When Donald Trump’s inauguration team dumped the 89-year-old who’d announced every inauguration parade since 1957, it was petty and cruel. But making the head of the D.C. National Guard retire in the middle of inauguration day is something else entirely. Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz will be forced to step down at 12:01 PM ET as Trump is sworn in. That means that Schwartz won’t be on hand to execute the security plans he’s spent months helping to put in place:
“The timing is extremely unusual,” Schwartz said in an interview Friday morning, confirming a memo announcing his ouster that was obtained by The Washington Post. During the inauguration, Schwartz would command not only the members of the D.C. guard but also an additional 5,000 troops sent in from across the country to help. He also would oversee military air support protecting the nation’s capital during the inauguration.
“My troops will be on the street,” Schwartz, 65, said. “I’ll see them off but I won’t be able to welcome them back to the armory.” He said that he would “never plan to leave a mission in the middle of a battle.”
You have to figure it’s also tough—on a time management level if nothing else—to be wrapping up a career and packing up decades of work in the middle of planning a massive, high-security event. Schwartz has no criticism, saying “I’m a presidential appointee, therefore the president has the power to remove me,” but how could adding that extra load of work not impact Schwartz’s ability to do his job?
Then again, there might not be big enough crowds to really challenge the security arrangements.