If President Donald Trump really supports the troops, he would have prevented the Navy from firing Captain Brett Crozier from his post on the USS Theodore Roosevelt on Thursday. But he apparently only likes protecting Navy officers who commit war crimes.

Earlier this week, Crozier wrote a letter sounding the alarm over a coronavirus outbreak that had struck the aircraft carrier at sea. Nearly 100 sailors had tested positive and the ship is just not equipped to deal with the number of cases. Also, the close-quarters nature of Navy vessels guaranteed the virus would spread.

Crozier begged the Navy to build quarantine spaces and evacuate the ship for cleaning.

“This will require a political solution but it is the right thing to do,” the captain wrote, according to the San Francisco Chronicle “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset—our sailors.”

Crozier sent the letter up the chain of command and sought to protect his crew. But Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly relieved him of duty on Thursday to punish him for it.

“I have no doubt in my mind that Captain Crozier did what he thought was in the best interest of the safety and well-being of his crew,” Modly said. “Unfortunately, it did the opposite. It unnecessarily raised the alarm of the families of our sailors and Marines with no plans to address those concerns.”

In other words, President Donald Trump is unhappy that an aircraft carrier commander blew the whistle about sailors being infected by a virus he called a “hoax.”

So, he had him canned and Modly took responsibility to take heat off Trump.

Contrast this with how Trump treated a Navy SEAL who was being court-martialed for committing war crimes. Trump pardoned him and blocked the Navy from punishing him even though the SEAL violated the military code of conduct and the Geneva Convention.

Trump’s behavior at the time caused his former Navy Secretary to resign in protest.

Modly and Trump should be ashamed of themselves for punishing a commander for doing everything in his power to protect the health and lives of his crew. There are 4,000 sailors on the aircraft carrier. Their families deserve to know that their loved ones have a competent commander who cares about the men and women serving aboard. Now that competent commander has been removed and families can no longer trust Trump or the Navy to have their best interests at heart.

Featured Image: Wikimedia