Fort Leavenworth taught me patriots must stand up against Trump’s many abuses of power
Graduating from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth and West Point molded who I am today. The Army has been integral to shaping my principals and belief in doing the right thing, no matter the cost. Day after day, the founding ideals of America are tarnished by the actions of those who would place loyalty to party and personality over loyalty to country and Constitution.
I was the commanding National Guard officer in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., on June 1, when President Donald Trump used federal and D.C. police to clear peaceful protesters with chemical agents so he could pose with a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church. I invoked the Military Whistleblower Protection Act to testify before Congress about the incident.
Since the founding of these United States, we have endured every type of challenge imaginable — from wars at home and abroad to drought and economic depression — yet each time we have emerged stronger. We forge ahead, embodying the motto on our great seal, “E pluribus unum” — “Out of many, one.” American patriots led the march on hallowed ground such as Gettysburg, Normandy, Fallujah and Selma.
President George Washington spurned ultimate authority — a leader who believed in service before self. Contrast the republic’s first president to the 45th — a leader who subscribes to the motto, “Ante omnia, Trump” — “Above all, Trump.” Trump’s undermining of our American spirit through the degradation of our shared democratic values and institutions threatens to shred the very fabric of this country. The oath I took when graduating the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was to the Constitution, and I intend to keep it.
The very essence of what it means to be an American is being stripped away by the same threats that Washington warned us about in his farewell address, where he decried “the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party.” This partisanship “serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.”
Across the world, the American flag has been a beacon of liberty and justice, serving as a rally point for the oppressed and an ultimatum to the tyrannical. As an officer who served as part of U.S. European Command, I have seen firsthand how vital the trust and respect of our allies is to our national security and international standing. Yet everything our flag represents, earned through sacrifice, is in the gravest of dangers. Never before has a president acquiesced so willingly to dictators and despots. Never before has a president viewed the First Amendment, the right to vote and our systems of checks and balances as personal threats.
Our president degrades the reputation of the men and women who have served this nation for more than 12 generations. He ignores the intelligence hard earned by career patriots, and he uses our military as props in his political campaign. Trump’s daily assaults on their independence and integrity have debased the very institutions that keep us safe.
I hold steadfastly to my public testimony before Congress: “The events I witnessed at Lafayette Square on the evening of June 1 were deeply disturbing to me, and to fellow National Guardsmen. Having served in a combat zone, and understanding how to assess threat environments, at no time did I feel threatened by the protesters or assess them to be violent. … From my observation, those demonstrators — our fellow American citizens — were engaged in the peaceful expression of their First Amendment rights. Yet they were subjected to an unprovoked escalation and excessive use of force.”
Washington ordered us to “guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.” With a president who mockingly wraps himself in the flag, those words are more relevant than ever. Our nation is calling out for military and national security veterans to step up and speak out on behalf of those currently serving, those who came before, and those who have yet to come. The oaths we took demand it.
U.S. Army Maj. Adam DeMarco serves on the advisory board of the Council on American Security, a bipartisan think tank and Super PAC working to restore cogent, considered and respectful national security leadership to America.
This story was originally published August 16, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Fort Leavenworth taught me patriots must stand up against Trump’s many abuses of power."