Donald Trump heads to West Point tomorrow, where he should mention how he mistreated his Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, who, much to his credit, publicly apologized for his mistake in being part of Trump’s much-maligned photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, after Team Barr-Trump used military force to clear Lafayette Park.
Only he won’t, because Trump never admits he’s wrong.
He’s put his Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, in a hard spot, which he (Trump) is not, of course, willing to share.
And to Esper’s credit, he’s backing his subordinates, at least to an extent, especially with regard to monuments to Confederate generals, and the renaming of military bases such as Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
It would be a good idea if Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (former hard-right Freedom Caucus Congressman from North Carolina) would bring to his boss’ attention something about Confederate General Braxton Bragg, after whom Fort Bragg in North Carolina is named. Fort Bragg is one of the largest U S Army bases in the world.
Bragg was a favorite of Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis, but he was not liked by his troops for his bad temper (probably not nearly so bad as Trump’s temper), and he was routed by Union General Ulysses S Grant, our eighteenth president, in the Battles of Chattanooga.
Problem for Trump is that in the ongoing and long-overdue removal of statues of Confederate Generals, Trump totally refuses even to consider renaming Fort Bragg — yet another example of his total obduracy.
Tomorrow at West Point, when our Narcissist-in-Chief speaks, we’ll have our Chief Military Correspondent, Joshua Marshall, on hand to offer his comments.