President Donald Trump backed off his decision to eliminate Stars and Stripes, the armed forces newspaper, most likely to improve his standing with the military in the wake of The Atlantic article that provided details of Trump’s history of denigrating service members. Trump gave no reason for his decision to scuttle the newspaper. (USATODAY, September 4, 2020, by John Fritze)
Trump rescinded the shutdown order saying the Stars and Stripes was “a wonderful source of information to our Great Military.” The newspaper is a local news provider for troops based around the world and has done important investigative reports on housing, defense spending, veteran suicides, sexual assault and Covid-19. (CNN, September 5, 2020, by S.E. Cupp)
A Boston Herald editorial, September 8, 2020, observed that funding for Stars and Stripes is a small part of the Pentagon’s S $705.4 billion budget. It is now up to Congress to restore the $15.5 million needed to keep the publication rolling. The House has included the outlay in their 2021 budget, but the Senate so far has not.