Presidential tweet of disapproval withstanding, the White House reportedly plans to stop sticking its nose where it doesn’t belong regarding an ongoing review of the less than honorable Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher.
The Navy was notified by the White House that it would not get in the way of the review, which would determine if Chief Petty Officer Gallagher would be ousted as a SEAL, a Navy official and a military official confirmed to CNN on Sunday.
This flies in the face of President Donald Trump’s tweet Thursday that the Navy “will NOT be taking away Warfighter and Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher’s Trident Pin.”
“This case was handled very badly from the beginning,” the president continued in the tweet. “Get back to business!”
The Navy secretary, Richard Spencer, said disciplinary proceedings against Gallagher would go forward as planned because Spencer did not consider Trump’s tweet a formal order, The New York Times reported Saturday.
While deployed in 2017 to Iraq, Gallagher was accused of shooting civilians, killing an Islamic captive with a hunting knife and threatening to kill SEALs who told on him, the Times reported.
He was found guilty of posing for a photo with the body of the slain captive, but that hasn’t stopped Trump from advocating for the petty officer.
He reversed a decision to demote Gallagher by one rank, according to the Times.
Removing a Navy official’s Trident pin, which is what’s at stake, revokes the coveted SEAL status, but doesn’t prevent the official from remaining in the military. Cmdr. Tamara Lawrence said in a media statement that the Navy has stripped 154 Tridents since 2011.
“The Navy follows the lawful orders of the President,” Rear Adm. Charlie Brown, a Navy spokesman, said on Thursday in a statement to Daily Kos. “We will do so in case of an order to stop the administrative review of SOC Gallagher’s professional qualification. We are aware of the President’s tweet and we are awaiting further guidance.”