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This General Doesn’t Mention Trump, but His Tweets Speak Volumes


Twitter can be a soul-crushing place where people leave inhibition behind as they launch invective in 280-character volleys, usually aimed at someone they don’t know and assume they will never have to face.


Then there’s the Twitter account of 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. A balm in an inflamed social media universe, his account dispenses mini-sermons and sensible advice, often for an unnamed audience of one who uses Twitter as a delivery vehicle for insult and fabrication.


The general would never take on a commander in chief directly; none of his posts mentions President Trump by name. But the daily trolling, mild by Twitter standards, is unmistakable.


“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,” General Dempsey said in a telephone interview from North Carolina, where he teaches at Duke University.


Read more form The New York Times here.

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