Armed Services gets new leader

Inhofe’s leadership style differs drastically from that of John McCain

WASHINGTON — With the death of John McCain, the Senate Armed Services gavel will almost certainly pass to James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, marking a significant change in leadership style and priorities for the powerful panel.

While the boisterous McCain was a hard-charging critic of both the Pentagon and the commander in chief, the more subdued Inhofe is, in many ways, the opposite.

And while McCain was a persistent and vocal critic of the Trump administration, including Defense Secretary James Mattis, Inhofe often defers to Mattis on major military issues and has lauded President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions.

Beyond Mattis, Inhofe’s relationship with the president has also been far warmer than McCain’s famously fraught relationship with Trump.

Before Trump won the presidency, he invited Inhofe to Trump Tower in New York to discuss military issues. Since Trump assumed office, Inhofe has praised Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and Trump’s nuclear talks with North Korea.

Inhofe and McCain were also of different minds on policy issues affecting the military and its vast bureaucracy.

During Senate debate last year on the fiscal 2018 defense authorization act, McCain offered an amendment that would have created a new Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) commission to review all military installations. The proposal could have potentially started a new controversial BRAC round, but the amendment ultimately failed.

Inhofe, who isn’t altogether against the BRAC process, opposed starting a new round when the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress were in the nascent stages of a military build-up.

With Inhofe now expected to helm the Senate Armed Services Committee, Pentagon hopefuls with careers in defense contracting — a sore spot for McCain, who worried about the so-called revolving door — could also face less scrutiny.