- President Donald Trump boasted that his administration was staffed with notable members of the US armed forces.
- Many of those senior military officials have since left his administration.
- Some of these officials have been outspoken in their opposition to Trump's policies, like former chief of staff John Kelly, who called one recent Trump decision "exactly the wrong thing to do."
Prior to becoming president, Donald Trump described his future cabinet the same way he characterized his business acumen:
"I'm going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people," Donald Trump said to The Washington Post in 2015, two years before his inauguration. "We want top of the line professionals."
Shortly after his being sworn in, Trump boasted that "my generals ... are going to keep us so safe."
But during his presidency, Trump's generals have slowly fell by the wayside, many of them resigning because their views were not "aligned" with his. The tepid resignation letters from these high-profile military officials evolved into a more pronounced denunciation, with some being outspoken in their opposition against Trump's policies.
Many of these former officials are Marines who served with distinction throughout the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The photo above, taken in 2013, marked the first time six four-star Marines Corps generals were actively serving in the Marine Corps.
In addition to the Marines who will have left the Trump administration, a three-star Army general, H.R. McMaster, was fired as Trump's national security adviser in 2018. His tenure was marked by numerous reports of disagreements with Trump, who once described him as "a man of tremendous talent and tremendous experience."
McMaster replaced another US Army three-star general as national security adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn, who was fired after it was discovered he lied to the FBI and senior White House officials about his communications with Russian officials.
A senior official, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, was also fired after his apparent disagreement with Trump. Spencer, who was a Marine Corps pilot in the 1970s, was forced to resign after Trump barred the Navy SEALs from a review of a SEAL tried for war crimes.
Trump overturned a decision to demote Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, who was convicted of posing with the corpse of a dead detainee. The lesser charge was one of seven total charges against Gallagher, including premeditated murder of an ISIS detainee.
After Gallagher was acquitted of the most serious charges, the head of the Navy SEALs decided to move forward with a review of whether Gallagher's actions were in keeping with SEAL standards. Spencer supported the review. Trump blocked it and Spencer was forced out. The Navy SEAL admiral who ordered it also is resigning.
"I don't think he really understands the full definition of a warfighter," Spencer described Trump in a CBS News interview. "A warfighter is a profession of arms. And a profession of arms has standards that they have to be held to, and they hold themselves to."
"What message does that send to the troops," Spencer added. "That you can get away with things. We have to have good order and discipline."