In what he describes as "lessons in leadership" a retired U.S. general has been responding to various tweets and pronouncements from Donald Trump, chiding the president for how he conducts himself.
According to a column in the New York Times, Martin Dempsey, the four-star Army general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Barack Obama until his retirement in 2015, has kept up a running commentary of Trump via his Twitter account.
Saying in an interview, "I never think it’s appropriate for senior military leaders to publicly and personally criticize the president, as he is the elected leader of the country,” Dempsey has nonetheless seems to have strong opinions in matters involving Trump -- he just doesn't like to single him out specifically.
Case in point: "On Jan. 25, after Mr. Trump ended the longest government shutdown in history by acceding to essentially the same deal he rejected in December, General Dempsey tweeted: 'Leadership: the art of motivating people to act toward achieving common goals. Brinksmanship: the art of pushing a confrontation to the limit of safety to force a desired outcome. One is persuasive, the other coercive. One feels like success, the other like failure. #Leadership'."
Dempsey's passive/aggressive tweets about the president are not something new.
In 2017 he took a shot at Trump after the president claimed President Barack Obama and other presidents failed to call the families of fallen American service members.
Dempsey fired back, "POTUS 43 & 44 and first ladies cared deeply, worked tirelessly for the serving, the fallen, and their families. Not politics. Sacred Trust."
He recently took on Trump's demand for a border wall that led to a government shutdown, writing, "In solving complex problems and resolving contentious issues, the most effective leaders use their influence much more than their authority. The goal is to solve problems so that they stay solved. Solutions imposed rarely last. #RadicalInclusion."
Asked about his tweets, Dempsey claimed, "I’m constantly thinking about and always looking around for examples of good leadership and bad leadership. It’s harder to be a leader today because of the proliferation of information and the intensity of scrutiny.”
You can see a few of his tweets below and he can be followed here.