President Trump wielded his power as commander in chief on Thursday, moving to once again protect a Navy SEAL he has championed before.
Less than 24 hours after the Navy said it would move to oust Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher from the elite special forces unit, Trump was on Twitter saying, in effect, “Oh no you won’t.”
Gallagher “has been at the center of a high-profile war crime case and was granted clemency by the president on Friday,” reports the New York Times. “He was notified on Wednesday that the Navy planned to start the process to remove the Trident pin that symbolizes membership in the SEALs.”
In Thursday’s tweet, Trump declared that it wouldn’t happen, adding that the Navy had handled Gallagher’s case “very badly from the beginning,” and ordering Navy brass to “Get back to business!”
Trump may think that’s the end of it — but maybe not.
“It’s unclear what effect Trump’s tweet could have on the process and whether he can actually block the review [of Gallagher’s status] from taking place or overturn any decision made,” reports the Washington Post, which notes that since 2011, the Navy has revoked 154 SEAL Trident pins.
The appearance of Gallagher’s lawyer Thursday morning on Fox News may well have triggered, or at least influenced, the president’s latest move.
The lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, portrayed the Navy decision about revoking Gallagher’s SEAL status as an act of defiance against Trump.
“What he’s doing here is really just an effort to publicly humiliate Chief Gallagher and stick it right in the president’s eye,” Parlatore said — “he” being Rear Adm. Collin Green, commander of Naval Special Warfare.
Gallagher was previously acquitted of murder in the stabbing death of a captive ISIS militant, “but a military jury convicted him of posing with the corpse while in Iraq in 2017,” a grisly action for which Trump granted Gallagher clemency, and restored his rank.
Appearing with the dead body of an enemy on the battlefield is not necessarily a war-crimes violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice; it’s a judgment call, based on the context and circumstances of the photo.
“Since his acquittal, Gallagher has been a frequent critic of the Navy,” says USA Today — “particularly fellow SEALs who testified against him. He has described top SEAL commanders as ‘morons.’”
Back in July, Trump ordered the withdrawal of military awards for the Navy attorneys who prosecuted Gallagher, saying they did “an unfair job,” USA Today says, noting that Trump critics have accused the president of “undermining the military justice system.”