charles Q. Brown Jr., who is sounding the alarm about the politicization of the military during Trump's second presidency.

Trump fired Brown, a retired U.S. Air Force general, from his Joint Chiefs position a little over a month after returning to the White House.

Brown, along with two other vets, discusses these purges at the Pentagon in an essay for Foreign Affairs published just ahead of the Fourth of July. The Wall Street Journal's Michael R. Gordon describes the essay as Brown's "most direct critique of the Trump administration's handling of the U.S. military, questioning the deployment of troops in U.S. cities and warning against tainting the armed forces’ service with politics."

Brown, along with Peter D. Feaver (a former U.S. Navy reservist and National Security Council staffer) and attorney Andrew Kragie, warns, "When presidents use the armed forces for more politically contentious missions, such as addressing domestic crime in cities, the work of the military becomes more fraught. Resorting to a military solution rather than fixing the underlying incapacity or dysfunction in civilian institutions diverts the military from focusing on its primary combat mission."

Brown, Feaver and Kragie emphasize, "To maintain professionalism in its all-volunteer force, the military must also find new ways to remain connected to American society and to persuade capable young men and women from all walks of life to serve. And the military must protect the respect that it has earned from American society by scrupulously following all lawful orders and by demonstrating every day that it is nonpartisan. In so doing, service members honor the oath they swear not to a particular party or political leader but to the Constitution itself."

Brown also spoke out at a recent event hosted by the Aspen Institute, warning, "What is starting to happen now, it is not about merit. All of these people who are being removed are very well-experienced."

Gordon reports, "(Brown's) comments came as panelists at the discussion addressed efforts by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his aides to remove officers from promotion lists and push others toward retirement, such as Gen. Chris Donahue, who officially relinquished his post Thursday as the top Army officer in Europe after the Pentagon downgraded his command."

Gordon notes, however, that Brown doesn't "criticize President Trump by name or mention Hegseth."

"His careful comments stand in contrast to the blunt words of Gen. Mark Milley, his predecessor as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who said in his 2023 exit speech that American troops take an oath to the Constitution and don't report to a 'wannabe dictator' — a reference to Trump, who was then out of office and had previously called Milley a traitor," Gordon observes. "But Brown's message was still clear, including his apparent concerns about Trump's deployment during his second term of thousands of troops to Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Chicago and other cities in a public show of force the White House said was needed to fight lawlessness."

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