Top Army General Just Accused Trump of Hurting Military’s Ability to Combat Russia
Donald Trump’s latest budget proposal slashes 28% of the State Department’s Funding. That’s $15 billion dollars from the one organization that manages all of the United States’s relationships worldwide. To make matters worse, one of America’s top generals, Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, just told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Trump’s devastating cuts will harm the military’s efforts to deal with geopolitical threat posed by Russia.
General Scaparrottil exposed yet another route that Trump plans to use to weaken our capacity to deal with one of our top adversaries, and it comes at a time in which Trump’s election collusion with Russia is coming to light.
Scaparrotti, who is the head of the U.S. European Command and NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe, told the committee, “I rely heavily on our relationships with the other agencies in our government.” He continued, “I have relied upon an interagency approach, a whole of government approach. That’s the way we traditionally operate.”
Trump’s budget cut slashes the ability to navigate relations with Russia on all fronts in a unified manner, which is paramount. The United States is currently at conflict with Russia and their cyberattacks, efforts to undermine NATO, interference in the Middle East, and nuclear programs. While we face Russia on so many fronts, cutting the State Department budget is the last thing thatn our generals need.
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) also called out Trump on this matter, saying, “We do not have a Commander in Chief right now who is willing to say out loud what everyone knows about Putin and what he is doing.”
The Senator and the General are right. Trump seems to be doing everything he can to destabilize NATO and hinder our efforts to fight back against the Russian threat. If we don’t do something soon, it may be too late.
