CNN Analyst, Obama Crony Blasts Trump on Thanksgiving Day over Troop Deployment
President Trump help a conference call with members of all five branches of the military on Thanksgiving to express his thanks for their service.
This is the president’s second year in a row that he’s spoken to military service members on Thanksgiving.
As reported by Fox News, Trump said during the phone call that he and the First Lady wanted to convey their “profound gratitude” and told service members that their “courage truly inspires us.”
However, not everyone was happy with the president’s Thanksgiving day message.
Retired Rear Admiral John Kirby, who was spokesman for the State Department and the Department of Defense during the Obama administration and is now CNN’s national security analyst, said that that the president’s call was “completely inappropriate.”
As reported by Breitbart, Kirby went on CNN’s “Inside Politics” on Thursday to express his disapproval of how the president spoke to those serving in the military.
“It was completely inappropriate. Look, all he needed to say is thanks to you and your families, and I support your mission, and I am going to continue to support it going forward. Very simple. That is all he really needed to say,” Kirby said.
“He found a way to inject judicial court decisions he doesn’t like on immigration and trade deals he finds unfair — not a good place to put the troops,” he continued.
“They are not an extension of the MAGA crowd. They are not an arm of the Republican party.”
Kirby also wrote a piece for CNN on Thursday in which he reiterated his objections to Trump.
“Trump loves to wrap himself in a jingoistic cloak and tends to view the military as some sort of extension of himself,” he wrote.
“They are not, of course. And their missions overseas, while perhaps distasteful to him, should not be used to further his campaign bluster and feed his fragile ego.”
Kirby, who said on Thursday that “there was a part of me that was happy he didn’t go to Arlington National Cemetery on Veterans Day,” was also heavily critical of Trump’s plans to visit troops in a war zone, writing that “It’s a pity he’s had to be goaded into that.”
Rather than supporting Trump’s show of appreciation and support for the troops, Kirby believes that Trump’s “sizable personality” will get in the way.
“My hopes are not high for this. And I fear I will end up thinking his visit, when it occurs, was in the main — like his Thanksgiving call — more damaging to the health of the military institution than it was a boon for morale,” Kirby wrote.
However, many believe that on a day dedicated to expressing thanks, it is necessary that the president communicate American citizens’ indebtedness to those in service defending our country. Hopefully this is the message that those whom Trump spoke to received.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
