The Biden administration is pushing multiple former Trump officials out of their positions on military service academy advisory boards.
The White House reached out to 18 officials who were appointed by former President Donald Trump, including former White House officials Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer, among others, asking for their resignations.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the move during Wednesday’s briefing, explaining that President Joe Biden has to “ensure” there are “people serving on these boards who are qualified.”
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“On behalf of President Biden, I am writing to request your resignation as a Member of the Board of Visitors to the U.S. Naval Academy,” a letter from Catherine Russell, the director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, said in a letter to Russell Vought, Trump’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget, who posted it on social media. “Please submit your resignation to me by the close of business today. Should we not receive your resignation, your position with the board will be terminated effective” this evening.
Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Michael Wynne, retired Gen. John Keane, Meaghan Mobbs, David Urban, Heidi Stirrup, retired Col. Douglas Macgregor, and John Coale were also asked to submit their resignations.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the suspension of all military academy oversight boards in February while they conducted a review following a flurry of last-second appointments by the previous administration.
Vought, in response to the letter, said, “No. It’s a three year term,” while Mobbs said in a statement, “Frankly, I find this whole act unconscionable and not all in the spirit by which this Administration promised to govern. President Biden ran on a supposed platform of unity but his actions speak directly to the contrary. Apparently, unity is only for those who conform.”
“When I joined the Board under the Trump Administration, there were holdovers from the Obama Administration,” she added. “They were not terminated but instead served alongside Trump appointees. This mix of perspective, experience, and belief systems ensured there was diversity — a value the Democratic party purports to hold above all else.”
Conway, in a note posted to social media, said Biden’s decision “is disappointing but understandable given the need to distract from a news cycle that has you mired in multiple self-inflicted crises and plummeting poll numbers, including a rise in new COVID cases, a dismal jobs report, inflation, record amounts of drugs coming across the southern boarder, and of course, the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
Last week, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the reviews had concluded and that 16 boards were being reinstated.
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The 16 that are set to resume work are the Defense Business Board, the Defense Policy Board, the Defense Health Board, the Defense Board of Actuaries, the Medicare-Eligible Board of Advisors, the Defense Science Board, the Defense Advisory Committee on Investigation, Prosecution, and Defense of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces, the Uniform Formulary Beneficiary Advisory Panel, the Inland Waterways Users Board, the Defense Department Wage Committee, the Board on Coastal Engineering Research, the Marine Corps University Board of Visitors, the Department of the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, the U.S. Strategic Command Strategic Advisory Group, the Army Science Board, and the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.
