A former U.S. Marine Corps colonel and combat veteran of 24 years resigned in late September, now saying he did so because of President Donald Trump and “concern for our country’s future.”
In an op-ed titled “I resigned from the military because of Trump,” published in The Washington Post on Thursday, Doug Krugman noted that “no commander in chief is perfect,” but said he nevertheless believed that previous presidents took their oaths to the Constitution seriously.
With Trump, he wrote, he no longer believes that.
The Department of Defense has been in the spotlight during Trump’s second term under the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Trump administration has rebranded the department the “Department of War,” fixated on the physical appearance of military personnel, and ordered National Guard troops to heavily Democratic cities despite the opposition of blue state governors.
During an in-person meeting where hundreds of military leaders were summoned to a Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, Trump outlined his vision for using the military for domestic purposes to fight the “enemy from within.”
Krugman wrote in his op-ed that although it was not clear to him if Trump was referring to real crime or to political dissent, “military force is not the answer.”
This week, the Pentagon tried to make reporters sign a document agreeing to government-imposed restrictions on their coverage of the U.S. military. Nearly every news outlet rejected the new rules, including HuffPost.
Krugman also stated that Trump’s actions during his first term became “increasingly difficult” to justify and ultimately culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Capitol Hill.
“I hoped he had learned from those errors, but it only took a few days of his second term for me to realize he had not,” he wrote. “I could not swear without reservation to follow a commander in chief who seemed so willing to disregard the Constitution.”
Krugman noted that one of his “first reservations” about the president this time around involved Trump pardoning those who participated in the attack on the Capitol.
The former colonel also took a stance against Trump halting refugee programs via executive order, which affected tens of thousands of Afghan refugees, some of whom the former colonel said “risked their lives to support us.”
“These are not the kinds of actions that I’m willing to risk my life to defend,” Krugman wrote.
While Krugman said he still respects those who still serve, he advised them that if they “have doubts about their orders, they are not alone.”
“They should be confident in questioning possibly immoral or illegal orders, remembering they are responsible for their own actions, and knowing others are asking the same questions,” he wrote.