Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete F.
Baloney
Trump's present anger against the military senior command arises from his outraged discovery that the US military is loyal to the US government, to the US constitution - and not to Donald John Trump personally.
That's all this is about. Trump wants a military that will shoot protesters to clear the streets for his photo ops.
The military high command remember that they swore their oath to the Constitution, not to Trump.
Trump hates them for it.
I don't recall Trump saying any of this. Are you conjecturing again.
Eisenhower was also particularly concerned that military spending would overwhelm the private economy - and push the US into debt.
Even before COVID, Trump had put the US on the path to trillion-dollar deficits forever.
Eisenhower - who inherited the Korean War - did reduce defense spending over his eight years by some 27%.
In this respect, Trump is no Eisenhower. Over Trump's four years in office, he boosted defense spending from just over $600 bn to just over $700 bn.
And he’s claiming it’s the military leadership
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The national debt, before Trump, was already on the path to trillion dollar deficits forever--and that was with reduced military spending and a sequester on military spending. The military, at a time when it was claimed by the military command, if I remember correctly, that it would be difficult to maintain a war on two fronts, and Iran, radical Islamists, Russia, North Korea, and especially China, were dangerously expanding and high tech modernizing their militaries. It was the military command, not Trump, who decided on how much the military needed.
I don't know if Eisenhower foresaw the 20 trillion dollar deficit that Trump had "inherited." Or if he foresaw an economy crippling pandemic that required several trillion dollars to finance.
And yeah it was the military leadership and military hawks in Congress and the administration that called for the 700 billion dollar budget. McCain asked for Congress and the White House to work "expeditiously" on a budget agreement that secures the increased $700 billion for the military following years of spending cuts. He also said "After nearly a decade of asking our troops to do more with less, we hope this agreement will allow the military to begin to rebuild and ensure that process can continue into next year," and Jim Mattis pressed for a sweeping budget deal that would realize a
long-sought Pentagon goal of lifting the caps on defense spending under the sequester process.