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: \u201cI resigned from the military because of Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s top officers. It was an appearance many saw as an ideological demonstration, a political tribunal in uniform. Trump spoke of internal enemies, of \u201cpurification\u201d and \u201cdiscipline,\u201d and added: \u201cIf you don\u2019t like what I\u2019m saying, you can leave the room. Of course - there goes your rank, there goes your future.\u201d Krugman stood up - and left. It was his last day in uniform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI gave up my career out of concern for our country\u2019s future,\u201d he wrote. What drove him, he said, was not political protest but the breaking of an oath: \u201cNo president is perfect,\u201d said Krugman, \u201cbut previous commanders in chief took their oath to the Constitution seriously. With Trump, I no longer believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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. \u201cI could no longer serve a commander in chief who openly disdains the Constitution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n