Aside from the policy decision itself, appearing to expel transgender service members from the US military, how it happened is also quite disturbing. Despite Trump’s claim about consulting with “my Generals and military experts” the Pentagon didn’t seem to have any idea what he was talking about. And as yet, nothing has officially happened since all the Pentagon has seen is a tweet.
But also look at this.
Here’s the first tweet from the announcement …
After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow……
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017
Here’s Buzzfeed’s reporting about the reaction to that first tweet at the Pentagon …
At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action. Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news the president was announcing a personnel change on Twitter.
What’s not clear here is whether this is about relatively low level personnel who wouldn’t know about a major attack before it was announced or more senior level officers or civilian appointees and civil servants. Obviously if it’s the latter it raises some pretty serious questions about how out of control or unpredictable President Trump seems to be people at the Department of Defense.
