Trump’s bond with veterans starts to fracture over Russian bounty plot
A series of military figures are lining up to condemn the president over his reported inaction after being briefed on the plot
Published on Thu 2 Jul 2020 08.00 BST
Military veterans helped sweep Donald Trump to power in 2016, turning out in swing states
like Ohio and Florida as Trump vowed to spend vast sums on defense.
They have largely stuck with him ever since, even as Trump has
repeatedly attacked venerated military leaders.
But as Trump grapples with the scandal over his reported inaction
after being briefed on a Russian plot to pay bounties for the killing
of US troops, cracks in the relationship are starting to show, and a
series of military figures have lined up to condemn the president.
Even
before news of Russian bounties broke, Trump’s bond with the military
appeared to have become fractured. Some veterans and members of the
military were horrified by Trump’s pledge to deploy active-duty military forces to anti-racism protests and demonstrations.
“Donald
Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite
the American people – does not even pretend to try,” said marine general
and Trump’s former defense secretary James Mattis in an extraordinary critique of the president in early June.
“Instead
he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three
years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of
three years without mature leadership.”
Since then, things have only got worse for Trump.
The New York Times reported on Friday
that the Trump administration had ignored intelligence about a Russian
plot to offer bounties to Afghan militants to kill US troops. Trump has
called the report – aspects of which have been confirmed by other
outlets – a hoax, and insisted he was not briefed on the Russian plan.
The New York Times and CNN
have since reported that the information was included in a daily
intelligence briefing in February, although Trump is known to rarely
read those briefings. The report of the plot, and Trump’s response,
could prove to be the straw that broke the camel’s back when it comes to
the armed forces. Even Republicans were shocked by the allegations.
“I’m
not really sure he absorbs a lot of this stuff,” US congressman Paul
Cook, a marine veteran, who represents several military installations, told Associated Press. “He’s probably thinking about the polls.”
Cook,
who is retiring from Congress at the end of his current term, added:
“I’m not going to be an apologist for Trump. Trump is Trump.”
As
Trump’s response has oscillated between the threat not being credible
and him not being made aware of it, some veterans have expressed alarm
at the latter explanation – at a president who is not being given, or
who is not reading, important briefing documents.
“I think it’s even worse if he didn’t know,” Mikie Sherrill, a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey, told NJ.com.
“That
speaks to a much broader crisis. What is he doing to fulfill his role
as commander in chief? How is it that we were briefing allies on this
and our own president didn’t know? I don’t have any theories on how that
might happen. I can’t fathom it.”
Sherrill
added: “If you’re going to put your life on the line for country, you
want to have leadership in place that’s going to value your life, and do
what they can to protect you. That’s the deal. So yeah, it’s very
personal to me.”
The sentiment was echoed by
Erik Hendriks, whose son was killed in an attack in Afghanistan in April
2019. The attack has been linked to the Russian bounty effort, and
Hendricks questioned what Trump and the military knew about the plot in
advance.
“When they sign up and they go – any
soldier, a marine, navy, air force, army – I’m sure they want to believe
that the government is 100% in their corner,” Hendriks told Associated Press.
“And
if any of this is true, how could a soldier actually believe that
anymore? How could this government let one soldier go on patrol out
there knowing this is true?”
Hendriks’ mother,
Felicia Arculeo, and Shawn Gregoire, the mother of Michael Isaiah Nance,
who was killed in the same attack, have demanded an investigation into
the Russian bounty plot and the Trump administration, as pressure grows
on the president to explain what happened.
“I really want someone to get to the bottom of this,” Gregoire told CNBC. “Even if he was not briefed, what’s happening now?”
Referring to Trump, Gregoire asked: “What are you doing now, now that you know?”
Trump’s immediate response has been to post a series of distressed messages to Twitter, where – despite initially claiming he did not receive intelligence on the Russian plot – he has since attempted to dismiss the concept as a hoax.
The
administration is yet to announce action against Russia, which Trump
has treated favorably since his election, yet the issue is unlikely to
go away. On Wednesday, Senator Bob Menendez, the ranking member of
Senate foreign relations committee, proposed sanctions on Vladimir Putin and other officials for offering bounties to kill US troops.
Historically
military members and veterans tend to favor Republican candidates, and
Trump’s relationship with the military has so far endured his attacks on military families, and the venom Trump has directed at John McCain, even after the senator died.
That support held in 2018, even as voters flocked to Democrats, when Trump’s Republican party still won 58% of the military vote, but with just four months to go, Trump has found himself immediately targeted over the Russian scandal.
The
Lincoln Project, a group of influential anti-Trump Republicans who plan
to spend big money advertising against the president during the
election campaign, quickly capitalized on Trump’s handling of the alleged bounty plot on Saturday.
“Putin
pays the Taliban cash to slaughter our men and women in uniform, and
Trump is silent, weak, controlled,” the ad says. “When Trump tells you
he stands by the troops, he’s right – just not our troops.”
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