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He fired his defense secretary, installed a conspiracy loyalist as lead counsel at an intelligence agency, and hired a retired military colonel who supported martial law on the Mexican border for a high-level position in the Pentagon.
And all this within days of being declared the loser of a presidential election, a result that Donald Trump has declared fraudulent.
“If we saw this in any other country, a president who refuses to accept the results and then fires the defense secretary, you can imagine [journalists] writing that this is an attempted coup, ”said Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former senior state department official.
Trump’s decision to reform top defense officials and parts of the intelligence system, including the firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in the immediate aftermath of his failed reelection campaign has gripped the political classes in Washington.
The shakeup has raised concerns that the president who breaks the rules may well break the most sacred of democratic standards: the peaceful transfer of power. However, many believe that Trump’s post-election ruse is due to more pedestrian reasons, such as a last-minute change in military posture abroad.
“The firing of Secretary Esper is extremely worrying as it removes a man who has resisted the effort to misuse and abuse our military for political purposes,” said William Cohen, former Secretary of Defense for Bill Clinton. “The installation of officials who are likely to be supplicants for the remainder of their tenure should be of concern to all who are concerned with matters of national security.”
Trump has certainly not violated any laws. The 18th century U.S. Constitution and decades-old legal reforms make formal certification of a new president a slow and complicated process, meaning that an acting commander-in-chief has free rein to reform the government as he sees fit. for almost three months. after Election Day.
“We have to remember that the election is not certified,” Slaughter said at the FT Global Boardroom conference on Wednesday. “So when [Senate Republican majority leader] Mitch McConnell says Trump is completely within his rights, he’s right. “
But there are also signs that Trump has focused on the election confirmation process itself. Bill Barr, the attorney general of the United States, one of the main executors of Trump’s most controversial legal forays, has authorized federal prosecutors to investigate possible electoral crimes before the results are certified.
And the president may not be done with his reform yet. Washington is awash with rumors that the directors of the CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, two of the few high-level positions that typically move from one administration to another, are next on the cutting board.
“There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday, a line delivered with a half smile that still sent chills to many Democrats in Washington.
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Even Trump’s harshest critics point out, however, that there are important safeguards in place to prevent any attempts by the president to subvert the constitutional order, especially the uniformed military, where officers have made it clear that their loyalty is to the nation instead. of the current president.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has sent not-so-subtle messages to Congress that he is prepared to deal with whatever extrajudicial action Trump takes.
General Milley has made those protests after coming under intense criticism over the summer for joining the US president as he walked in uniform to a church near the White House after peaceful protesters were dispersed with tear gas. The general apologized for the incident.
Other Pentagon analysts believe there are probably more mundane reasons for Trump’s latest moves.
Some think that the president is simply being vindictive against officials deemed insufficiently loyal. Others believe that Trump wants to remove the obstacles to order the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. That view has been reinforced by the hiring of Douglas Macgregor, a retired army colonel who supports the country’s withdrawal, as an adviser to the Pentagon.
Other figures have privately expressed concern that the president may be considering military action, such as giving Israel the green light to attack Iran, and is seeking to remove officials who are likely to oppose it.
James Stavridis, a retired US admiral who served as Supreme Allied Commander in NATO and remains in regular contact with Pentagon officials, doubted the measures were related to Iran.
“I would say that the layoffs at the Pentagon are a good example of ‘Occam’s razor,’ that the simple explanation is the best,” Stavridis said. “He was frustrated with the senior leadership who felt they did not support him enough in the months leading up to the election and that led to an act of revenge and petulance.”
For most of his tenure, he referred to Esper as “Yesper,” reflecting the view that he was unwilling to confront Trump. But he fell out of favor with the president over the summer when he opposed Trump’s push to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy active duty soldiers to American streets to respond to anti-racism protests.
Slaughter said many retired defense secretaries, including Jim Mattis, and former chairmen of the joint chiefs had sent the strongest message they could that officers’ loyalty is in the constitution.
“If Donald Trump disobeys the constitution or really subverts the constitutional norms, they will not respond [to his orders]”Added Ms. Slaughter.
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