Did the Joint Chief Just Diss Trump?

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It’s subtle, but the Chiefs do seem a tad huffy.

As you probably heard, yesterday the Embarrassment in Chief tweeted that there would be no more transgendered people in the military.

First question: Who does he mean by “my generals”? ‘Cause the Joint Chiefs didn’t see this coming. I presume he means the generals in his cabinet. But a policy about personnel should have been run by the Joint Chiefs first, I think.

The Chair of the Joint Chiefs, Marine Gen. Joe Dunford, sent a message to the chiefs of the military branches and senior enlisted leaders saying that the military does not respond to tweets. Also, the military will continue to “treat all of our personnel with respect.”

“I know there are questions about yesterday’s announcement on the transgender policy by the President,” Dunford wrote in the internal communication, a copy of which was provided to POLITICO. “There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President’s direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance.”

“In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect. As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions,” he continued.

One suspects that if Gen. Dunford agreed with the policy change, he would have written a somewhat different message. But he might have been just pissed off about being given an order by tweet. Big, complex organizations like the United States military require protocols and procedures to function. I suspect tweeting isn’t in the handbook.

Second question — what “medical cost”? Apparently this ban came about because some House Republicans were on some kind of rampage about the military spending money on medical services related to transitioning. The Washington Post pointed out that the military spends ten times more on erectile dysfunction treatments.  And that’s five times more on Viagra alone. Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago cost taxpayers more than trans soldiers health care.

It appears the White House expected cheering and wild applause from the Right and figured it would make a great wedge issue next year …

… but so far, the response has been relatively subdued. And some prominent GOP lawmakers, including Orrin Hatch, John McCain, Joni Ernst and Richard Shelby, publicly disagreed with the ban. So much for wedgies, eh?

We’ll see if the White House even bothers to go through with this nonsense now.

13 thoughts on “Did the Joint Chief Just Diss Trump?”

  2. In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect.

    That’s a diss! At least as much of a diss as he get away with without losing his job.

  3. Just think of it as Trump rummaging around in all the seat cushions in the White House after state visits for loose change to give to his millionaire buddies who, you know, really need it!

  4. I would translate it as:

    “Either the military will have to adapt to direction by Tweet or the POTUS will have to learn the protocol for changes to military policy which have evolved over two centuries. We don’t think the POTUS will be around long enough to justify a transition to direction by Tweet.”

  5. When Obama ridiculed Trump at the correspondents dinner way back when, I knew that he had gotten under Trumps skin, but I didn’t realize to what extent Trump would go to avenge that lighthearted ridicule.. Wow, talk about a fragile ego! I just wonder if Trump’s hatred for Obama is based solely on the color of Obama’s skin, or whether Obama’s superior intellect compared to Trump’s cretin brain is the basis for Trump’s hatred.
    I could guess that Trump is trying to tear down Obama’s positive contributions to our nation only to satisfy the racist element of his base, but it appears to me that there is a deeper anger and desire to destroy Obama’s legacy in Trump’s spirit than would be required to satiate the racist element of his base. It’s a personal vendetta that can only be explained by trying to understand the flaws and shortcomings of Trump’s character.
    I guess the only safe conclusion that can be drawn is the fact that Trump is a sick, sick puppy. And also the fact that Trump is a big, big, bag of shit.

  6. The Joint Chiefs just asked their superior officer to put his crazy-ass order in writing. That’s fairly serious.

  7. I need a vacation from our ASSHOLE-IN-CHIEF!!!
    The teeny-tiny left hand doesn’t know what the teeny-tiny right hand is doing – unless they’re tweeting something moronic together.

    Also, I’d like to apologize for all of the nasty shit I said and wrote about America’s greatest maverick Senator (for today, at least), John McCain.

    He “double-drama’d” his return to DC from blod clot surgery – with more serious cancer brain cancer procedures to start soon. Now THERE’S a disease t-RUMPLE-THIN-sKKKin will NEVE GET!!!!!
    -First, to vote “Yeah” to holding hearings.
    -THen, the next day, to vote “Nay” with his thumb pointing down, to cock-block t-RUMP’s and the Turtle’s efforts to take health care away from millions.

  8. Dunford is showing the Dunce in Chief that being President and running the government is not just sending out dumb tweets.

  9. gulag …You’ve got to keep hammering away at that bag of shit. These are the times that try men’s souls.

  11. Trump: “After consultation with my Generals and military experts,”

    Given Trump’s disregard for the truth, that probably does not mean anything. Oh, he may have talked with somebody with some connection to some military or other, but they do not have to be a recognized expert or hold (or have held) any military rank for Trump to say that, and, obviously, there does not have to be more than one person that he talked to. Nobody is going to fact check Trump on this, so he can make it up. (Not that he doesn’t make up things that can be fact checked.)

  12. Who does he mean by “my generals”? ‘
    His Generals are the former military people in his administration whose credibility he is hiding behind. That’s what cowards do. And that’s why they are called cowards. Trump’s Generals are nothing more than a place holder, a sanctuary where Trump can hide and dispense any kind of bullshit with the protection of people not knowing who is responsible for his foolish decisions. He’s banking off of their hard earned experience and credibility.
    That’s just one of the reasons why I refer to Trump as a big bag of shit. He fits with extreme precision the model of New York street vernacular of what exactly constitutes a big bag of shit. No substance.

  13. At least as long ago as the Reagan administration Republican presidents have often made some grand announcement, then backtracked or reversed after the ensuing shitstorm. The only difference this time is the use of Twitter and the actual person being incredibly stupid and easily swayed by news TV (Trump apparently made his announcement just after watching Tucker Carlson do an anti trans-in-military rant).

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