Trump’s military pardons doing a disservice to the institution he claims to champion

Soldiers know the difference between heroic acts and criminal acts. Donald Trump, apparently, has the two confused.

As commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, President Donald Trump can pull rank and pardon convicted service members, but such actions actually do a disservice to the reputation of the U.S. military, writes Scott Taylor. White House photograph by Shealah Craighead

Opinion

BY SCOTT TAYLOR

December 4, 2019

OTTAWA—In recent days, U.S. President Donald Trump has embarked on a bizarre rash of pardoning and protecting U.S. service members who were convicted or accused of war crimes. In doing so, I’m not exactly sure to which demographic Trump is trying to appeal. These soldiers were not tried and co...

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