Donald Trump Says He Will Not Let Generals Speak to the Media If He Becomes President
In a Trump Presidency a big change for the military will be that General Officers will no longer be allowed to talk to the media:
If he becomes commander in chief, Donald Trump won’t let military generals speak to “the dishonest press,” out of fear they’ll spill national security secrets. “I don’t want them saying things like ‘our nation has never been so ill-prepared.’ Even though it’s true, I don’t want the enemy knowing that.”“A general should not be on television,” the Republican front-runner told a crowd of supporters during a rally at Carmel, Indiana, on Monday. “I don’t want our generals on television. I will prohibit them. [Military Times]
You can read more at the link.
Good!
Is this Duffle Blog? What the Hell?
I think Trump will have to ban C-SPAN from broadcasting whenever a General officer testifies before Congress considering that is where most journalists get quotes from General officers from.
The President can make their testimony classified..
This would mean a significant restructuring.
What would happen to the military public affairs spokespeople offices? What would come of combat embed journalists? What would happen to USFK’s “kachi-kapshi-da” community outreach and communication program?
The muzzling and demotion of the generals started some time ago. Remember when we had such titles as CINC-PAC? Then the other infamous Donald (Rumsfeld) declared we only have one commander-in-chief, so generals can no longer use that title.
But this Donald must know what he’s doing. Even though we don’t know where he gets his military and foreign policy advice other than from watching “the shows”. He did declare he knows much more than the generals and would make the greatest commander, so we should trust him. He did go to a high school military academy.
Watch out, GIKorea. President Trump will eventually put a muzzle on your website. 😎
It is appropriate (and probably necessary) for a general to offer expert testimony to Congress (even if that shows up on CSpan). By contrast, I think it is inappropriate for them to have an interview for the Rolling Stone (as McChrystal did).
It does not matter if generals speak or not.
They lie… and they lie about everything.
Sometimes they lie to misinform the enemy.
But mostly they lie to cover their azzes or push some agenda that has absolutely nothing to do with winning wars… and is frequently counterproductive to winning wars.
The same goes for most elected politicians and career bureaucrats… pretty much the whole government…
…which is more interested in consolidating power, pushing ideology, promoting crony capitalism, seeking gain on an individual level, hiding incompetence, and even feeding the sociopathic desires of so many that are attracted to government jobs.
It would be better if everyone in government just stopped talking and the only information to the public came from whistleblowers.
Underinformed might be better than misinformed.
@Bruce, LOL let’s hope not. 😉