Marine veteran predicts how military leaders will turn on Trump

Donald Trump has consistently pushed the boundaries of military power, deploying forces and authorizing strikes without congressional approval and threatening to use troops against American citizens opposed to his agenda. The sum of it all has led many to hope and wonder when the military and its leaders might finally turn on Trump and defy his orders.

Janessa Goldbeck is a Marine Corps veteran and CEO of the Vet Voice Foundation, a non-profit advocacy group that supports veterans and encourages them to find "new missions" in life, be it civic service or politics. On Friday, she was interviewed for The Guardian's "Politics Weekly America" podcast, where host Jonathan Freedland pressed her about the likelihood that the military could turn on Trump.

Goldbeck said that several military officials have already resigned in protest against Trump's actions, but in a "quiet" manner. In the future, she said that she expects more to come, and hopes that they are more public and direct about their reasons. She also warned against anything like a "military coup," in which the armed forces would be turned against Trump to strip him of power.

"Well, I certainly don't want to advocate for or hope for a military coup," Goldbeck said. "History shows us that military coups are not a productive way of, in most cases, increasing democratic governance in a country. But I would hope that at some point in the near future, we would see a senior military official step forward and publicly resign at the very least and say, you know, this is why I've resigned. We've seen senior leaders resign, but do so quietly, and I think we are in a moment where moral courage is required. And I would hope and pray that there are leaders in the Pentagon who are willing to sacrifice their careers and come forward and speak out.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Goldbeck also touched on the structural difficulties stopping "rank-and-file" military members from standing against illegal orders from Trump. Because of such challenges, she stressed the need for civilian oversight of the military, as opposed to hoping for officers to stand against orders.

“Troops are legally required to refuse unlawful orders, but in practice, it's extremely difficult because the chain of command and legal structures make it hard for individuals to challenge decisions made at the highest levels," Goldbeck explained. "Which is why strong civilian oversight and professional military leadership are so important."

She continued: "But at the end of the day, what we've seen in practice in the United States over the last year has been a series of decisions made at the highest levels of government by the White House to federalize the Guard. Courts have pushed back on that, but nothing has risen to the level where an individual unit commander is being asked to do something illegal. So that is a really important point, I think, to stress, that, you know, the courts are playing a very important role at reining in the president and his vision of what the military should be used for domestically. But nothing has occurred at the individual unit leader level yet that would allow for that.”

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