Opinion
Former President and current GOP presidential candidate front-runner Donald Trump took to Truth Social to weigh in on the scandal surrounding the secret hospitalization of Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The United States and, by extension, the world first learned about Secretary Austin’s hospitalization days after he was admitted and placed in an intensive care unit.
Even more concerning is the revelations that the majority of the Biden administration, including the Commander-in-Chief himself, weren’t made aware of the Secretary’s medical condition or whereabouts until days later. Will anyone be held accountable for this apparent obfuscation of the truth?
Donald Trump and many others think someone should be. Still, it remains to be seen if accountability, let alone transparency, will be achieved.
You should be fired!
Former Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social:
“Failed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin should be fired immediately for improper professional conduct and dereliction of duty.”
This latest attack on the Secretary of Defense comes after the Pentagon finally disclosed that the sixth person in the presidential line of succession and the second most important person in the military chain of command next to the President himself was hospitalized for an unknown reason without anyone being made aware.
This includes the military secretaries and the National Security Council, who weren’t made aware until days later. Even the Deputy Secretary of Defense, who assumed Secretary Austin’s duties on January 1st, wasn’t told why she was doing his job until days later.
Mr. Trump goes on to touch on the track record of senior military officials failures and lack of accountability by writing that Secretary Austin has:
“…performed poorly, and should have been dismissed long ago, along with “General” Mark Milley, for many reasons, but in particular the catastrophic surrender in Afghanistan, perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our Country!”
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Dereliction of Duty
It’s not just Donald Trump claiming Secretary Austin should be given his walking papers. Congressman Jim Banks pointed out that:
“…he has been a disaster since Day One and should be replaced by someone who will focus on making the military ready to fight and win wars instead of advancing woke political causes of the Biden administration.”
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Mr. Trump’s former Vice President, Mike Pence, stated the following:
“To think that at a time when we have allies at war in Eastern Europe and here in Israel, that the leader of America’s military at the Pentagon would be out of commission for a number of days, and the President of the United States didn’t know about it. I think it was a dereliction of duty…”
While Secretary Austin is no longer in the United States military, he once was and is in every U.S. military member’s chain of command. If any soldier, sailor, Airman, or Marine were to become hospitalized and not inform their supervisor or those in their chain of command, they would have some very uncomfortable questions to answer including a possible Absent Without Leave (AWOL) charge.
People did know
A senior Pentagon official told CNN that they had received:
“…strict orders to not contact him and let him rest.”
It’s always good to allow those undergoing medical treatment the time to recover in peace. The point behind the above is that people did know about the Secretary’s condition and whereabouts, just not the people you’d think should know.
Those closest to the Secretary surely knew which would include his staff, an entire team of personnel whose sole job is to manage the Secretary’s life and movements. In fact, on January 2nd, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General CQ Brown, was notified that the Secretary was hospitalized.
Granted, General Brown technically isn’t in any chain of command, given his position. But certain questions come to mind:
Who told General Brown?
Did General Brown ask if the White House and military service secretaries were informed?
Was he told that no one else would be notified then, and if so, did he inquire why?
This incident has proven that the United States isn’t run by elected and appointed officials but by incompetent and self-serving bureaucrats and staffers who believe they know best what the American people and, worse yet, the President of the United States needs to know.
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