Trump ain't fuking around.
Trump's latest EO lists the order of succession of the military should the Secretary of Defense die, resign or be unable to perform his duties. The one notable in this EO is that the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs, General Mark Milley, is not on the list..
The only responsible, and legal, answer to an order issued by General Milley for military forces to march on the White House and remove President Trump would be not to come if he calls.
MAGA Patriots won't allow anyone to get near or remove president Trump period.
We write to repudiate the deeply irresponsible position taken by John Nagl and Paul Yingling in these pages yesterday. Their call for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be ready to issue orders to the American military for forcibly removing President Trump from office is as dangerous to our republic as the problem they purport to solve. Even contemplating it is damaging to the trust between the American people and those citizens who serve in our military. Their comments denigrate the Constitution, suggesting an unelected military officer should ever occupy the sole position as its judge, jury, and executioner.
We are a country founded in concern about military usurpation of elected leaders. This is attested by the Constitution’s careful delineation of responsibilities between the president as commander in chief and the Congress, which retains authority to “raise and support Armies,” “provide and maintain a Navy,” and “provide for organizing, arming, disciplining,” and “calling forth the militia.” Standing armies were considered both a financial extravagance and a restive force politically as well as an active threat to individual liberty and republican government.
And we are fortunate to have as patron saint of military subordination to elected authority our own Cincinnatus, George Washington. Americans trust our military with policy influence most democracies would not because the professional ethos of subordination is so deeply ingrained. In fact, the restraint our military has exhibited is the dominant impediment to its usurpation of a much more active political role in American politics. Nagl and Yingling encourage Americans to see our military as the arbiters of political outcomes, something that would indelibly change the soul of our military and the character of our nation.