THREAD: If past is prologue, Trump will use this belated troop visit to deflect from the rhetorical bodyslam his own SecDef delivered to him & his worldview last week. The record shows Trump has consistently used our military as a prop for his personal and political advantage:
As a candidate, Trump took aim at one of our most storied military heroes, John McCain, claiming he liked those "who weren't captured." politico.com/story/2015/07/…
He later savaged a Gold Star family, claiming the fallen soldier's mother perhaps wasn't allowed to speak. nytimes.com/2016/07/31/us/…
As President, Trump authorized his first military mission not from the Situation Room, but over the dinner table, which also included Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon. The raid resulted in the death of a US Navy SEAL, whose death he blamed on "the generals." nytimes.com/2017/02/01/wor…
Trump then took aim at military readiness by proclaiming over Twitter--in spite of guidance from his top military advisors--that transgender Americans would not be allowed to serve their country in uniform. twitter.com/i/moments/8902…
Following a late 2017 ambush of US service members in Niger, Trump for weeks failed to call the families of the fallen. When he belatedly did so, he told the mother of one of the fallen soldiers that her son "knew what he was getting into." nytimes.com/2017/10/18/us/…
Early this year, Trump nominated his personal physician to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, one of our largest and most complex bureaucracies responsible for providing healthcare to over 9 million veterans. washingtonpost.com/world/national…
A @ProPublica report subsequently revealed that several close Trump confidantes were privately setting VA policy from the President's private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago. military.com/daily-news/201…
Trump scrapped plans for a military parade -- seemingly held in his honor -- only after cost estimates suggested the event could total nearly $100 million. nytimes.com/2018/08/17/us/…
Perhaps the most egregious example, Trump just ahead of the midterms deployed thousands of troops to the southern border -- an effort seemingly designed to galvanize his political base. Estimates put the cost of the deployment at $200 million. nytimes.com/2018/11/10/us/…
During travel to France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day, Trump skipped a visit to the American cemetery and instead remained in his hotel suite watching cable news. washingtonpost.com/world/europe/t…
In an interview with Fox News last month, Trump took aim at Admiral Bill McRaven, who led the raid that brought justice to Bin Laden. The RNC echoed the attacks soon thereafter. washingtonpost.com/world/national…
That takes us to last week when Trump, after days of dismal headlines, announced on Twitter, without any semblance of deliberation or strategy, that he would remove troops from Syria. His Secretary of Defense and top Counter-ISIS envoy resigned in protest. washingtonpost.com/world/national…
Rather than honor outgoing Secretary Mattis, who enlisted in the Marines in 1969 to become the first enlisted Secretary of Defense, Trump unceremoniously pushed him out the door weeks ahead of Mattis' exit date. nytimes.com/2018/12/23/us/…
This list is illustrative, not exhaustive, and more examples abound. But suffice to say this is a president who has consistently put his own interests -- personal and political -- ahead of the country's, and that includes those of our service members. END
