Trump’s Politicization of the Military and the Firing of Its Top Lawyers So That His Unlawful Orders Won’t be Blocked
We begin with growing concern about a politicized military among serving and retired officers that Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s firing of the top JAG officers in the Army, Navy and Air Force will mean that unlawful orders from Trump, like ordering the military to fire at Black Lives Matter protesters in the legs which he tried to have done in his first term, will be allowed by sycophants Trump will appoint to replace the military’s professional lawyers. Joining us is Rachel VanLandingham, a (ret.) USAF Lt Col., the Co-Associate Dean of Research and a Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School as well as a former judge advocate in the U.S. Air Force. During her military career, she served as a senior legal advisor on the international law of armed conflict, military prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, appellate defense attorney and nuclear surety inspector, stationed in the United States, South Korea, and Italy with deployments to the Middle East. She was the legal advisor for international law at Headquarters, U.S. Central Command, where she advised on operational and international legal issues related to the armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Historical Plunge of Trump’s Poll Numbers in Just One Month
Then we look into Trump’s plunging historically-low poll numbers after just one month of his new term and speak with Bill Scher, the politics editor of the Washington Monthly. He is the host of the history podcast When America Worked and the co-host of the bipartisan online show and podcast The DMZ. We discuss his latest article at The Washington Monthly, “Trump’s Historically Bad First Month of Polls Should Terrify Republicans.”
Having Patel and Bongino Head the FBI Means Trump Will Go after His Enemies While He Can Break the Law With Impunity
Then finally we assess the one-two punch Trump has delivered to the FBI in an apparent effort to destroy the agency so that he can use it to go after his enemies while making sure he can break the law with impunity. We discuss how the appointment of another Fox News propagandist, Dan Bongino as Kash Patel’s deputy will have conspiracy theories replacing evidence while white supremacist militias are empowered and immunized. Joining us is Mike German, a fellow with the Liberty and National Security program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. He has worked at the ACLU and served sixteen years as an FBI special agent. The author of Thinking Like a Terrorist as well as Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Our Democracy, his new book, co-authored with Beth Zasloff, is Policing White Supremacy: The Enemy Within.