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Joint Chiefs: No modification of trans- policy until SecDef issues official guidance

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
But didn't Trump say in the Tweet that he had cleared this with his generals?

Are... are you telling me that Donald Trump lied?


Of course not. Why, here's footage recorded from the Oval Office of Trump discussing things with his generals.

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They are just saying that an official order hasn't been sent to the Secretary of Defense. This isn't really a yah fuck Trump moment lol. All he needs to do is send an official order. Whether he will or not remains to be seen I guess.
 

Exile20

Member
No, they're not "orders" in the least.

Orders are established by the formal chain-of-command protocol where the President gives a directive to the Secretary of Defense who in turn develops the policy guidance to the Service Chiefs for implementation. There is a formal process for this and Twitter isn't it.

He said he cleared it with his generals.
 
So basically, a tweet isn't an official order. If he officially requests it we will comply immediately.

They have no other choice. They can't even resign unless POTUS accepts the resignation. They could desert or fail to perform their duties, but that's criminal. They could, I guess, claim it's not a lawful order, but as it stands -- seems like it sadly is.

But it's not "immediately." Developing guidance will take a really, really long time.
 

kamineko

Does his best thinking in the flying car
Nobody knew managing a large, diverse organization could be so complicated
 

GodofWine

Member
“In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect."

..until the President tells us to not treat our personnel with respect. Awesome President we have here.


I get the impression that there are rifts forming in the Republican party (I mean, some of them must think the guy is losing his marbles), and that the pentagon is about to be done with the guy.
 

Fuchsdh

Member
Yeah, I'm sure the thousands of transgender soldiers are fine with waiting around worried about their position with this hanging over their head. That won't hurt morale at all.

I'd say the fact that their commanders aren't jumping on every shitty word the commander-in-chief decides to Tweet out is a small victory, yes.
 
Trump tweeting that shit and Chiefs saying we are waiting on the paper work?

I mean the dude is president so did he forget to send the orders the right way instead of tweeting his shit?
 

Instro

Member
Utterly bizarre series of events. Announcing policy changes on Twitter, without having even done any planning, or provided an official order.
 

pigeon

Banned
This is a pretty big deal.

The Joint Chiefs aren't just saying "we won't do it until we get an order," they're saying "we won't do it until we get instruction from the Secretary of Defense."

In other words they're pretty much saying they refuse to take orders from the President on this topic. Even if he wrote it on stationery instead of Twitter, they would wait for SecDef to confirm the orders.
 

Trey

Member
This is a pretty big deal.

The Joint Chiefs aren't just saying "we won't do it until we get an order," they're saying "we won't do it until we get instruction from the Secretary of Defense."

In other words they're pretty much saying they refuse to take orders from the President on this topic. Even if he wrote it on stationery instead of Twitter, they would wait for SecDef to confirm the orders.

I mean that's the chain of command. An actual president would have went through those exact avenues if he or she wanted to give an order, Trump just fires off whatever crosses his mind into the void like an awkward, drunken orgasm.
 

Glix

Member
This is a pretty big deal.

The Joint Chiefs aren't just saying "we won't do it until we get an order," they're saying "we won't do it until we get instruction from the Secretary of Defense."

In other words they're pretty much saying they refuse to take orders from the President on this topic. Even if he wrote it on stationery instead of Twitter, they would wait for SecDef to confirm the orders.

I mean, isn't that the chain of command?

The military holds the chain of command above everything.
 

pigeon

Banned
I mean that's the chain of command. An actual president would have went through those exact avenues if he or she wanted to give an order, Trump just fires off whatever crosses his mind into the void like an awkward, drunken orgasm.

I mean, isn't that the chain of command?

The military holds the chain of command above everything.

The reason it's called the chain of command is that it's a chain. If your sergeant isn't around and the lieutenant gives you an order instead, you're still supposed to follow it.

Saying they'll only listen to SecDef is basically saying they won't do things the president says if SecDef thinks they are stupid. Which, I mean, is probably usually the way things work but it's pretty dramatic to just lay it out there.
 

kmax

Member
Trump just needs to have the SecDef sign the order and that's that.

General Mattis is a good man though, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
 

Kurdel

Banned
I love how his show of strength toward the religious right turned into yet another time Trump will blame someone else for his failings.
 
To actually go through with this will take years of studies, policy creation and training. Trump must literally think that whatever he says instantly becomes the law, yet he's always surprised when that turns out to not be the case.

Probably because most don't realize that he has almost complete power over military policy... But they'll find out soon.
He does for the most part, but you don't just tweet out some garbage and have it take place the next day. "Don't ask, don't tell" took over two years for Obama to repeal for example.
 

Maxim726X

Member
The president's power is limited to his ability to persuade people to actually listen to him.

I don't follow.

He's the Commander in Chief. His word is law.

As far as I understand there is no further nuance. Receiving some formal order is simply a matter of procedure.
 

RMI

Banned
I mean this is good news but Trump already got what he wanted out of the announcement, a huge distraction and some kibble for his base to munch on for a bit.
 

Matt

Member
The reason it's called the chain of command is that it's a chain. If your sergeant isn't around and the lieutenant gives you an order instead, you're still supposed to follow it.

Saying they'll only listen to SecDef is basically saying they won't do things the president says if SecDef thinks they are stupid. Which, I mean, is probably usually the way things work but it's pretty dramatic to just lay it out there.
No, that's not what's happening. What you just described is a coup. There hasn't been a coup.

All the military is saying here is that they have not received orders from the civilian government. A tweet, even from POTUS, are not proper orders.
 

pigeon

Banned
I don't follow.

He's the Commander in Chief. His word is law.

As far as I understand there is no further nuance. Receiving some formal order is simply a matter of procedure.

The statement literally says "we're waiting for SecDef to tell us what to do."

That's not simply a matter of procedure. SecDef can tell the president he doesn't agree with his policy. Then it won't happen.

The president could then fire Mattis and try to replace him with somebody who will actually tell the military to ban transgender people. That might be difficult.

This is, in general, how the presidency actually works. When people say "his word is law," it's, you know, a metaphor. You still need to convince people that what you want is in their interest for them to actually do it.
 

Kite

Member
No shit, all the posters freaking out yesterday were just wasting their energy. Vague tweets aren't policy, and despite what Trump thinks the president isn't a God-King Emperor whose mere 140 characters is law. There are huge consequences to an actual trans military ban, are current trans service members med-boarded or honorably discharged? Do they get their benefits? Even if this bs ban were to go through, there would be years of discussion and planning on how to properly implement it.

I don't follow.
He's the Commander in Chief. His word is law.

Jesus freaking Christ no it's not, go ask Obama how that "president's word is law" thing worked out. Trump is embarrassing as fuck but he can't fuck things up that easily.
 

Koomaster

Member
But didn't Trump say in the Tweet that he had cleared this with his generals?

Are... are you telling me that Donald Trump lied?
Think he misspoke. He meant he talked it over with his genitals. He's got voices in his nutsack he listens to before he does anything.
 
Trump tweeting that shit and Chiefs saying we are waiting on the paper work?

I mean the dude is president so did he forget to send the orders the right way instead of tweeting his shit?
The press secretary admitted yesterday no underlying policy was developed. And they're relying on the Dept of Defense to write it.

So yeah, the tweet largely was out of nowhere. No real discussions occurred. Maybe with Mattis to give a small heads up, but that's it.
 
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