The firing of the secretary of the Navy adds to the civil-military dysfunction that has swirled since Donald Trump took office
THE 45th president began his term by packing his administration with military officers. Now he has broken dramatically with the men he once proudly called “my generals”. On November 15th Donald Trump pardoned two soldiers accused of war crimes and reversed the demotion of Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL convicted of posing with a dead captive. When the navy sought to remove Mr Gallagher’s Trident pin, which marks out SEALs, Mr Trump ordered that he be allowed to keep it.
Mr Trump’s enchantment with generals eventually soured. Mr Flynn left in disgrace in February 2017 and Mr McMaster departed in April 2018. Mr Mattis and Mr Kelly both resigned in December. In October Mr Trump belittled Mr Mattis as “the world's most overrated general”. But his use of military top brass for political ends went beyond his enlistment of senior officers.
Mr McRaven’s willingness to do what Mr Mattis and Mr McMaster would not—mount an attack on the moral fitness of the president using the authority of their former uniforms—was widely cheered. But it reflects a broader trend that many experts in civil-military relations find deeply troubling: an increasing role for senior retired officers in electoral politics.
“It’s been rare in US history that politicisation of veterans and retired military hasn’t been quickly followed by the politicisation of serving officers,” says Mr Golby. “It’s really hard to hold the line. We’ve seen this at the founding, the Civil War era and during the Gilded Age”. Infighting amongst veterans over the share of battlefield commands during a war with Mexico in 1846-48 culminated in Winfield Scott, an active-duty general, running for the presidency in 1852, for instance.
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