Trump Tries To Get Into Navy’s Good Graces Amid Week Of Military Remarks Gone Awry

US President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St John's Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in Washington, DC on June 1, 2020. - US President Donald Trump was due to make a televised address to the nation ... US President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St John's Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in Washington, DC on June 1, 2020. - US President Donald Trump was due to make a televised address to the nation on Monday after days of anti-racism protests against police brutality that have erupted into violence. The White House announced that the president would make remarks imminently after he has been criticized for not publicly addressing in the crisis in recent days. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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President Trump is apparently trying to make up for the backlash that ensued over his recent remarks regarding the military by praising the U.S. Navy’s reversal of a controversial cost-cutting decision that would cancel Catholic Masses at Naval bases in Southern California.

On Saturday, the Navy announced that Catholic Masses at San Diego-area bases are ending as it declined to renew contracts with Catholic priests — a decision the department explained as a cost-cutting move, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune. The Navy also noted that there aren’t enough Catholic chaplains on active duty to fill the void. The decision was part of a national realignment to the Navy’s religious ministries, which was announced in late August.

After the Navy faced backlash for cutting Catholic Masses in South California while other religious services continue — which included Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who tweeted that the Navy’s initial plan to cancel contracts with Catholic priests means “we need to look at canceling admirals, not priests” — Rear Adm. Bette Bolivar, the commander of Navy Region Southwest, announced on Tuesday that Roman Catholic services will continue on board Southern California Naval bases at least for the next year.

“Contrary to previous discussions, this year we will continue contracted religious ministry programs and services similar to what we’ve had in place previously,” Bolivar told The San Diego Union-Tribune in a statement. “We will also continue to assess how best to meet the needs of our Sailors and their families throughout the region.”

The next day, Trump — who has come under fire in the past week following The Atlantic’s report that he called fallen soldiers “losers” and accusing Pentagon leaders of being beholden to defense contractors — seemed to praise the Navy’s reversal in a tweet.

The President’s praise for the Navy’s reversal comes a day after Army chief of staff Gen. James McConville hit back at his assertion that top leaders at the Pentagon want to keep waging wars in order to keep defense contractors “happy” by saying that troops are sent to combat “when it’s required in national security, or as a last resort,” during a virtual event hosted by Defense One on Tuesday.

McConville’s remarks were made shortly after White House chief of staff Mark Meadows denied that the President’s remarks that took aim at Pentagon leaders were directed toward an individual general, but that the comment was “more directed about the military industrial complex.”

Although Trump administration officials began coming to the President’s defense over the weekend following The Atlantic’s report on the President’s denigrating comments toward fallen soldiers, Republicans on Capitol Hill have yet to weigh in on the matter.

Amid the controversy that the President faces over his latest remarks regarding the military, the White House has reportedly interviewed candidates to replace Defense secretary Mark Esper — who has occasionally broken with Trump, specifically over their surprise photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House in early June.

Notable Replies

  1. Norwegian parliamentarian nominates Donald Trump for 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, Fox News reports

    Christian Tybring-Gjedde, a member of the Norwegian parliament, has once again nominated US President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, citing his work in the Israel-United Arab Emirates peace conflict. According to the official Nobel website, there were 318 candidates for the 2020 Peace Prize.

    “For his merit, I think he has done more trying to create peace between nations than most other Peace Prize nominees,” Tybring-Gjedde, a four-term member of Parliament who also serves as chairman of the Norwegian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, told Fox News in an exclusive interview." — Fox News

  2. The United States Navy, or the Department of Defense, will NOT be cancelling its contract with Catholic Priests who serve our men and women in the Armed Forces so well, and with such great compassion & skill. This will no longer be even a point of discussion! @CardinalDolan

    ‘k’

  3. After Woodward’s book, RAGE, hits the bookstores trump should focus on getting in the good graces of the public because it shows just how badly he mislead the public on the Corona Virus from as far back as February. There are tapes, too.
    I see @southerndem beat me to it.

    “I wanted to always play it down,” Trump told Woodward on March 19, even as he had declared a national emergency over the virus days earlier. “I still like playing it down, because I don’t want to create a panic.”

    (And cause the markets to crash and ruin my chances for reelection).

  4. He is most widely known for his opposition to immigration, especially Muslim immigration, and has claimed that Norway is a victim of “sneaking Islamization” and that Muslim immigrants are “threatening Norwegian culture”.[5] In 2010 he wrote that “we don’t believe in multiculture” and claimed that immigration of non-ethnic Norwegians is “idiocy”.[6]On climate change he has stated that “I don’t believe in the climate hysteria”.[7] He believes immigration policy to be the single most important political issue facing Norwegian society.

    Figures.

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