Remember the member of Donald Trump’s Cabinet who was referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution? No, not that one. No, not that one or that one, either.
I’m referring to Robert Wilkie, the controversial secretary of veterans affairs who was referred to federal prosecutors after he allegedly tried to discredit a congressional aide who raised sexual assault allegations against an unnamed man in 2019.
As the first Trump administration neared its end, a variety of leading veterans groups — including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America — called for his resignation, as did congressional Democratic leaders.
Ultimately, Wilkie wasn’t charged, despite the concerns raised by the Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general’s office, though common sense suggested the controversy would affect his future career prospects.
It was against this backdrop that Trump last week tapped Wilkie to oversee Defense Department transition efforts for the president-elect.
Is it any wonder why officials at the Pentagon are feeling a bit anxious about the near future? The Washington Post reported:
The Pentagon anticipates major upheaval once President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, amid fears that the once and future commander in chief will follow through on vows to deploy the military domestically against American citizens, demand fealty from key leaders and attempt to remake the nonpartisan institution into one explicitly loyal to him. The trepidation harks back to Trump’s first term, when he smashed norms and frequently clashed with senior Pentagon leaders — including several of his own political appointees.
There’s every reason to believe his second term will be considerably worse — especially after Trump spoke publicly in the run-up to the election about possibly using military force on American soil against the “enemy from within.” Trump also went so far as to promise to establish a task force that would help keep military leaders out of the Pentagon if he deemed them ideologically unacceptable.
The Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, quoted Richard Kohn, a professor and military historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who said the greatest danger the military faces under a second Trump presidency is a “rapid erosion of its professionalism, which would undermine its status and respect from the American people. Mr. Trump does not have a real understanding of civil-military relations, or the importance of a nonpartisan, nonpolitical military.” CNN published a related report, which has also not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, which added that defense officials have held “informal discussions about how the Department of Defense would respond if Donald Trump issues orders to deploy active-duty troops domestically and fire large swaths of apolitical staffers.” Politico noted, meanwhile, that officials at the Pentagon are especially “anxious” about the possibility of the incoming president firing Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown, “due to perceptions that he is out of step with the president-elect on the Pentagon’s diversity and inclusion programs.” Time will tell just how far Trump is prepared to go in politicizing the department, but given his recent history, his pre-election rhetoric and his radical worldview, it’s difficult to be optimistic.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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