I know the news tends to be slow at the end of the year, but this is ridiculous. CNN reported that troops may have violated Department of Defense guidelines when they asked President Donald Trump to sign their Make America Great Again hats.
Or maybe the troops just wanted to get their commander-in-chief’s autograph and who knows when they’d have another opportunity to get it?
The Defense Department guidelines state that “active duty personnel may not engage in partisan political activities and all military personnel should avoid the inference that their political activities imply or appear to imply DoD sponsorship, approval, or endorsement of a political candidate, campaign, or cause.”
I have no idea why asking for the commander-in-chief’s autograph violates these rules. There is no election going on right now. The president did not bring the hats or the flags. The soldiers had them. The items belonged to the soldiers.
Retired Rear Admiral John Kirby and CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr explained:
“It is, in fact, a campaign slogan, that is a campaign item, and it’s completely inappropriate for the troops to do this,” Mr. Kirby said. “Not supposed to do this. And I’m sure their boss is seeing that. They’re not going to be happy about it.”CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr called it “very much against military policy and regulation.”“The pool reporters traveling said that the troops brought the hats with them, including one hat that said ‘Trump 2020,’” said Ms. Starr. “We will have to see if that actually proves to be the case. The question is, if they brought them or if the President brought them: What commander allowed that to really happen?”
Do you remember when President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama signed magazine covers of themselves for the troops?
Of course, everyday people honestly don’t care:
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