(Bloomberg) -- The US military will obey “all lawful orders” and “continue to stand apart from the political arena” under Donald Trump’s administration, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a memo to personnel.
Although Austin made no reference to specific policies, Trump spoke in his successful presidential campaign of using the National Guard and possibly the active-duty military to deport millions of undocumented immigrants and to put down violent protests in big cities.
“The US military will stand ready to carry out the policy choices of its next commander in chief, and to obey all lawful orders,” Austin, a retired general and member of President Joe Biden’s cabinet, said in the letter dated Wednesday.
Asked about the motivation behind the memo and whether there was concern the military could be used improperly for domestic purposes, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters Thursday that those are “things we take seriously” but declined to discuss hypothetical scenarios. She said it wasn’t unusual for the secretary to issue memos to the military.
Austin, who’s expected to be replaced by Trump, pledged in the memo that the Defense Department “will make a calm, orderly and professional transition to the incoming Trump administration.”
In addition to pledging an expanded role for the military in domestic affairs, Trump has suggested he wants to reverse the congressional decision to strip the names of Confederate generals from US military bases.
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