A few bizarre things are happening in Trump’s orbit. Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump, but he refuses to accept that fact, and then there’s been talk of the president declaring martial law. Trump’s nominee to become a senior Pentagon official spread debunked conspiracies on Twitter that called the president’s election loss to Biden a “coup” attempt and shared tweets that suggest Trump should declare martial law, according to CNN.
Then, according to Politico, the White House removed nine members of the Pentagon’s Defense Business Board on Friday. From there, they installed people loyal to Trump in their place, including presidential allies Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie. And that’s kind of weird since both of those men lack the qualifications for the posts, and the timing is odd since Trump is exiting the White House in January.
“The firings marked the latest effort by the Trump administration to clean out the Defense Department in the final weeks of the president’s term,’ the report states. ‘Members of the board received a brief email from Joshua Whitehouse, the White House liaison to the Department of Defense, that simply said, “if you are receiving this e-mail, your membership on the Defense Business Board has expired or is coming to an end.”’
“The firings came as a shock to the board members, who had not received any negative feedback or warning prior to their termination,” Politico reports. ‘One former board member lamented the move, noting that the board “has never been political, ever.”’
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“You are talking about 15, 20 executives, business leaders, government leaders, who are giving their time to serve the nation and not even a thank you note,” said a person who asked not to be named. “It’s just about simple gratitude and appreciation for people.”
“I had no indication this was coming. It was a form letter going to a large number of people,” said Michael Bayer, who until today was board chair.
Lewandowski was Trump’s first campaign manager in 2016 and this year was a senior adviser to the campaign. Lewandowski has been a controversial figure at the White House like many others. Lewandowski traveled to various states to promote the Trump campaign’s legal challenges to the presidential election results.
And David Bossie was Trump’s deputy campaign manager in 2016 and was named to lead the effort to contest the election more recently. Again, the timing is suspicious since Trump is vacating the White House in January. Trump has been attempting a coup after losing the electoral and popular vote.
Featured image via Michael Vadon/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
