Trump's Ex-Navy Secretary Richard Spencer Endorses Bloomberg

Former Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer announced Friday he would be supporting former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in his bid for the White House. While Spencer’s choice might surprise some, the fact that he isn’t backing President Donald Trump for re-election is hardly unexpected given the two men’s unpleasant history.

In his statement, Spencer said that he has “the utmost confidence that Mike will faithfully execute his duty as Commander-in-Chief” and as president would “respect the advice of military advisers.” He added that he felt Bloomberg would work at “restoring America's standing in the world and repairing relationships with our allies” and would “uphold the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”

The former Navy secretary will campaign with Bloomberg, with plans to appear with the candidate at an event in Norfolk, Va., on Friday.

Spencer’s choice of words were no mistake, wanting to make it clear that he feels Trump breaks with military leadership far too frequently – as happened in Spencer’s case.

Last November, Spencer was fired by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. At the time, Spencer had been butting heads with Trump over the case of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who had faced charges of committing war crimes. Despite being cleared, Gallagher was demoted and had faced a possible discharge, moves Trump wanted reversed, despite protest from several military leaders including Spencer.

For those opposing Trump, the concern with reinstating Gallagher’s rank was that it would send a negative message to those in uniform that misconduct would be tolerated. They also feared that it would do unnecessary harm to the military’s image.

The charges against Gallagher included the premeditated murder of a wounded Islamic State fighter as well as misconduct for posing for photos next to a dead combatant in 2017.

Officially, Esper dismissed Spencer for allegedly going outside of his chain of command when it came to Gallagher’s case. Spencer lobbied Trump to allow the Navy to continue its consideration of discharging Gallagher, but secretly offered to let him retain his Navy SEAL status regardless of the outcome.

After his dismissal, Spencer wrote an op-ed for CNN calling Trump’s actions “shocking and unprecedented” and accused the president for failing to understand the inner workings of the military.