Since then, top aides have shot down the president’s musings, and military sources point out that none of these discussions have included the Pentagon, and no one in the military supports any use of the armed forces to keep Donald Trump in office. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, said on MSNBC that Flynn was a “disgrace to his uniform.Īfter his television remarks, Flynn was invited to the Oval Office over the weekend, according to The New York Times and CNN, where he repeated his proposal. “The president has to plan for every eventuality because we cannot allow this election and the integrity of our election to go the way it is.” Flynn’s suggestion has been openly condemned by numerous retired officers. “He could take military capabilities and he could … basically rerun an election,” Flynn said. Martial law,” says the lawyer, “is the wrong paradigm to think about the dangers ahead.” Though such a presidential proclamation could flow from his order as commander-in-chief, an essential missing ingredient is the martial side: the involvement and connivance of some cabal of officers who would support the president’. He was granted anonymity in order to speak without fear of reprisal. “I’ve been associated with the military for over 40 years and I’ve never seen the discussions that are being had right now, the need for such discussions,” says a retired flag officer, currently a defense contractor who has mentored and advised his service’s senior leaders. According to one officer who spoke to Newsweek on condition of anonymity, the planning is being kept out of sight of the White House and Trump loyalists in the Pentagon for fear that it would be shut down. And military commands responsible for Washington DC are engaged in secret contingency planning in case the armed forces are called upon to maintain or restore civil order during the inauguration and transition period. Though far-fetched, ranking officers have discussed what they would do if the president declared martial law. Pentagon and Washington-area military leaders are on red alert, wary of what President Donald Trump might do in his remaining days in office. military in determining the outcome of an American election,” Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Army Chief of Staff General James McConville said in a joint statement last Friday.
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