Trump plans to fire the head of the D.C. National Guard in the middle of the inauguration

published 13 January 2017

The head of the Washington, D.C., National Guard will be fired effective the same moment Donald Trump is sworn in as president, on Jan. 20 at 12:01 p.m, Talking Points Memo reports. The thousands of National Guard troops overseeing inauguration festivities will effectively lose their commander midday: "My troops will be on the street," Maj. Gen. Errol R. Schwartz told The Washington Post. "I'll see them off but I won't be able to welcome them back to the armory."

Schwartz, 65, said he did not know why he was being dismissed. Unlike other states, the National Guard chief in D.C. is appointed and dismissed by the president directly. "The timing is extremely unusual," Schwartz said, adding that he would "never plan to leave a mission in the middle of a battle." While bizarre, the decision might not be a total surprise; the president-elect previously ordered that all of President Barack Obama's ambassadors leave their posts by Inauguration Day.

Schwartz has spent months planning for the inauguration, and has been a member of the military since 1976.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.