A retired Army general described former president Donald Trump as a threat to the Constitution, rejecting the call from a colleague for top brass to avoid discussing their political opinions in public.
Ben Hodges, a former commanding general at the United States Army Europe between 2014 and 2018, gave his opinion in response to an op-ed by former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey titled "Keep Your Politics Private, My Fellow Generals and Admirals."
This isn't a normal campaign. Trump isn't a normal candidate. You say Generals are Generals for life so my oath to defend the Constitution is for life. Trump threatens our Constitution. I can't stand by.
— Ben Hodges (@general_ben) November 1, 2024
"Keep Your Politics Private" https://t.co/sN2286OiQz via @DefenseOne
"From my personal experience across several administrations, the commander-in-chief will value our military advice only if they believe that it is given without political bias or personal agenda," said Dempsey, who held the country's top military post between 2011 and 2015.
"Their opinion is valued chiefly because it is assumed they speak with authority for those who have served in uniform. And their opinion is also valued because our elected leaders know that the men and women of the U.S. military can be counted upon follow the orders of their elected leaders," he added.
Dempsey went on to say that admirals and generals should be able to speak in private but not publicly and not about "those seeking office," because that will be decided by the voters. The only exception, he added, should be when they decide to run for office themselves.
But if senior military leaders "—active and retired—begin to self-identify as members or supporters of one party or another, then the inherent tension built into our system of government between the executive branch and the legislative branch will bleed over into suspicion of military leaders by Congress and a further erosion of civil-military relations," Dempsey said. He added that future administrations could "seek to determine which senior leaders would be more likely to agree with them before putting them in senior leadership positions."
However, Hodges rejected the piece altogether, saying that "this isn't a normal campaign" and that Trump "isn't a normal candidate." "You say Generals are Generals for life so my oath to defend the Constitution is for life. Trump threatens our Constitution. I can't stand by," Hodges added.
Another former general who has now famously not heeded Dempsey's call is John Kelly, the longest-serving chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Trump administration, who told The New York Times that the GOP nominee met the definition of a fascist and he repeatedly expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler.
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