Trump is Bad for Veterans. Here's Why.

Trump has had the veteran vote in the past 3 cycles. Here's why I think that vets need to hop off of the Trump Train as soon as possible.

Photo by Manny Becerra on Unsplash

Trump’s record on active duty military members is well-documented at this point. We know that he thinks that those who died in combat are “losers and suckers”; that he prefers those who “weren’t captured”; and that his former top military advisors feel that he’s a threat to democracy. What I think has been poorly documented is the chaos that Trump’s first administration wrought on veterans who rely on the VA’s and DoD’s resources. Further, I’ll briefly discuss what a second Trump administration will mean for benefits-reliant veterans with a President who couldn’t seem to care less about those who served.

Trump’s First Administration

I used this comprehensive list from Onceasolider.org to help come up with my points in this section. I use some of their notes, but not all. Please, take a look and maybe show a Trump-supporting veteran in your life. I feel like awareness on Trump’s record with vets could make a huge difference.

To pull back the rose-colored glasses for a moment: Not all military members join the military in passionate service to country. In fact, I think that reason would be low on many military member’s lists (if it’s even on at all). No, it’s most often that people join for the steady paycheck and the retirement and educational benefits. Under Trump’s first administration, in an effort to afford the (still, and probably forever, unfinished) border wall, it was decided to remove funding from military retirement benefits programs to help foot the bill.

Per the MilitaryTimes report on the reallocation of these funds, it was stated that “[t]he shift in money out of the retirement accounts will not impact any military benefits for current service members or retirees.” I call bullshit. Yes, it is true that no member who received benefit or pension money from the DoD/VA would be affected. It was cited from the MilitaryTimes article above, that “Defense Department budget experts found an extra $224 million from the military’s new Blended Retirement System (BRS) because fewer service members than expected opted into the new system in 2018, leaving some of that money unspent….” I have issues with this.

Firstly, we have hit new lows of service members opting into the BRS. While there is no conclusive reasoning for this, I would anecdotally blame it on the unclear guidance on how to join, and the lack of resources to help one join after the initial onboarding period in bootcamp (where the BRS is often thrust upon you in a brief and aggressively-given Powerpoint and many service stations are ill-equipped with financial advisors to assist with things like retirement programs).

Further, if there are other financial reasons (BRS not producing enough in retirement funds, better retirement options in the private sector, unwillingness to lose any more from their paycheck) then it should be the DoD’s responsibility to find a new, better, system that benefits those who serve.

My second issue with this was reflected in Senator Dick Durbin’s (D - IL) statement at the time of the reallocation: “…[W]hen the Department of Defense has excess funds that it should be prioritized for real Department of Defense needs....” If the money is the DoD’s, then it should serve the DoD which already has a great many expensive infrastructure issues to solve.

Needless to say, repurposing DoD retirement and pension money to help fund an ineffective border wall, does not prioritize veterans or their families, even if everyone was guaranteed their money.

Further into this administration, Trump goes further to deny veterans their benefits. In 2019, there were 200,000 VA healthcare applications purged for “unknown administrative purposes”. The reasons why remain unknown, but likely so that the government would not have to pay out for veteran’s benefits so they could fund other projects (like the border wall). That is 200,000 former service members, who wore the uniform or had family members who did, denied without warning or reason so they government could save money without granting them their promised benefits. This is the man who will be in charge again come January.

I also have to quote this section from the article because it is just too crazy to paraphrase: “This is the second time the VA has been caught using its IT department to adjudicate benefits for veterans. In January 2017, the IT department auto-enrolled over 70,000 Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans whose applications had erroneously been held up until they could meet a “means test” — that is, prove their income level. This mass-approval of applications was done in preparation for then-Under Secretary David Shulkin’s confirmation hearing.

They did this without bothering to fix the systemic error that required proof of income from combat veterans, who aren’t required to provide it. As a result, there are still more than 20,000 Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans being denied healthcare benefits due to an erroneous means-test requirement.”

Trump is so terribly willing to manipulate money and data to his benefit without regard for the real, human, lives he’s impacting. All these reasons and more he should be automatically disqualifying for a leader - But it’s Trump, so America has decided that he gets a pass.

Trump’s Incoming Administration

Here is a great article from Rolling Stone (of all publications) to dive deeper into Trump’s plans for the VA. Read at your own risk. It bummed me out.

I used this word in my last essay, but I’ll use it again here — We should be scared. Trump has promised more lofty, and expensive, border security practices (like multiple mass deportation efforts in the next 4 years). With these goals, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump got more desperate for money and started taking away from those before they get their money. With the ways he speaks about veterans (see above), I doubt he’d blink an eye before gutting there first.

What is even more concerning is that Trump may seek to get rid of the VA altogether, preferring instead to privatize veteran’s services. From an ethical standpoint: This is abhorrent. It is the government’s responsibility to serve its veterans. They and their families made the sacrifice to serve their country, and to then turn them to the private sector for their benefits… I don’t even know what to say. It’s depressing.

I’m not trying to say that the VA is effective. I think that great strides have been made, especially in the Biden administration, but it’s still a red tape nightmare and takes far too long to serve its clients. What I am saying is that, for so many reasons, we should not leave it to private companies to turn a profit off of our vets. We need to find solutions within, and continue to improve the system that we’ve created. Abandoning it would do far more harm than any good.

What’s Next

If I were to try and tell fortunes, I would have to guess that we will have to do a lot of fighting these next few years to keep public services… well… public. The VA is only one of several institutions that the Trump administration is looking to pawn off to a company, or get rid of altogether. I will keep an eye out for, and let you all know of, any organizations that we can support that is fighting back against this effort to make the government private. I know that that is a fight I am more than ready to roll my sleeves up for.

Further, I think that (as I mentioned in my forethoughts from the “Trump’s First Administration” section), we should be talking to the veterans in our lives about why Trump doesn’t support them. Outside of his comments on service members and vets, show them what he’s done and what he plans to do. How they are totally unsupported. If they disagree, feel free to send them my way. As a veteran of the Navy myself, I am more than happy to talk vet-to-vet about why we need to be voting blue if we want any chance of support in the future.

Happy Veteran’s Day. Thanks for reading.