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Alex Brandon

The Pentagon anticipates major upheaval once President-elect <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a> returns to the White House, amid fears that the once and future commander in chief will follow through on vows to deploy the military domestically against American citizens, demand fealty from key leaders and attempt to remake the nonpartisan institution into one explicitly loyal to him.

The trepidation harks back to Trump’s first term, when he smashed norms and frequently clashed with senior Pentagon leaders — including several of his own political appointees. He has shown no signs of altering course this time around, stating throughout his campaign an intent to use military force against the “enemy from within,” to fire any military officer associated with the chaotic evacuation from Afghanistan after he left office in 2021, and to reverse what he and his supporters have denounced as “woke” decisions by the Biden administration that include <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/05/24/confederate-base-renaming/" target=_blank>renaming several Army installations</a> that had honored Confederates.

“The greatest danger the military faces” under a second Trump presidency is a “rapid erosion of its professionalism, which would undermine its status and respect from the American people,” said Richard Kohn, a professor and military historian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Mr. Trump does not have a real understanding of civil-military relations, or the importance of a nonpartisan, nonpolitical military.”

A spokeswoman for Trump, Karoline Leavitt, said that with Tuesday’s vote, the American public had given him “a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver.”

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Here’s the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/06/how-donald-trump-won-presidential-election/" target=_blank>inside story of Donald Trump’s remarkable comeback</a> to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/06/donald-trump-wins-presidential-election/" target=_blank>win the White House</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/11/06/whats-next-trump-presidency-policy-changes/" target=_blank>what a second Trump presidency could mean for America</a>.

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Republicans are projected to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/results/2024/11/05/house/" target=_blank>take control of the House</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/results/2024/11/05/senate/" target=_blank>Senate</a>, giving the party <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/13/house-control-republican-majority-trump/" target=_blank>a powerful governing trifecta</a>.

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Several senior figures in Trump’s first administration later issued public warnings about his authoritarian impulses. Among them were his former defense secretary Mark T. Esper; retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, his former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and his former White House chief of staff, John F. Kelly, also a retired general. Jim Mattis, the retired general who was Trump’s first defense secretary, said little publicly during the election but castigated Trump in an essay in June 2020, calling him “the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people.”

While in office, each served as a bulwark against Trump’s darkest impulses and subsequently <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/10/24/trump-military-president-election/" target=_blank>voiced grave concerns</a> that he would violate the Constitution by issuing unlawful orders to the military.

As president, Trump boosted the Pentagon’s budget, pressed U.S. allies to spend more on their own defense and loosened battlefield restrictions imposed by President Barack Obama — moves that were greeted positively within the Defense Department.

But the impulsive, antiestablishment nature of his presidency created uproar, including when he intervened in the criminal cases of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2019/11/15/trump-issues-pardons-war-crimes-cases-despite-pentagon-opposition-move/" target="_blank">U.S. troops convicted of war crimes</a>, sought retribution <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/05/11/esper-book-trump-mchrystal-mcraven/" target="_blank">against retired generals who criticized him</a> and abruptly called for a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-announces-that-he-will-ban-transgender-people-from-serving-in-the-military/2017/07/26/6415371e-723a-11e7-803f-a6c989606ac7_story.html" target="_blank">ban on transgender service members</a> but had no plan in place. Such moves often caught Pentagon officials flat-footed and left them scrambling to discern what exactly Trump wanted and whether he would change his mind.

As president, Trump used his personal social media to broadcast major U.S. troop movements overseas, including a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/i-cant-even-look-at-the-atrocities-us-troops-say-trumps-syria-withdrawal-betrayed-an-ally/2019/10/15/4e79b600-eeca-11e9-b648-76bcf86eb67e_story.html" target=_blank>withdrawal from northern Syria</a> that caused chaos for partner forces there, and personnel reductions in Afghanistan while U.S. officials were simultaneously negotiating a departure with the Taliban. Doing so was seen by commanders as unconventional at best.

Earlier this year retired Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller, who oversaw U.S. forces in Afghanistan, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/05/20/austin-miller-afghanistan-biden-house-investigation/" target=_blank>recalled for House investigators</a> scrutinizing the withdrawal how in 2018 he was awakened by a phone call informing him the military had been ordered to prepare to leave “in the middle of the night.” The general responded that doing so was “not feasible.”

The first Trump administration also worked to root out career civil servants who were suspected of undermining the president’s agenda or who spoke out when it appeared his directives were unlawful. A Defense Department official said Wednesday that while most career Pentagon staff and military personnel there seek to avoid politics, some now feel afraid based on their experiences during the hyperpartisan first Trump presidency, when chaotic decision-making and abrupt leadership changes at times made it difficult for them to do their jobs.

