US marine resigns after 24 years, citing ‘concern for country’s future’ under Trump

A former US Marine Corps colonel and combat veteran has said that after 24 years of service he “resigned from the military because of Trump”, citing what he described as the US president’s contempt for the constitution.

Doug Krugman left his role in the military on 30 September, coinciding with the day that Donald Trump and the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, delivered controversial, partisan addresses to US military leaders brought to a special meeting in Virginia from across the world, about military priorities and the administration’s agenda.

“I gave up my career out of concern for our country’s future,” Krugman wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post on Thursday. He even warned of “collapse” of the conventional US government system.

He quietly urged other military personnel to reflect on their own positions. “They should be confident in questioning possibly immoral or illegal orders,” he said, “remembering they are responsible for their own actions, and knowing others are asking the same questions.”

“If they have doubts about their orders, they are not alone,” Krugman added.

When Trump addressed the country’s highest-ranking military leaders on 30 September, he delivered a stern warning: “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future.”

Krugman, however, said he had already decided he was leaving the military and that was to be his final day.

In the essay, he talks about how the 6 January 2021 riots first made his position in the military difficult, when extremist supporters of Trump were encouraged by the then outgoing president to stop the certification of his election loss to Joe Biden, and they broke into the US Capitol, chasing down lawmakers.

But it was the subsequent pardoning of the insurrectionists when Trump returned to the White House in 2025, and also the administration’s refusal to grant refuge to many Afghans whom Krugman acknowledged had risked their lives for the US during the war in the region. That made him begin questioning Trump’s morality, he said.

“Ignoring reality to take advantage of vague laws to assume emergency powers is also immoral,” Krugman wrote. “These are not the kinds of actions that I’m willing to risk my life to defend.”

Krugman goes on to highlight how the federalized deployment of the national guard where they had not been requested crossed “legal limits” and that by declaring Portland, Oregon, for example, a war zone, Trump’s words had “little connection to reality”.

“Instead of trying to work within the constitution, or to amend it, President Trump is testing how far he can ignore it,” he wrote.

Krugman ended the essay with a warning.

“If voters and legislators cannot close the gaps in our laws to clarify the limits of presidential power, those who serve our government will continue to struggle. The next president – of either party – may continue us down this path toward collapse,” he said.