Trump rebuked by top military officials
Former Pentagon chief Mattis criticizes the president’s leadership: ‘He tries to divide us.’
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s effort to use the military to respond to nationwide protests led to an extraordinary rupture with both his current and former secretaries of Defense on Wednesday, with one rejecting use of activeduty troops against protesters and the other accusing Trump of ordering the military to “violate the constitutional rights of their fellow citizens.”
That statement by former Defense Secretary James N. Mattis was without precedent as criticism of a sitting president from a former Pentagon chief, and the effects on Trump are likely to be far-reaching.
Mattis, who resigned as Defense secretary in late 2018, denounced Trump for his actions on Monday, in which the president walked through Lafayette Park near the White House to pose in front of a church after protesters had been driven from the park by police and military units firing tear gas.
As a young Marine, Mattis wrote, he swore an oath to defend the Constitution.
“Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the constitutional rights of their fellow citizens — much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander in chief, with military leadership standing alongside,” he wrote in the statement, published by the Atlantic magazine.
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis wrote. “We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership.”
Mattis’ words came just hours after current Defense Secretary Mark Esper told a Pentagon news conference that he opposed using active-duty troops against protesters, saying it should be done “only in the most urgent and dire of situations.”
“We are not in one of those situations now,” Esper said.
“I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act,” he said, rejecting an option Trump had threatened to use to send troops into cities where state and local officials have not quelled unrest.
Asked a few hours later whether Trump still had confidence in Esper, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “As of right now, Secretary Esper is still Secretary Esper,” and that the press would be “the first to know,” if that changed.
She also said the president had the “sole authority” to invoke the Insurrection Act, and that the move is still being considered.
Trump responded to Mattis on Twitter, saying, “Probably the only thing Barack Obama and I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world’s most overrated general.”
Trump did not, in fact, fire Mattis. The former Marine general resigned in December 2018 in protest over Trump’s policies in Syria.
Since leaving the job, Mattis had refused to criticize Trump in public. But his statement took aim directly at one of Trump’s main reelection themes — his claim that toughness and strength will get the country through the multiple crises that have gripped his administration since February.
Mattis’ reputation as a widely admired military leader could give his criticism extra weight among Republican voters concerned about national security. His plea for unity dovetails with a main theme of presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, who has made restoring a sense of national unity a centerpiece of his campaign.
A former Marine general, Mattis was initially lauded by Trump after he chose him as his first Defense secretary. The president seemed to revel in Mattis’ reputation as a blunt-talking warrior.
In his statement Wednesday,
Mattis described himself as “angry and appalled” by the administration’s response to the protests.
He defended the protesters, calling them “people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values.” He challenged Trump’s claim that the military was needed to put down looters and vandals among the protesters, urging the public not to be “distracted by a small number of lawbreakers.”
Mattis also condemned language Esper used Monday after joining a conference call between Trump and governors in which he said state governments should “dominate the battle space” against protesters.
“We must reject any thinking of our cities as ‘battle space’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate,’” Mattis said. “We know we are better than the abuse of executive authority we witnessed in Lafayette Park.”
Though Mattis did not mention the election, he concluded with a call to “reject” and “hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”
Trump quickly turned to the military after riots erupted in Minnesota and other states after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee for nearly nine minutes into the neck of George Floyd, a black man whom Chauvin and three other officers had arrested, resulting in his death.
So far only National Guard troops have been deployed against protesters, which is permitted under federal law as long as they are under state control. But Trump warned Monday that he was considering sending “thousands” of heavily armed troops to states unless local authorities halted what he described as rioting.
Until Wednesday, Esper seemed in sync with Trump.
But a senior defense official said Esper found himself in a “no-win situation” after trying to navigate between the need to publicly support Trump and to lead a department that prefers to keep clear of domestic involvement and politics.
“Are there officers who were uncomfortable with the prospect that their soldiers would be ordered onto the streets with orders to crack down on the Americans protesting racial injustice? Very much so,” said a senior military commander, who spoke on the condition he not be identified. “Did some express their views up the chain that sending in troops was a bad idea. Yes.”
That discomfort could be seen in a memo issued Wednesday by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley.
The Constitution “gives Americans the right to freedom of speech and of peaceful assembly,” Milley wrote, calling on the armed forces to “uphold the values of our nation, and to operate consistent with national laws and our own high standards of conduct at all times.”
He was one of several senior military commanders who have issued memos or statements in recent days criticizing racism or defending the right to protest — language that puts them out of step with Trump’s emphasis on “law and order.”
In an interview with NBC News on Tuesday, Esper said he regretted using the term “battle space” to describe areas gripped by protests.
“In retrospect, I would use different wording so as not to distract from the more important matters at hand or allow some to suggest that we are militarizing the issue,” he said.
Esper strongly criticized the actions of Minneapolis police, calling the death of Floyd “murder” and “a horrible crime.”
White House officials emphasized Tuesday that Trump still may call on active-duty troops to patrol the streets of Washington and other cities if the protests continue.
Trump and other top officials were “not happy” with Esper’s comments, a senior Trump aide said, saying they “added to the frustration with him.”