President Donald Trump claimed during a Labor Day press conference at the White House that while he believes the average U.S. soldier loves him, he doubts top military officials in the Pentagon are fans of him because he doesn’t support endless war.
“I’m not saying the military’s in love with me,” Trump said from the North Portico of the White House. “The soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren’t because they want to do nothing but fight wars, so all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy.”
TRUMP: "I'm not saying the military's in love with me. The soldiers are. The top people in the Pentagon probably aren't because they want to do nothing but fight wars so all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy" pic.twitter.com/YYEbjRuZyb
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 7, 2020
“But we’re getting out of the endless wars, you know how we’re doing,” Trump continued. “We defeated 100% of the ISIS caliphate — 100%.” He went on to explain how when he first came to office, the situation with ISIS “was a mess,” but that the terrorist group has since been wiped out.
Trump’s remarks offended some people, such as MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, who tweeted, “This is such a deeply ignorant and insulting view of American military leadership. From Dwight Eisenhower to Colin Powell, it has been our military leaders familiar with the hell of war who have hated it the most.”
CNN reporter Ryan Browne wrote, “In an unprecedented public attack by a sitting US president on the leadership of the US military, President Trump has accused US military leaders of seeking to start wars to boost the profits of defense contractors[.]”
Corporate media has always had a pro-war consensus and they put brainless idiots like Scarborough on TV to repeat their talking points. This is why he tweets crap like this with no sense of awareness.https://t.co/f421veqiMo
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 7, 2020
Trump’s comments come in the wake of controversy stoked by a recent anonymously-sourced story from The Atlantic claiming that the president refused to visit Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France because he thought the buried war dead there were “losers” and “suckers.” Trump has vehemently denied the accusation and others have come out to back up his claim that the trip was canceled because of inclement weather.
“Who would say a thing like that? Only an animal would say a thing like that,” Trump said of such comments. “There’s nobody that has more respect for, not only our military, but for people who gave their lives.”
Former national security adviser John Bolton, whose memoir already debunked The Atlantic’s claim, told Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Monday night that the magazine’s allegation was “simply false” but also slammed Trump’s comment about Pentagon officials as “incoherent,” adding, “Elizabeth Warren really couldn’t have said it better.”
As The Wall Street Journal reported last week, Trump is soon expected to nominate William Ruger as ambassador to Afghanistan, a foreign-policy expert who has advocated for withdrawing U.S. troops from the country. During a recent interview with Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, Trump also said he plans to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan.
During a May article for National Interest, Ruger wrote, “President Trump has correctly concluded that a full and speedy withdrawal of our troops is imperative. Our national interest isn’t served by continuing to wage a futile battle but by exiting it.”