Top House Dem Fears Trump’s Influence on Pentagon: He Values ‘Willingness to Kiss the President’s A**’ Above All Else

Drew Angerer, Getty

House Armed Services Committee chairman Adam Smith expressed his concern about President Donald Trump’s influence at the Pentagon as he talked about the case of Captain Brett Crozier.

Per Defense One, Smith wants Crozier reinstated and made a point of saying he didn’t believe the president has interfered in his case, but he shared this worry:

“The president has made it clear as far as he is concerned the single most important attribute that anybody in the federal government can have is a willingness to kiss the president’s ass as often as possible”… The notion that defense officials may act based on a desire to please the president “undermines your ability to be competent, to make decisions based on what is the right thing to do as opposed to what is going to feed the president’s limitless ego,” he said.

Recently, after reports came out that top Navy officials recommended reinstating Crozier, the New York Times report saidreport said, “Admiral Gilday and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had both advised Mr. Modly not to remove Captain Crozier before an investigation into events aboard the Roosevelt was complete. But Mr. Modly feared that Mr. Trump wanted Captain Crozier fired, according to his acquaintances, and dismissed the captain.”

Smith: "The president has made it clear as far as he is concerned the single most important attribute that anybody in the federal government can have is a willingness to kiss the president's ass as often as possible."

"I am worried that will make us less effective."

— Katie Bo Williams (@KatieBoWill) April 29, 2020

Smith apparently brought up that reporting in his comments to reporters today and, per Politicoper Politico, emphasized, “I do not want to see the Department of Defense become yet another aspect of our federal government that the Trump administration has brow beaten into the position where they view their job as solely consisting of making sure that they’re kissing up to the president of the United States.”

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