Trump visits West Point after anti-protest deployment threat

Bloomberg

President Donald Trump addressed graduates of the US Military Academy at West Point on Saturday, even as the backlash to his threat to use active-duty service members to quell domestic political protests continues to roil the Pentagon.
Trump’s appearance at the nation’s oldest service academy was meant to signal a return to normalcy after the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, it has retrained attention on his handling of protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.
Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apologised for participating in a photo-op with Trump at a historic church earlier this month, which occurred after law enforcement forcibly cleared a largely peaceful protest outside the White House.
“I should not have been there,” Milley said during a taped graduation address to the National Defense University. “My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”
Milley’s presence at the June 1 incident, dressed in combat fatigues, has been widely criticised for giving tacit approval to Trump’s claim that he could use the armed forces against protesters on American soil. The photo-op, quickly spun into a campaign video, came immediately after Trump threatened the use of military force in a Rose Garden address.
Trump said in an interview with Fox News that he didn’t see Milley’s apology as significant, and defended the photo-op as a “beautiful picture.”
Trump continues to grapple with how to respond to the deaths of Floyd and other black Americans at the hands of law enforcement, which have sparked protests against police brutality across the US.
The president exposed distance between himself and military leaders again last week on the issue, announcing he would block any attempt by the Pentagon to rename US bases honouring Confederate military leaders.
The Pentagon had said Defense Secretary Mark Esper was open to a discussion about such a change. Trump, though, called the bases “part of a Great American Heritage, and a history of Winning, Victory, and Freedom,” and White House officials said he would veto any legislation mandating the renaming of installations such as Fort Bragg in North Carolina or Fort Hood in Texas.
Separately, Esper had earlier distanced himself from the church photo-op by saying that he was “not aware” that it was happening.
Esper also told reporters that he didn’t support the notion — repeatedly raised by Trump — that active-duty troops should be used to control protests in US cities. Esper’s comments prompted consternation within the White House and speculation that Trump could ultimately fire his defense chief.
Criticism has been even more vocal from former members of Trump’s administration who served in the military. Trump’s first defense secretary, Jim Mattis, issued a statement last week saying Trump had abused his power by clearing the streets ahead of his church photo-op, and had made “a mockery of our Constitution.” Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, said he agreed with that sentiment and rejected the use of active-duty troops against protesters.
“These are civilian responsibilities,” Kelly said in an interview with Anthony Scaramucci, Trump’s former communications director. “We should be very, very careful before we contemplate sending in active duty.”