A president has the right to a national security team he trusts. A president also has the responsibility to put the best interests of the nation before his own.
Firing Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman on Friday, Trump acted as is his right but abandoned his responsibility.
To be sure, Vindman has become an inherently partisan figure. The moment the Army officer raised concerns about the propriety of a July White House meeting on Ukraine and later a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, he risked entering an inherently political space. That became inevitable once the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives launched impeachment proceedings.
Still, there is little evidence that Vindman acted outside the established reporting procedures in raising his concerns, and Vindman’s service record as an Army officer suggests that he is first and foremost a patriot. We pay our military officers to make very tough calls in the nation’s best interest. Vindman believed, credibly, that he was doing so.
For that reason, he was due more respect from his commander in chief than that which he received on Friday.
Team Trump sees things differently, of course, but Trump’s supporters should remember that the president is not a king. A president has a responsibility to ensure that the system of government works in the best interests of the people rather than his own person. Toward that end, uniformed military officers, noncommissioned officers, and civilians on the National Security Council must feel comfortable to act within established protocols to serve the best interests of the nation. To do otherwise is to risk subjugating their oaths to the Constitution to what they believe are the whims of a president or his staff in any one moment, and that is not the American system of government.
Moreover, it’s not as if Trump lacked an alternative.
Now acquitted on both charges of impeachment, the president could have taken solace in his vindication. He could then have waited a few months to see if Vindman requested reassignment back to the Pentagon or to another command. If Vindman had not done so, Trump could then have directed his reassignment, but waiting would have achieved two objectives: showing the president was not being vindictive for vindictiveness’s sake and evidencing Trump’s willingness to put the nation’s interest in a professional military before the demands of his own ego.
As with Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher, it is regrettable that Trump could not find it within himself to do so.
