The Oath, the Abyss, the Resignation - How a U.S. Marine Colonel After 24 Years Publicly Stands Against Trump

He served his country for almost a quarter of a century. Afghanistan, Iraq, the endless desert drills from Camp Pendleton to Quantico - Doug Krugman was one of those officers who never raised their voice but never wavered. Twenty-four years of loyalty, duty, camaraderie - and then a sentence that detonated through Washington like an explosive: “I resigned from the military because of Donald Trump.”

Krugman, a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, submitted his resignation on September 30 - the same day President Trump and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, addressed the nation’s top officers. It was an appearance many saw as an ideological demonstration, a political tribunal in uniform. Trump spoke of internal enemies, of “purification” and “discipline,” and added: “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course - there goes your rank, there goes your future.” Krugman stood up - and left. It was his last day in uniform.

“I gave up my career out of concern for our country’s future,” he wrote. What drove him, he said, was not political protest but the breaking of an oath: “No president is perfect,” said Krugman, “but previous commanders in chief took their oath to the Constitution seriously. With Trump, I no longer believe that.”

He recalls January 6, 2021 - the day armed men stormed the Capitol, encouraged by a president who refused to accept his defeat. And the years that followed, when the same president pardoned those who had attacked democracy. For Krugman, that was the moment when political loyalty turned into moral complicity. “I could no longer serve a commander in chief who openly disdains the Constitution,” he said.

But his break with Trump began earlier. He saw how the government under Pete Hegseth renamed the Department of Defense the “Department of War,” how the appearance of generals was judged by their physical looks, how National Guard troops were sent against protesters in Democratic-run cities whose governors had never requested assistance. “Military force is not the answer to political dissent,” Krugman said. “Ignoring reality to rely on vague laws and claim emergency powers is immoral. These are not the kinds of actions I am willing to risk my life to defend.” He cites concrete cases. The denial of visas to Afghan allies who had fought for the United States. The military designation of Portland as a “war zone.” The “federalized” deployment of troops to cities that had explicitly opposed it. “President Trump is not testing the limits of the Constitution,” Krugman said, “he is testing how far he can ignore it.”

He was no longer an active soldier when he made these statements, but his words sound like a final set of orders - this time not upward, but inward. “Soldiers should have the courage to question orders that appear immoral or illegal. They are responsible for their own actions. If they have doubts, they are not alone.” Krugman speaks softly, but his message is radical. It is the return of conscience to an army that has been politicized for years. He warns of a “collapse of the traditional government system” if neither voters nor legislators limit the power of the president. “If we do not close the gaps in our laws, future presidents - no matter their party - will continue down this path. And at the end lies collapse.”

Krugman, a man who has seen what war means, is now writing about his country’s inner war against its own principles. And he does so without pathos. Only with the cool anger of a man who knows what loyalty costs. While Trump in Quantico admonishes his generals, while Pete Hegseth delivers martial speeches against “woke ideology,” a quiet officer takes off his uniform and says: enough. No rebellion, no headlines, no press conference - just a signature under a resignation that says more than any slogan.

In a country where patriotism has become a display, Doug Krugman has done what many have forgotten: he remembered his oath. And in a time when power rises above morality, that may be the last act of courage a democracy still knows.