THREAD: It’s clear that Trump doesn’t actually care about having an effective military, or keeping us safe, his priority is white nationalist purges. #VetsVsHate
Yesterday, the White House shared a video of President Trump once again using the military community as props to advance his bigoted and un-American agenda.
In the video, Trump accused immigrants of being a national security threat, and called for extreme and unprecedented reductions in legal immigration, intentionally tearing apart families.
At the same time, Trump used the military as unwilling props against advocates and lawmakers trying to create relief for immigrants who arrived in the US as children, who were covered by the #DACA program Trump shut down.
Trump demanded that Congress pass a “clean” spending bill, rather than continue to work on a DACA fix to include. Trump claimed “we must not play politics with our troops,” while doing precisely that.
Trump has a long track record of attempting to use the military as a political prop to attack immigrants and minorities, many of whom are a part of the military community themselves.
Immigrants Trump describes as “low-skilled” are the very ones who, along with their children, sacrifice and serve with honor and integrity in the military.
As Trump’s reckless foreign policy makes us less safe, at the same time he has systematically weakened the military by purging it of immigrants and transgender service members at a time when talent is in short supply.
Trump ended the MAVNI program, which allowed immigrants with critical, desperately needed skills to serve and gain legal residence.
By ending it, the military is now critically short of talents like language skills. This puts other troops at greater risk.
By ending DACA, and attempting the #TransBan, Trump has exacerbated the problem even more. Pilots, doctors, intelligence analysts, experienced technicians and NCOs, officer candidates, all shoved out the door because of Trump's bigotry.
It’s clear that Trump doesn’t actually care about having an effective military, his priority is white nationalist purges, to the cheers of the extremists who are his strongest supporters. #VetsAgainstTrump
Trump's extremist policies are an assault on the very foundation of our melting pot national identity, and an insult to all of us who believe in those ideals represented by the flag on our military’s uniforms. #VetsAgainstTrump 🇺🇸
We call on Congress to include the bipartisan #DREAMAct in the government spending bill, and reject Trump’s politics of division.
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A few greedy billionaires in Mar-a-Lago are trying to destroy the VA so they can profit off us.
But what’s happening with veterans isn’t isolated. It’s happpening in public education, where @BetsyDeVos undermines our public schools, then uses the sabotage as a pretext for cuts.
It’s happening in the military, where corporate interests, empowered by a revolving door of senior officials, siphon more and more “Defense” money into expensive boondoggles so they can make more profits.
The troops get less for training, basic gear. They need sleep not gizmos.
Fun Fact: one of the disbursements Trump made in an Iowa was to a supposed “Veteran Service dog” charity, which has only ever given a dog to Sarah Palin, and which is run by a GOP political operative with a felony conviction for charity fraud.
Following #VetsVsHate holding a protest outside of Trump Tower in May 2016, calling out @realDonaldTrump for using Veterans as props for racism and bigotry while lying about having donated to Veteran charities, Trump was forced to donate the missing money. /2
Trump held a press conference in Trump Tower where (along with commenting on Harambe the gorilla, calling a journalist a “sleeze,” and attacking the Veterans protesting outside) he announced where he’d donated the missing money.
Let’s talk about the Iran Deal, and why it’s viewed so differently than the negotiations with North Korea. 1/
Let’s start with some facts: the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the JCPOA, was the gold standard for arms control. There were basically no experts who thought the USA should break the deal, and not a single other country in the world who joined us in doing so. 2/
The Iran Deal accomplished most of what we’d want from a deal. Here’s some basics:
-Iran had to give up 100% (you read that right) of the fissile material it had that was usable for making nuclear weapons. So even if Iran broke the deal, they’d be starting from scratch. 3/
New from @ProPublica, some of the most violent and extreme white supremacist hate groups include active duty military troops, and actively recruit veterans. /1 propublica.org/article/atomwa…
Reminder, when @MilitaryTimes did a scientific poll of troops, 1-in-4 said they know a white nationalist serving alongside them in uniform, and 1-in-20 openly responded to the poll with white supremacist statements. 2/
The situation has only gotten worse under Trump, as hate and white nationalist sentiment has come out in the open in many units. We hear constantly from people of color and women who are choosing to leave the military because they are afraid, and commanders do nothing. /3