Trump won’t let Pentagon close Stars and Stripes newspaper

WASHINGTON
(AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he won’t allow the
Pentagon to cut funding for the military’s independent newspaper, Stars
and Stripes, effectively halting Defense leader’s plan to shut the paper
down this month.

“The United States of America will NOT be
cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch,” Trump
tweeted. “It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to
our Great Military!”

Trump’s tweet came as he fought off new
accusations that he called service members killed in World War I
“losers” and “suckers” during an event in France in 2018. The comments,
first reported by The Atlantic and confirmed by The Associated Press,
are shining a fresh light on Trump’s previous public disparaging of
American troops and military families and they delivered a new campaign
issue to his Democratic rival Joe Biden, less than two months from
Election Day.

The Defense Department has ordered the paper to
halt publication by Sept. 30, and dissolve the organization by the end
of January. The order, in a recent memo to Stripes, follows the
Pentagon’s move earlier this year to cut the $15.5 million in funding
for the paper from the Defense Department budget. And it is a reflection
of the Trump administration’s broader animosity for the media and
members of the press.

The Trump White House hadn’t spoken out
against the Pentagon plan to close the paper before Friday, even though
it’s been in the works and publicly written about for months and was in
the president’s budget request. Friday afternoon, however, Trump worked
to shore up his reputation as a staunch supporter of the nation’s armed
services.

“I’ve done more for the military than almost anyone else,” he said Friday in the Oval Office.

Trump
was alleged to have made the comments about the war dead as he was set
to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery during a trip to France in
November 2018.

The Pentagon had no immediate comment on Trump’s tweet or how it may affect Esper’s plan to ultimately shut down the paper.

Members
of Congress have objected to the defunding move for months. And
senators sent a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper this week urging
him to reinstate the money. The letter, signed by 15 senators —
including Republicans and Democrats — also warns Esper that the
department is legally prohibited from canceling a budget program while a
temporary continuing resolution to fund the federal government is in
effect.

“Stars and Stripes is an essential part of our nation’s
freedom of the press that serves the very population charged with
defending that freedom,” the senators said in the letter.

Sen.
Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in a separate letter to Esper in late August,
also voiced opposition to the move, calling Stripes “a valued ‘hometown
newspaper’ for the members of the Armed Forces, their families, and
civilian employees across the globe.” He added that “as a veteran who
has served overseas, I know the value that the Stars and Stripes brings
to its readers.”

In the memo, the department says Esper made the
decision as a result of his department-wide budget review. Signed by
Army Col. Paul Haverstick, acting director of the Pentagon’s Defense
Media Activity, the memo says plans to close the paper are due on Sept.
15 and the last newspaper is to be published on Sept. 30.

The
memo adds that if the paper continues to be funded by either a
continuing resolution “or other unforeseen circumstances” then Stripes
must submit a plan by Sept. 15 to shut down at the end of the next
budget year, Sept. 30, 2021. Haverstick’s memo says that in that case,
the last date for publication of the newspaper will be determined based
on budget or other circumstances.

The Stripes ombudsman, Ernie
Gates, told The Associated Press on Friday that shutting the paper down
“would be fatal interference and permanent censorship of a unique First
Amendment organization that has served U.S. troops reliably for
generations.”

The first newspaper called Stars and Stripes was
very briefly produced in 1861 during the Civil War, but the paper began
consistent publication during World War I. When the war was over,
publication ended, only to restart in 1942 during World War II,
providing wartime news written by troops specifically for troops in
battle.

Although the paper gets funding from the Defense
Department, it is editorially independent and is delivered in print and
digitally to troops all over the world.

The Pentagon proposed
cutting the paper’s funding when making its budget request earlier this
year, triggering angry reactions from members of Congress.

The
House-passed version of the Pentagon budget contains funding for the
paper’s publication, but the Senate has not yet finalized a defense
funding bill.