President Donald Trump appeared Friday to endorse the idea of jailing Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, a top military strategist who was fired this week for allegedly leaking classified material to the press.
Sylvia, who served as the Pentagon’s director of Strategy, Plans and Policy, was abruptly removed from his position this week without explanation, though subsequent reporting revealed that his removal was tied to having failed three polygraph tests about leaking information about Ukraine and Iran to the press starting in June 2025.
When asked about Sylvia on Thursday, Trump remained vague but declared that he would have “big problems — long-term problems,” while also mistakenly referring to Sylvia as a woman.
On Friday, Trump shared an online post from Phillip Buchanan — the prominent MAGA influencer who goes by the online pseudonym “Catturd” — that hinted at what those “problems” could look like for Sylvia.
“Firing isn’t good enough,” reads the post from Buchanan shared by Trump. “If he was leaking classified information to the press he needs to be court-martialed, stripped of all rank, and sent to Leavenworth. Enough of these traitors.”