Thread by @MesMitch

Trump's military meddling fuels growing tension with leadership
Amid strategic U-turns and elevation of war crimes defendants, president’s military support weakens – but Fox pundits back him

On Thursday night, a besuited Donald Trump appeared at a US airbase in Afghanistan, serving Thanksgiving turkey to the troops, complaining half-jokingly about the length of his surprise trip, and drawing attention to all the money he had spent on the military.

“You’ll come back,” the president told soldiers at the Bagram base – a remark interpreted by the reporters covering the event as a reference to the quality of the food he was giving them, rather than warning of further tours of duty in a war that is already 18 years old.

Yeah and then what ? I have been stationed in Afghanistan in the #USArmy injured on DUTY have had to have three back surgeries I have been fighting to have my Social security disability connected for over two years lost my hearing had a CROOK lawyer, do you wanna talk about

Veterans Care Hospitals? Don't even get me started on that . Sn not to mention On July 10,2018 the White House released an executive order ending a merit-based system for selecting federal administrative law judges, including those who hear Social Security cases.

“The executive order will allow the Administration to appoint judges based on politics and nepotism rather than competence.” In other words, this is an under-the-radar White House court-packing plan

Federal administrative law judges have, until now, been shielded from agency pressures by a law dating to the 1940s called the Administrative Procedure Act, which created uniform standards for the conduct of adjudication in the administrative law courts.

Trump left Afghanistan three and half hours after he arrived and flew back to his Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago, leaving behind conflicting clues about his intentions. He restated his frequent promise that he would bring the troops home, but also insisted: “We don’t play for ties

,” adding: “We’re going to stay until such time as we have a deal or we have total victory.”Distributing hot dinners to soldiers is a standard requisite for being commander-in-chief, though it is one that Trump has largely managed to avoid.

After nearly three years in office, it was his first visit to Afghanistan and only his second trip in the vicinity of a war zone. But with the presidential election now less than a year away, and the grey cloud of impeachment hanging

over the White House, he is cloaking himself as tightly as he can in khaki.Over the past few months, Trump has embraced his role as commander-in-chief, announcing unheralded military movements in and out of Syria and

intervening repeatedly in the military justice system to absolve service soldiers accused of war crimes.The US military – or its leadership at least – is hardly reveling in the president’s attention. A spate of reports cite former

commanders and unnamed active duty senior officers complaining about the undermining of the chain of command and the corrosion of the integrity of an institution most Americans have seen as a pillar of the republic – an incorruptible and disciplined armed forces.

CNN reported “at least two senior military officers” had been reluctant to appear alongside Trump at recent official events, out of fear of he would come out with partisan remarks.

Richard Spencer, the secretary of the navy fired last week after clashing with the president over war crimes cases, wrote in the Washington Post that it was “a reminder that the president has very little understanding of what it means to be in the military,

to fight ethically or to be governed by a uniform set of rules and practices”.It is a far cry from the early days of Trump’s presidency, when he surrounded himself with military brass and boasted about “his generals”. One by one those grand martial figures have left the

administration, to be lampooned by their commander-in-chief on their way out the door as “failed generals” who were “not tough enough” and “overrated”. More senior officers are reported to be considering resignation, if the

president continues to meddle in what they see as the preserve of the military.But Trump is unlikely to stop.

The president has held up war crimes defendants as “warriors”, betrayed by their politically correct superiors.

“We train our boys to be killing machines, then prosecute them when they kill!” he complained in a tweet.“That represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the American warrior ethic,” said Rachel VanLandingham, a retired air force lieutenant colonel and a professor at

Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. “A true warrior is one who who exercises restraint and it requires moral courage to exercise restraint.”