{"id":2408005,"date":"2025-02-28T15:23:01","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T20:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-trump-firing-flag-officers-isnt-a-crisis\/"},"modified":"2025-02-28T15:25:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T20:25:51","slug":"no-trump-firing-flag-officers-isnt-a-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-trump-firing-flag-officers-isnt-a-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"No, Trump Firing Flag Officers Isn&#8217;t A &#8216;Crisis&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fno-trump-firing-flag-officers-isnt-a-crisis%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2408005&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The\u200b article discusses\u2064 an\u2063 &#8220;Appeal to Congress&#8221; \u200bfrom five\u2062 former U.S. secretaries of defense,\u2064 which criticizes Donald Trump&#8217;s actions in removing flag officers from military positions, labeling it as an unprecedented attack on American political norms. The author characterizes the letter as a &#8220;hazardous package&#8221; of claims, arguing that while the president has the legal authority to make these removals, doing so for reasons unrelated to performance undermines military integrity and signals a troubling consolidation\u200c of power. <\/p>\n<p>Moreover, the article \u200bemphasizes that while it is legal for a \u2063president to <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">fire senior <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mexico-refuses-to-take-migrants-under-remain-in-mexico-policy\/\" title=\"Mexico refuses to take migrants under \u2018Remain in Mexico\u2019 policy\">military officers<\/a><\/a>, doing so sets a precarious precedent, disrupting the balance of civilian control over the military. The author notes that accountability within the military has declined, highlighting a broader issue regarding the treatment of generals in the context of \u2063political oversight. The\u200c article concludes that the alarm raised by \u2063former secretaries of defense represents a more significant crisis than \u200bthe actions of\u2062 the current president, asserting that the campaign against Trump&#8217;s actions could threaten the principle of accountability for all military officers. \u200b <\/p>\n<p>The author, Chris Bray, provides \u200binsights from his background as a former infantry sergeant and a military historian to reinforce his viewpoints.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>An &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JerryDunleavy\/status\/1895265597002522747\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Appeal to Congress<\/a>&rdquo; from five former secretaries of defense warns that Donald Trump is firing flag officers, which is unprecedented and an assault on American political norms. This letter is an appalling package of dangerous claims and dumber than a box of rocks. But let&rsquo;s take a helpful detour before we get into the details.<\/p>\n<p>An&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lawfaremedia.org\/article\/trump-s-military-purge-spells-trouble-for-democracy-and-defense\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">essay<\/a>&nbsp;Thursday from a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/usnwc.edu\/Faculty-and-Departments\/Directory\/Lindsay-P-Cohn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">professor<\/a>&nbsp;at the U.S. Naval War College makes a similar argument and perfectly represents the moment:<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Here&rsquo;s the core of the argument, and if you read it carefully you&rsquo;ll notice an interesting concession right at the center:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>All evidence suggests that the new administration is removing top military officers for reasons other than competence or performance, aiming to replace them with people they see as more loyal to this specific administration.<\/p>\n<p>The president does have the authority to remove these officers; three- and four-star officers hold that rank only while they possess the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/10\/601\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">position of importance and responsibility<\/a>&nbsp;to which they have been specifically nominated by the president, and they serve at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/10\/152\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pleasure of the president<\/a>. But just because something is legal does not make it wise.<\/p>\n<p>Removing top military leaders either for faithfully implementing the policies of previous administrations or for their identity &mdash; rather than for incompetence or failing to perform their duties &mdash; is a move designed to consolidate and retain regime power. Removing the top uniformed lawyers simultaneously and without justification presages an intent to act in ways that truly independent lawyers might advise against. Together, these measures constitute a crisis.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>So:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>These measures constitute a crisis;<\/li>\n<li>The president does have the authority to remove these officers&hellip; and they serve at the pleasure of the president.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>It&rsquo;s a crisis that the president of the United States is exercising authority that he has.<\/p>\n<p>Now, the letter to Congress from the former secretaries of defense:<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>So firing generals and admirals is deeply disturbing, and it undermines the military &mdash; that kind of behavior can&rsquo;t be tolerated. The president of the United States must be&nbsp;<em>held to account<\/em>&nbsp;for these&nbsp;<em>reckless actions<\/em>. In the comments to an earlier post, a reader reminded me of a book by Thomas Ricks, a history of American generals. Here&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Generals-American-Military-Command-World\/dp\/0143124099?asin=0143124099&amp;revisionId=&amp;format=4&amp;depth=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">how chapter one starts<\/a>:<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The point is&nbsp;<em>not about Donald Trump<\/em>, and the meaning of the moment is much larger than most of the reporting suggests. The claim that it&rsquo;s outrageous, unprecedented, and a crisis to fire flag officers is laughable. It&rsquo;s also dangerous and threatens to reduce civilian control of the military if the premise is accepted&nbsp;<em>at all<\/em>. If it&rsquo;s an illegitimate act for President Donald Trump to fire senior military officers, then it&rsquo;s illegitimate for presidents to fire senior military officers &mdash; all presidents. It means that anyone who wears stars on his or her collar is somehow untouchable, a member of a protected guild that stands above political control. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t fire me &mdash; I&rsquo;m a&nbsp;<em>general<\/em>.&rdquo; Good luck with that.<\/p>\n<p>Courtney Massengale thinks very highly of himself, and he&rsquo;s everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>Ricks asked three important questions as he noted the sharp trend away from the view that generals can be fired: &ldquo;How and why did we lose the longstanding practice of relieving generals for failure? Why has accountability declined? And is it connected to the decline in the operational competence of American generals?&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/media-arent-upset-biden-is-senile-theyre-mad-they-cant-hide-it\/\" title=\"Media Aren&#039;t Upset That Biden Is Senile, They&#039;re Frustrated They Can&#039;t Conceal It\">current president&#038;rsquo<\/a>;s decision to fire flag officers isn&rsquo;t a break with American law and tradition. The &ldquo;Appeal to Congress&rdquo; from former secretaries of defense certainly is. The warning about a crisis is the crisis. This dangerous argument needs to be hammered into its grave, quickly and forcefully.<\/p>\n<p><em>This <a href=\"https:\/\/chrisbray.substack.com\/p\/generals-give-themselves-tenure-and\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> was originally published on the author&rsquo;s Substack, &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/chrisbray.substack.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Tell Me How This Ends<\/a>.&rdquo;<\/em><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/2025\/02\/localimages\/https-253A-252F-252Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com-252Fpublic-252Fimages-252F490693f3-df42-4eb1-8080-7b13d1e16d07_678x1206.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Chris Bray is a former infantry sergeant in the U.S. Army, and has a history PhD from the University of California Los Angeles. He is the author of &#8220;Court-Martial: How Military Justice Has Shaped America from the Revolution to 9\/11 and Beyond,&#8221; published last year by W.W. Norton.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former defense secretaries warn Trump\u2019s firings of flag officers threaten norms<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2086,"featured_media":2408006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/The-White-House-P20250222JB-0828-2.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[51320,4505,3634],"class_list":["post-2408005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-flag-officers","tag-military","tag-trump"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/The-White-House-P20250222JB-0828-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2408005"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2408009,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2408005\/revisions\/2408009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2408006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2408005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2408005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2408005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}