On the same day Donald Trump was declared the winner in the 2024 election, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin sent a memo to all Defense Department personnel[1] that promised an orderly transition to the new administration and that the military would "continue to stand apart from the political arena."
"The department will make a calm, orderly, and professional transition to the incoming Trump administration," Austin wrote in the memo, which was publicly released by the Pentagon on Thursday. "As it always has, the U.S. military will stand ready to carry out the policy choices of its next commander in chief, and to obey all lawful orders from its civilian chain of command."
The memo comes as the Trump campaign begins planning its transition and staffing for the Pentagon and other federal agencies, and begins to weigh who could fill top positions such as secretary of defense, a position that is confirmed by the Senate. Trump will be sworn in as president in January.
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The Defense Department is focused on getting ready for the transition that is set to begin in the coming weeks, said Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman. She said Trump transition officials have not yet been in touch with the Pentagon.
"We are committed to ensuring a peaceful transition and ensuring that the incoming team has the building blocks and everything it needs to be successful," Singh said.
"It's something that we felt the need to reiterate," she said. "There have been transitions that haven't been seamless, that haven't gone as peacefully."
Pentagon officials have said that the note is not meant to address any specific promise or rhetoric[3] by the president-elect and his campaign. Trump has talked about using troops to target fellow Americans and to enact his plans for a mass deportation of undocumented migrants.
During a rally in October, Trump said he would use the military to target Americans, including "the fascists, the Marxists, the communists, the people that we have that are actually running the country."
"Those people are more dangerous -- the enemy from within -- than Russia and China and other people," Trump said, specifically naming former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who was elected to the Senate on Tuesday night.
In his memo, Austin was specific that the military would obey all "lawful orders" from its civilian chain of command. Military.com has previously reported[4] that service members are compelled by their oaths not to follow unlawful orders, but there are several U.S. laws that would allow a wide range of orders to be deemed unethical or abusive but lawful.
"America's soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Guardians swear an oath to 'support and defend the Constitution of the United States' -- and that is precisely what you will continue to do," Austin wrote.
Singh said that the Defense Department has "taken seriously" Trump's rhetoric, but she wouldn't speak to hypotheticals when reporters asked whether the Pentagon was preparing for the possibility of its troops being used against the domestic population.
Singh said that they "expect" norms -- such as the military's apolitical nature -- to continue.
"The incoming secretary and the incoming administration will make its own policies," she said.
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Senior Enlisted Adviser to the Chief of the National Guard Bureau Tony L. Whitehead didn't think twice in August 2020 before accepting his appointment as the Guard's senior-most noncommissioned officer and principal military adviser on enlisted matters. It