“People around here are used to transitions — but a lot of them were around for the Trump administration,” said the official, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

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After the race was called Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, himself a retired general who spent more than 40 years in uniform, issued a memo to all personnel saying the Pentagon will carry out a “calm, orderly, and professional transition to the incoming Trump administration.”

“As it always has,” Austin wrote, “the U.S. military will stand ready to carry out the policy choices of its next Commander in Chief, and to obey all lawful orders from its civilian chain of command.” He emphasized, too, that the military must “continue to stand apart from the political arena.”

Asked during a news briefing Thursday to clarify why Austin had specified “lawful” orders, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh declined to engage in what she called “hypotheticals.” She characterized the memo as intended to “clearly communicate” Austin’s expectations that the military remain apolitical, she said.

In July, Austin made an attempt to shield nonpartisan career employees from future political interference. In a memo titled “Integrity and Continuity of the Defense Career Civilian Workforce,” he wrote that such employees must be granted due process and must not be subjected to summary dismissal. It’s not clear what lasting effect, if any, such efforts will have on civilian personnel.

While incoming presidents always choose their own political appointees, the Pentagon’s senior military ranks have long been selected on a rotational basis that stretches across presidential terms. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the top officers in each service all stepped into assignments last year that typically stretch four years.

Trump, as commander in chief, has the authority to remove any of them at will — a point Austin acknowledged in a discussion with reporters Thursday.

“In terms of selection of leaders — firing of leaders — it is the prerogative of the commander in chief to select his leaders, and everyone knows that,” Austin said. He declined to speculate on what Trump will do but said Pentagon leaders “will stay focused on the task at hand: defending this country, taking care of our troops, succeeding through teamwork.”

Any firing could risk political backlash from retired generals and lawmakers from both parties who evaluated and approved those nominations, but doing so also would allow Trump to appoint someone else he perceives to be more loyal to him and his agenda.

One senior U.S. official familiar with discussions in the Pentagon said there is palpable concern among senior staff that Brown “won’t make it through his full term.” In 2020, Trump selected Brown, an Air Force fighter pilot, to become the first African American to lead a branch of service, but since then the general has faced <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/07/11/charles-q-brown-joint-chiefs-senate-confirmation/" target=_blank>Republican criticism</a> for supporting the Defense Department’s diversity programs.

A spokesman for Brown declined to comment.

Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force attorney, said her greatest concern for the military is if it is used to suppress dissent in the United States. While service members are required to follow U.S. law, all presidential orders stand to be interpreted by rank-and-file personnel as lawful even if they appear to fall in a gray zone, she said, with the possibility of disciplinary punishment for anyone who defies them.

“They will follow President Trump’s orders, particularly because the president can lawfully order domestic use of the military in a wide variety of situations,” VanLandingham predicted, calling the statutory limits on such force “easily legally surmountable.”

“There is huge risk in disobeying a president’s order, and seemingly little risk in obeying it,” she said.

Peter Feaver, an expert on civil-military relations at Duke University, said that most military personnel and career civil servants are likely to see their mission as serving the new president and enabling him to exercise his powers as commander in chief. He urged the new administration not to sideline or retaliate against them if they make recommendations that run counter to White House desires — something that occurred repeatedly during Trump’s first term.

“Their professional duty is to warn the bosses of unintended consequences of what they’re trying to do,” Feaver said. “That’s not resistance; that’s not disloyalty; that’s literally their job.

Gerald R. Ford Foundation Prize for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense, presented in 2023 for coverage of the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan and its aftermath

Major Megan McClung Award, presented by Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in 2023 for coverage of the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan and its aftermath

Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, presented in 2022 for team coverage of the attack on the U.S. Capitol

Major Megan McClung Award, presented by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in 2020 for distinguished reporting about an infantry unit's reintegration into civilian life as the war in Afghanistan wound down

 Colonel Robert D. Heinl Jr. Award, presented by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in 2018 for distinguished feature writing and accompanying podcast about a family of brothers in World War II

Major Megan McClung Award, presented by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation in 2011 for distinguished reporting alongside infantry Marines in combat in Afghanistan

University of Massachusetts at Amherst, BA in journalism

University of Maryland at College Park, master's in journalism

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Missy Ryan writes about national security and defense for The Washington Post. She joined The Post in 2014 and has written about the Pentagon and the State Department. She has reported from Iraq, Ukraine, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Chile.

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2024 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, awarded for team coverage of the AR-15's cultural impact

2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, awarded for team coverage of the Jan 6. Capitol attack

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Alex Horton is a national security reporter for The Washington Post focused on the U.S. military. He served in Iraq as an Army infantryman.

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Pentagon anticipates major upheaval with Trump’s return to White House

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