President Trump vowed on Friday that funding wouldn’t be cut from the 159-year-old military newspaper Stars and Stripes after a leaked memo revealed that the Pentagon had inexplicably ordered the publication to close. “It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!” he tweeted. Col. Paul Haverstick, Jr. had written in the memo that the last newspaper publication would be September 30. The “local paper” for the military, which has been printed and delivered to troops around the world since the Civil War, must also present a shutdown plan by September 15, he wrote.
The memo states that the Trump administration has the authority to make such a decision but didn’t give any reason as to why they’ve ordered the closure, USA Today reported. Congress overruled a previous attempt to pull funding from the paper, which is subsidized through the defense budget. The latest decision comes amid a report in The Atlantic about President Donald Trump’s deep disdain for the military.
