Trump installs Islamophobe in senior Pentagon role after Senate won't confirm him

Donald Trump skirted Senate nomination rules to place a bigoted retired general in a senior position at the Pentagon after it became clear even Senate Republicans would not confirm him.

Trump had nominated retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata to be undersecretary of defense for policy, a position that required Senate confirmation.

When the Senate Armed Services Committee canceled a confirmation hearing for Tata, thanks to reports of Tata’s racist and Islamophobic social media posts, Trump instead gave Tata a “less-senior policy role” that will still allow him to perform the same duties as the role he could not earn Senate confirmation for, Reuters reported.

Tata has made a number of bigoted social media posts.

Many of his racist posts centered on former President Barack Obama, who Tata falsely accused of being a “Muslim,” a “terrorist leader.” and a “Manchurian candidate” who was trying to take down the United States, CNN reported.

Tata also called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) “violent extremists,” per CNN’s report.

In addition, Tata believes in the false “deep state” conspiracy theory, in which believers — including Trump himself — say there is a group of government officials trying to take Trump down from within the government, according to CNN.

Tata apologized for his history of making offensive and patently false comments, writing in a letter to the leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee, “I deeply regret comments I made on social media several years ago” saying that his “tweets were completely out of character,” according to the Hill newspaper.

But the apology did not seem to quell concerns from the Committee, which canceled his confirmation hearing.

“There are many Democrats and Republicans who didn’t know enough about Anthony Tata to consider him for a very significant position at this time,” Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement last Thursday.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.