As my colleague Michael Kranish detailed, in the public record there’s already plenty of evidence of Trump’s disparagement of military service. “What the military came to understand over the past four years is that, for all Trump’s talk of patriotism, he truly is transactional,” Ignatius added. “Throughout his career, he has always believed that loyalty was for chumps.”Trump’s relationship with the military already took a dark turn this summer. His tweeted desire to unleash federal agents and the armed forces, if need be, on protesters in U.S. cities disquieted current and former military officers and defense officials. Polling conducted before the political conventions — and before the allegations published this past week — shows Trump’s opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, leading Trump among active-duty service members.

Source: Washington Post September 08, 2020 03:56 UTC