Hundreds of combat soldiers with the 82nd Airborne were ordered to leave Washington, D.C, today after retired generals and the nation’s top officer rebuked Donald Trump over his use of the military.
Members of the elite unit had been deployed to the nation’s capital to back up National Guard soldiers ordered onto the streets by Attorney General Bill Barr in a show of force.
The active duty soldiers will head back to base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after Army General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley publicly told the nation’s troops to ‘uphold the Constitution’ and said that the National Guard was under governors’ control – pointedly not the president’s.
The troops spent a week at bases near the city on standby as peaceful protests turned violent in the nation’s capital with instances of looting, arson and destruction – but they were never called into D.C. to respond to the civil unrest.
While the capital is under federal control, the removal of hundreds of combat troops was a highly-visible sign that Trump had been forced into retreat on his threat to deploy soldiers under his control in protest-hit cities.
The about 200 members of the Army’s 82nd Airborne division who were sent to the capital city were supposed to leave the region Wednesday night.
The order was suddenly reversed, however, after Defense Secretary Mark Esper made a visit to the White House Wednesday morning following a press conference where he attempted to distance himself from the infamous church photo-op.
The change also followed internal discussions Esper conducted at the Pentagon, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told the Associated Press.
It also followed a 10:00 a.m. order on Wednesday to draw down some of the 1,600 forces – including infantry members – who had been positioned outside Washington, D.C.
Trump is facing backlash for his decision to use the U.S. Military as backup against protesters following the death of George Floyd.
General Milley put himself at odds with the president in a memo today where he told troops to ‘defend the Constitution.’
He also asserted that the National Guard was not under federal control – as retired generals including former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis denounced the president’s handling of the George Floyd protests.
Milley said in a letter to top military leaders that armed forces will continue to protect Americans’ right to ‘freedom of speech and peaceful assembly,’ as the president has called in troops to defend Washington, D.C.
‘We all committed our lives to the idea that is America,’ Milley hand-wrote in as an addition to the bottom of the letter. ‘We will stay true to that and the American people.’
The letter represented an extraordinary public statement from the most senior U.S. military officer and was clearly directed at the Commander-in-Chief.
Coming after the words of Mattis, and two other former chairmen of the joint chiefs, it suggested serious misgivings by the military about Trump himself.
Milley’s attempt to distance himself from the president comes as the general was recently rebuked by retired generals after he marched out of the White House as part of Trump’s entourage for a photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church while dressed in his combat uniform.
Some asserted if he was going to participate in the stunt, he should have worn his service or greens uniform.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper defended Milley’s uniform choice, saying it was ‘appropriate,’ after a series of former military leaders voiced anger at both men’s conduct and warned they were politicizing the military.
The most searing condemnation of Trump came from former Defense Secretary James Mattis, the four-star Marine general and Iraq hero, who issued his first ever open criticism of Trump in an opinion piece published in The Atlantic on Wednesday.
‘Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,’ Mattis said. Mattis also likened Trump’s actions to the rhetoric used by Nazis – to ‘divide and conquer’ – saying he was the first president in his lifetime not to seek to unite Americans.
His lengthy condemnation of the president caused one Republican senator Lisa Murkowski to break ranks with Trump and say Mattis’ statement was ‘honest and necessary and overdue.’
When asked if she can still show support for the president, she said: ‘I’m struggling with it.’
Despite the president insisting that a ‘show of force’ must be exhibited in Washington, D.C. to quell rioters and violent protesters, the scene was much more tame Tuesday and Wednesday night than previously, with more peaceful protests taking place across the nation. In D.C., local police said there were no arrests.
Retired Marine Corp four-star General John Allen lashed out at Trump in an op-ed Wednesday claiming his actions in the midst of violent nationwide riots over the death of George Floyd are ‘shameful.’
Allen, who commanded the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan then was an envoy in the international effort against ISIS, insisted Trump’s presidency could be the ‘beginning of the end of American democracy.’
‘The slide of the United States into illiberalism may well have begun on June 1, 2020,’ Allen wrote in an op-ed published to ForeignPolicy.com. ‘Remember the date. It may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment.’
Allen, who has also spent his life in public service, expressed in his op-ed his opposition to the president’s mobilization of the U.S. Military to ward off and quell rioters and condemned Trump’s comparison of the violent protesters ravaging cities to ‘domestic terrorists.’
Administration officials privately acknowledged Monday’s events did not do the administration any justice.
Even some Republican lawmakers who are typically in sync with the president said Trump went too far in using force to clear the way for his less than five-minute visit to the church.
On Tuesday, a senior White House official said the president wanted to make the aggressive action an example for the rest of the country.
Trump pushed back against Mattis’ comments on Wednesday, claiming he is the ‘world’s most overrated general’ after the Marine veteran denounced the president’s leadership in the face of the nationwide protests.
Mattis spoke out for the first time publicly since his acrimonious December 2018 exit from the White House by blasting Trump as making a ‘mockery of the Constitution’ in a fiery statement shared Wednesday.
Although Mattis has alluded to criticism of his former boss in the past, he has never been this forthcoming with his disappointment in the president.
Trump was quick to fire back to fire back in a two-part tweet with some key false facts.
‘Probably the only thing Barack Obama & I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world’s most overrated General. I asked for his letter of resignation, & felt great about it,’ Trump tweeted Wednesday evening.
‘His nickname was ‘Chaos’, which I didn’t like, & changed to ‘Mad Dog,’ Trump added.
While Trump claimed that he fired Mattis, the general had submitted his resignation after he disagreed with Trump’s decision to pull US forces out of Syria.
His military call sign was ‘Chaos’ which stands for ‘Colonel Has Another Outstanding Suggestion’. He was given his nickname ‘Mad Dog’, which Mattis reportedly does not like, years before Trump came into office.
‘His primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations. I gave him a new life, things to do, and battles to win, but he seldom ‘brought home the bacon’. I didn’t like his ‘leadership’ style or much else about him, and many others agree. Glad he is gone!’ Trump added.
Mattis’ op-ed was his first time publicly castigating the president, condemning the flexing of military might against George Floyd protests, which he calls a legitimate response to demands for equal justice.
In his statement Mattis likened Trump’s tactics of seeking to ‘divide’ the nation to that of the Nazis.
‘Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that ‘The Nazi slogan for destroying us … was ‘Divide and Conquer,’ he writes. ‘Our American answer is ‘In Union there is Strength.’ We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis – confident that we are better than our politics.’
‘We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society,’ he continues.
He pointedly takes on Trump’s photo-op Monday, writing that he us ‘angry and appalled’ by the unfolding events.
‘We know that we are better than the abuse of executive authority that we witnessed in Lafayette Square. We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution. At the same time, we must remember Lincoln’s ‘better angels,’ and listen to them, as we work to unite,’ Mattis wrote.
He called for unity and calm. ‘This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.’
His blistering article comes as other former military officials, including former head of the joint chiefs of staff Admiral Mike Mullen, blasted Trump for seeking to ‘politicize’ the military.