We believe in selfless service, telling truth to power, choosing the harder right over the easier wrong. We are loyal, regardless of which party is in power or who is in the Oval Office. And in his person and character, he represents the men and women who serve, as well as the veterans.
The commander in chief sets the directions, makes the big decisions and inspires us to carry out the mission. The mission is protecting the United States, securing our freedoms, advancing our interests. The military is mission-oriented and values-based. He commands us, but he also represents us. He wants to be loved, respected and admired, no doubt.īut there is more to being commander in chief. He has a snappy salute and appreciates a good military parade, like the one he saw in France last year. “I don’t think anybody’s been more with the military than I have, as a president,” he told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” He has appointed numerous generals to serve in his administration (“I have generals that are great generals”) and gained pay raises and hikes in defense spending. President Trump believes he honors and respects the military. It is that affinity that brings me to these observations. My heart is with the men and women in uniform, as well as our veterans. I ran for the presidency myself out of deep concern as the ill-considered Iraq War unfolded under President George W.
Kennedy confronted the Soviets in Berlin, went to Vietnam under President Richard Nixon and came home on a stretcher, worked in the White House under President Gerald Ford, and eventually retired as NATO supreme allied commander under President Bill Clinton. I applied for West Point as President John F.
Yet as president, Trump’s actions and behavior have led service members and veterans to question whether he really understands who a commander in chief is, or what he does. And many Americans, including service members and veterans, believed that he would be a strong and effective commander in chief. His take-charge style, his hat and slogan, his command presence on the stage, his early experience at New York Military Academy and his boasting that “I know more about ISIS than the generals do” demonstrated his inclinations. Of all the roles of the presidency, commander in chief was perhaps the one that candidate Donald Trump most relished.
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