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President Donald Trump has said that America’s defense chiefs want to continue waging wars to keep defense contractors “happy.”
Trump continues to fight allegations that he made offensive remarks about fallen American service personnel, including calling the World War I dead in an American military cemetery in France “losers” and “fools” in 2018. The Atlantic reported for the first time on allegations of anonymous origin.
At a press conference at the White House on Monday, Trump repeated his claim that the story was a “hoax” and said: “I’m not saying the military is in love with me. Soldiers are. “
However, he added: “The most important people in the Pentagon probably are not because they want to do nothing but fight wars, so all those wonderful companies that make the bombs and the planes and make everything else happy.”
Trump’s relationship with military leaders has been strained since he threatened this summer to use the Insurrection Act to provide troops for law enforcement during protests after George Floyd’s death.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has also expressed regret for walking with Trump through Lafayette Square in what turned out to be a photoshoot during the protests.
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who was appointed by Trump, was Washington’s top lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon Co before he became Secretary of the Army in 2017.
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