What did Donald Trump do today?

He reminded the United States military exactly how much he respects them.

Trump addressed American servicemembers at an Air Force base in Qatar today, in what amounted to a campaign speech. There were three overarching themes of his remarks. First, that he had been elected President three times (not two) and should be elected to a "fourth." Second, that the senior command of the American military was incompetent and that "his" military successes were all down to his personal skill, not the "bunch of frickin' losers" and "fake generals" who actually serve in the military chain of command.

The third was an announcement of a 3.8% cost-of-living raise for most servicemembers, which he painted as a personal favor from him. These raises are essentially automatic, and the one Trump is proposing is the smallest in four years.

Trump has a long and contentious history with the American military. Like many wealthy young men of his generation, he dodged the Vietnam draft—at first legally via student exemptions, and then with a miraculous last-minute diagnosis of disqualifying "bone spurs" on his heels from a doctor whose landlord was Trump's father. 

But he also seems to harbor genuine anger at those who serve, both officers and enlisted personnel. He's expressed disdain and bewilderment at the concept of sacrifice, reportedly calling dead American soldiers "suckers" and "losers." On Memorial Day in 2017—the day that Americans remember their fallen military—Trump stood by the grave of Lt. Robert Kelly, the son of his chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, and said, "I don't get it. What was in it for them?" Robert was killed on patrol in Afghanistan in 2010. He's treated phone calls to the families of servicemembers killed in operations he ordered as nuisances—when he can be bothered to do them at all.

The American military has, since the Civil War, been the envy of the free world for its fierce commitment to the rule of law and subordination to the lawful political order decreed by the Constitution. Its officers swear an oath of loyalty and obedience not to the president or the government, but to the Constitution itself. This may be why Trump seems to regard American officers, who have had plenty of occasions to choose between loyalty to Trump personally and to the rule of law, as a personal threat to him. That much explains his attempt to purge the senior leadership of the military who rose to their commands without his personal help.

The feeling is mutual, to a surprising degree. Servicemembers often lean more politically conservative than Americans on the whole—but Trump was underwater with them in polls during his first term. Officers who served on Trump's White House staff during his first term are nearly unanimous in their disgust for Trump: his former Joint Chiefs chair, Gen. Mark Milley, called him a "fascist to the core." Milley had been put in the incredible situation, on January 6th, of having to reassure his counterparts in China that Trump would not be able to seize power or order a suicidal nuclear attack as a distraction.

Trump responded by calling for Milley to be executed for treason.

Why does this matter?

• Only wannabe dictators need armies personally loyal to them and not the countries they're supposed to serve.

• No matter how many times he says otherwise, Trump does not know "more than the generals" about anything having to do with military matters.
  

• No one who can't show basic respect for American servicemembers is fit to be their commander-in-chief.