Please, no one tell the wannabe dictator that pissing off members of the military by not paying them i is a bad idea. He doesn’t need to know that.
Except for Mrs. Wallace Trump.
Yeah, that was something I commented on elsewhere. An authoritarian can get away with a lot if they have the cops and military on their side. But start screwing with the troops like this, and that support can disappear overnight.
The fact that Trump just can’t stop himself from cheaping out like this, even on an essential part of his authoritarian plans, is what might ultimately save us.
Like it matters even a little bit. The majority of the dumb asses will vote R against their interests again next time.
It won’t matter at the ballot box. It may (or may not!) matter if he continues to give illegal orders to people and expect them to obey. Just like his non-payment to contractors in Atlantic City, it may work for a bit but then people might refuse to go along without cash on the barrelhead in excess of what the regular pay would even be. Then again, unlike the relatively small group of Atlantic City contractors, there are a lot of National Guard he can stiff, and he can send the regular military after them if they refuse even if unpaid.
Trump had wanted to move the US Space command from Colorado to Alabama during his first term. The ilitary objected – not only was the Air Force Academy there (which produced a lot of Space Force officers), but so were three Space Force centers. Biden countermanded that. But now Trump wants to move it to Huntsville, Alabama again. His ostensible reason?
Two years later, Trump is reversing the reversal. NBC News reported:
President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that U.S. Space Command’s headquarters will move to Alabama from Colorado, reversing a Biden administration decision. In remarks at the White House, Trump said he was making the shift in part because of Colorado’s use of mail-in voting.
That might sound like a weird joke, but it accurately summarizes the president’s own comments.
“The problem I have with Colorado, one of the big problems, they do mail-in voting,” Trump said, adding that this was a “factor” in his decision to move the U.S. Space Command from a blue state to a red state.
Wrote Steve Benen in the Maddowblog:
I can appreciate why most Americans probably don’t care where the Space Command is located, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees: Trump, by his own admission, is making decisions about the military that have nothing to do with the military.
This reminds me of the way Trump made – or at least rationalized – his decisions on The Apprentice. He knew what he wanted to do, but came up with some ad hoc reason for the decision. It’s hard to believe that he wanted to move the center because of mail-in voting, but we know he wants to get rid of mail-in voting, and he wants to hurt Colorado, so it becomes a reason for moving a military center. Who cares if it makes any objective sense?
And that’s probably the best way to start that civil war we’re all kind of expecting.
Thanks Monty. You lasted a lot longer shoveling this muck than I would have.
I’m trying to figure out why he did this. It’s not like the money is coming out of his pocket. And, as others have said, pissing off the people in uniform is generally not a good tactic.
Because he hates the very idea of anyone but himself benefiting from anything. As far as he’s concerned in any arrangement there’s a winner and a loser, and if the other side gets anything, that means you are the loser. So the National Guard must lose out, or that means Trump is the loser.
- @monty - Thanks for all the good work.
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voters
Nah, I’m not buying that logic. Each member of the NG getting another $2500 or whatever doesn’t mean shit to him.
I think it’s this, from the Guard & Reserve Handbook:
Reserve component members called or ordered to active duty for more than 30 days in support of a contingency operation must be given at least 30 days’ advance notice
Because they weren’t given 30 days notice prior to being activated, they couldn’t legally keep them longer than 30 days, so they shut them off at 29 days.
Yeah, this. None of the government budget comes out of his pocket, but look at what he’s cutting, and what he’s paying for.
He cuts as much as he can from programs that benefit other people, and don’t benefit him. See Medicare, USAID, NPR, all that.
He spends money like a drunken sailor on stuff that directly benefits him, See both his fancy new Air Force One, and the “Gift” plane that he thinks will be the new Air Force One, see the renovations on the White House.
There are some things he spend money on that don’t directly line his own pocket, but they all do play to his ego as the “Strongman”. See, increased military funding and ICE funding.
If he had any sense, he’d see that the pay for the NG deployments would fall under that latter category, but all he sees is money going into the pockets of the soldiers, and that makes him feel like it’s the first category. No new shiny weapons he can brag about and put in parades, nothing he can point out to Putin to look tough. Just some losers who aren’t even real soldiers (in his mind) making out like bandits just for doing what he told them to do, those ingrates. So his natural cheap instincts cut in, and he figures if there’s an escape clause that lets him avoid paying more, he should take it.
He’s been talking about this stuff for months, maybe even years now. Not being able to give notice in time is pretty damn incompetent, and the US military is not yet that Trumpified.
I think it may be to cut costs in preparation for the opposition denouncing the NG activations as costly boondoggles.
It’s a bit thin but it’s the only reason I can see, as others said Trump is not personally paying them so being a cheap bastard doesn’t enter into it, and shortchanging the military just for the heck of it seems extra-stupid even by trumpian standards, so, once we’ve eliminated the impossible then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
Let’s remember that Trump has been talking about using the National Guard like this since before the election. The idea that he just forgot to give them enough notice is nonsense
I believe Oregon has had this for the past 25 years, and it works well.
That DOGE guy was attacked on August 3rd. Trump declared a crime emergency on August 11th, and troops were deployed shortly thereafter. So there’s no way the NG troops got a 30-day notice.
Besides,
National Guard troops deployed in Washington, DC, as part of President Donald Trump’s anti-crime initiative are expected to have their military orders extended through December, a senior official familiar with the planning told CNN.
The extension, which has not been finalized, is intended to ensure continuity of benefits for service members and their families, not necessarily to signal that the mission will last until year’s end.
White House Orders Agencies to Escalate Fight Against Offshore Wind
The effort involves several agencies that typically have little to do with wind power, including the Health and Human Services Department
Not a gift link, because the title says it all, and it’s early in the month.
I’ll use one of my gift links:
I read this earlier, and was appalled. Especially for the $4 billion project off the coast of Rhode Island that is 80% complete and for which the federal government just ordered construction to stop. All because Trump doesn’t like wind power because a project supposedly spoiled his view at his Scotland golf course.
This is the federal equivalent of coal-rolling. What’s next, banning emissions control devices like scrubbers on coal plants and automobile catalytic converters?