'Embarrassing to our country': Trump suggests he’ll fire top generals

Donald Trump trod into uncharted territory Wednesday night when he suggested that if elected he might fire some of the top generals now running the military.

As the Republican presidential nominee slammed the foreign policy of President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he also targeted the top officers who have served under them, who are not political appointees and have defined terms of appointment.


Individual generals and admirals have traditionally been removed from their posts for misconduct or a failure to perform their duties. Cashiering a group of them en masse would be unheard of — and could irrevocably tarnish the perception that the military is an institution divorced from politics.

“Under the leadership of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, I think the generals have been reduced to rubble,” Trump said at the NBC News “Commander in Chief Forum,” where he and his opponent, Clinton, appeared. “They have been reduced to a point where it’s embarrassing to our country.”

Later in the interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer, Trump suggested that when he seeks the military’s advice on how to defeat the Islamic State “they’d probably be different generals, to be honest with you."

The comments could make for an awkward introduction between Trump and Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the current Joint Chiefs chairman, the top adviser to the commander in chief. Dunford has a two-year term that ends September 2017 — a position that is normally extended for another two years.

In fact, the entire roster of the Joint Chiefs has turned over in the past two years, including the four-star officers heading each branch of the military who also traditionally serve a total of four years. That means the top military leadership now advising the president will all be in place for some time after the next administration takes office.

It could also sour relations with the set of so-called combatant commanders who run military operations in various geographic regions of the world, including the U.S. Central and European Commands that have a major role in fighting the Islamic State.

Dunford has gone out of his way to urge all troops to stay out of politics this year, citing concerns that the military could be politicized. Some top officers worry privately that if they are perceived to have political leanings one way or the other a President Trump could fire them, making it very difficult for the top brass to regain its reputation for impartiality.