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“Absolutely Insane”: Pentagon Officials on Trump’s Military Deportation Plan

theintercept.com “Absolutely Insane”: Pentagon Officials on Trump’s Military Deportation Plan

Trump campaigned on mass deportations. Now he’s threatening to use the U.S. military to carry them out.

“Absolutely Insane”: Pentagon Officials on Trump’s Military Deportation Plan

The Pentagon was publicly dismissive of Trump’s pledge to employ the military to conduct mass deportations. “The Department does not comment on hypotheticals or speculate on what may occur,” a Defense Department spokesperson told The Intercept.

Behind the scenes, officials were exasperated. “It’s absolutely insane,” said one Pentagon official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press on the matter. “I never thought I’d see the day when this was a ‘serious’ — put that in scare quotes — policy.” He said that the legal and logistical hurdles would be immense, and the proposal was “unrealistic and unserious.”

Another Defense Department official in a different office, who was also not authorized to speak with the press, had almost exactly the same reaction. “It’s insanity,” he said of Trump’s announcement.

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