I guess President Trump saw that poll in the Military Times concerning … his popularity:
Source: Military Times
The latest Military Times poll shows a continued decline in active-duty service members’ views of President Donald Trump and a slight but significant preference for former Vice President Joe Biden in the upcoming November election among troops surveyed.
The results, collected before the political conventions earlier this month, appear to undercut claims from the president that his support among military members is strong thanks to big defense budget increases in recent years and promised moves to draw down troops from overseas conflict zones.
But the Military Times Polls, surveying active-duty troops in partnership with the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University, have seen a steady drop in troops’ opinion of the commander in chief since his election four years ago.
Why do I say that? Because President Trump is indulging in his favorite reaction when some group appears to denigrate him – he’s punching back. From USA Today:
In a heretofore unpublicized recent memo, the Pentagon delivered an order to shutter Stars and Stripes, a newspaper that has been a lifeline and a voice for American troops since the Civil War. The memo orders the publisher of the news organization (which now publishes online as well as in print) to present a plan that “dissolves the Stars and Stripes” by Sept. 15 including “specific timeline for vacating government owned/leased space worldwide.”
“The last newspaper publication (in all forms) will be September 30, 2020,” writes Col. Paul Haverstick Jr., the memo’s author.
It’s rather like watching a petulant three year old take a swat at a tower of blocks, only to have it all come raining down on him, doesn’t it? In all likelihood, this’ll simply engender more politically independent troops to become Biden voters; only hardened Trump supporters will be unaffected, politically.
Fortunately, this venerable institution can be easily restored once this President is replaced. I hope.
And that graph is especially telling, isn’t it? From a 9 point advantage to a 12 point disadvantage over twelve years, it’s gotta say something about how a body of people whose culture includes commitment to discipline views the deeply undisciplined actions of this Administration. While the military does have its problems, at its core it believes not only in what it does, but in how it does it – and, Trump’s claims of being the military’s best friend notwithstanding, they are coming more and more to the realization that Trump shares very little with them.
