Canceling the stars and stripes

[Aimless]

Twitter Link

A weak man, served by weak men.

[RandBlade]

I was about to create a thread on this.

Why does Trump hate the US Military so much?

[Steely Glint]

While I think the US Military and I wouldn't see eye to eye on a whole lot, they have an ethos centred around the concept of service which is entirely alien to Trump and the various other corrupt characters which make up his admin and the GOP as a whole. Concepts like the rule of law, insititionalism and the chain of command are also deeply embedded in the culture of the military which tends to clash with Trump's background in organised crime the world of business (and organised crime) where everything's about favours and personal loyalty, and also gets in the way of his various schemes.

Also, traditionally, the military is one of the biggest threats to aspiring dictators (except in cases where the military is, itself, the dictatorship obviously).

[wiggin]

I actually don't view this as associated with Trump's unease with the military. I think it fits more closely with the broader campaign he has against a media that he sees as largely hostile to his presidency. Trump has also been working diligently to dismantle VOA, one of the best (and cheapest) instruments of US soft power around the world; a bunch of high ranking executives have resigned or been fired and the VOA leadership is breaking the firewall that has protected its journalistic independence. It's only a matter of time before it's a hollowed out shell.

I view the attempt to close Stars and Stripes (itself legally dubious) through the same lens.


That being said, it's painfully obvious that Trump is uncomfortable with the US military leadership. He's had a number of high profile generals and former generals on his team - notably John Kelly and Jim Mattis - and it's clear that they never gelled well. There were basic standards of professionalism, service, and a moral core that define these men's views about how government should work (whatever we may feel about their choice to work with the Trump administration or their specific politics) that are not just foreign to Trump, but actually anathema.

The military in the US is a fundamentally conservative organization. Not necessarily politically conservative (though often that as well), but it values tradition, measured incrementalism, and deliberation. Trump's policymaking and rhetoric is anything but, and the friction has been obvious from the get go. We've all read the reports about Trump's interactions with the Joint Chiefs when deciding on how to respond to a given crisis (e.g. continued Syrian crimes, Iranian-US-Saudi tit-for-tat attacks). The military leadership is not used to dealing with a leader who does not deliberate on a course of action with careful consideration from a variety of advisors, and they have had to 'manage' the President's responses by carefully crafting their advice and response plans to avoid starting a war... not always successfully. It's absolutely astonishing that the President needs to be handled this way, but there's ample evidence from leaks that Kelly and Mattis did the same thing... and when things got too bad, they just left.

Frankly, I think Trump is embarrassed and feels smaller when confronted by people who have dedicated their lives (often at risk of said lives) to service. He responds alternately by putting them down (cf his comments about POWs, US war dead, gold star families, etc.) or by self-aggrandizing his own role in 'supporting' the military and expecting adulation in return. It's disgraceful, but hardly surprising.

However, this dynamic has frankly little to do with the Stars and Stripes. He's not cutting it because it will help address his weird complex about being confronted by people who represent everything he is not. He's not cutting it to save a few million bucks, either. He's cutting it because it's a media organization that he can control that doesn't always have nice things to say about him.

[Being]

Good riddance. It was always a Republican propaganda rag. And I believe this will work to further disfavor of Trump.

[Aimless]

I was about to create a thread on this.

Why does Trump hate the US Military so much?

He doesn't; he's just afraid—and ashamed—of his own weakness and cowardice. So he lashes out against who either remind him of mortality, suffering, etc—or his own shameful personal inadequacies, such as being a cowardly turd that nobody genuinely loves, respects and admires. There's a reason why he said the disgusting things about soldiers who'd lost limbs in war. He has a deep-seated fear of that sort of thing, and he deals with that by expressing contempt.

This particular move, however, probably has little to do with that. I think it's just a strategic attack against an institution that has a very unfavorable—and swiftly worsening—view of him.

[Aimless]

This is a really sad attempt at a comeback from Trump, after being driven off with his tail between his legs:

Twitter Link

I mean come on.