Since When Do We Establish Policy Via Tweet?
D. S. Mitchell
Trump gets an idea and decides to change carefully crafted government policy, and then throws it out via Twitter. Since when should this be an okay thing? No plan, no developed policy, Trump just issues a “royal tweet,” as if it were a king’s decree.
Trump Tweets That Transgender Individuals Will Not Be Allowed To Serve In The U.S. Military
On Wednesday morning, apparently while he was in the can doing his morning dump, the President of the United States decided to announced his personal reversal of a carefully thought out Defense Department policy. Trump assassinated the transgender military plan through a trio of early morning tweets.
“After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the U.S. government will not accept or allow–transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming–victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgenders in the military would entail. Thank You.”
The declaration blindsided his Defense Secretary, James “Mad Dog” Mattis, who is currently on vacation. Apparently, on Tuesday Trump notified Mattis and other key officials he was moving toward such a decision and left it at that. So, during his 6:00 a.m. dump, Trump decided there was no reason to wait–on the announcement, so he fired away, in more ways than one.
Outrage from nearly every corner slammed back at Trump. Many pointing out that the military spends more on Viagra than transgender medication. Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war hero (D. IL.) called out Trump publicly about his questionable deferments during the Vietnam war, and indicated his lack of service put him in an awkward position when making Tweet policy for the military. Another pundit asked why the government was spending 3.6 M on every Trump trip to Mar-a-Lago and was now worried about the very minimal cost of transgender medications. Others were asking if the several million dollars for transgender care of military personnel was being done in an effort to find more money for the “Trump Wall”?
Questions hammered the White House Press Secretary at a news briefing later Wednesday. Sara Sanders announced that the White House and the Defense Department would be working to figure out logistics of how “to lawfully deal with transgender troops who are already serving in the military.” Huckabee Sanders admitted that to her knowledge no new policy had been initiated and further, that no conversations have taken place, and none are currently underway to insure a smooth transition of Trump’s new tweeted policy. Really, absolutely amazing, and not in a good way.
A statement from the Pentagon indicated there would be no change to military policy at this time. A 2016 Pentagon study estimated 1,500 to 7,000 service personnel were openly serving as transgender individuals. A public group put the number of transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military closer to 16,000. The Human Rights Campaign calls the military the “largest employer of transgender people in America.”
Calamity Politics offers opinions, analysis, and speculations, in a mostly critical examination of the U.S. national political scene.
Join the Resistance
Dar
