Former Defense Secretary: Trump’s Tweeted Change In Transgender Troops Policy Might Have Made Me Resign

Politico reports:

Former Secretary of Defense William Cohen said Friday that a Twitter announcement of the type President Donald Trump made this week banning transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military would have been enough for him to consider resigning.

“I would have called the president, asked for a meeting with the president, and [said] ‘Mr. President, before you ever make a Tweet or send a Tweet or make a decision without consulting me, then you’ll find a new Secretary of Defense,’” Cohen, a former Republican senator who served as defense secretary under former President Bill Clinton, told SiriusXM’s “Joe Madison Show” on Friday. “You get to do it once, but you try it again and I’ll be out of here.”

“We’ve been through this before. We’ve been through it with black people, for sure, we’ve been through it with gay people, and now we’re doing it with transgender people,” Cohen said. “Let’s find out — can we can carry out the mission that American people want? And if we can’t, that’s one thing. But don’t go around me again unless you want to have a different Secretary of Defense.”

Cohen served in the House and Senate as a Republican.