--- title: Donald Trump Wrong on Military, Air Force Chief Says description: Donald Trump has called the U.S. military a "disaster." The head of the Air Force says he's wrong. canonical: https://time.com/4551396/donald-trump-deborah-lee-james/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-31T14:16:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:01.162Z article:section: Politics og:title: Air Force Chief to Donald Trump: America's Military Is Not a 'Disaster' og:description: "It is the best military on the planet" og:url: https://time.com/4551396/donald-trump-deborah-lee-james/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41ad8160185e9afd/6988ac35428a9e74c8cd4d0b/deborah-lee-james.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Deborah Lee James og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Air Force Chief to Donald Trump: America's Military Is Not a 'Disaster' twitter:description: "It is the best military on the planet" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt41ad8160185e9afd/6988ac35428a9e74c8cd4d0b/deborah-lee-james.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Air Force Chief to Donald Trump: America's Military Is Not a 'Disaster' > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=e3ad91b0-11c3-4b1d-8f0c-ff1f18b3f531&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Donald Trump Proposes Larger Military With Less to Do [Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump Proposes Larger Military With Less to Do](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/r2psDzEC.m3u8) (1:31)  _Published 2016-09-07. Donald Trump proposed a major expansion in the number of boats, planes and service members in the U.S. military Wednesday, while at the same time suggesting that he would deploy those forces less frequently than his predecessors._ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Oct 31, 2016 2:16 PM UTC  Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James speaks at the National Press Club in Washington on Dec. 2, 2015. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James speaks at the National Press Club in Washington on Dec. 2, 2015. Manuel Balce Ceneta—AP by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Oct 31, 2016 2:16 PM UTC [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4549586/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-email-fbi-investigation-reopen/) has [called the U.S. military a “disaster.”](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/29/hillary-clinton/hillary-clinton-says-donald-trump-has-called-us-mi/) The head of the Air Force [says he’s wrong](http://fortune.com/2016/10/31/fortune-unfiltered-deborah-lee-james-secretary-air-force/). “I can tell you the United States military is not any sort of disaster,” U.S. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said in an interview with [the _Fortune Unfiltered_ podcast](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fortune-unfiltered-aaron-task/id1135636641?mt=2). “It is the best military on the planet.” James, just the second woman to ever be Air Force Secretary, cited Russia as the greatest national security threat to the U.S. Tensions with Moscow, the battle to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul from ISIS, the humanitarian crisis in Syria, and heightened activity by China in the South China Sea all make for what she called “the most complex period we have ever faced during the three decades I’ve been on the scene.” Subscribe to [the _Fortune Unfiltered_ podcast](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fortune-unfiltered-aaron-task/id1135636641?mt=2) here, and read more about her interview on [Fortune.com.](http://fortune.com/2016/10/31/fortune-unfiltered-deborah-lee-james-secretary-air-force/) ## Transcript Today I'm here to talk to you about three crucial word that should be at the center, always, of our foreign policy. Peace through strength. [ SOUND ] We wanna achieve a stable peaceful world with less conflict and more common ground. I am proposing a new foreign policy focused on advancing America's core national interests, so important, promoting regional stability and producing and easing the tensions within our very troubled world. I will ask my generals to present to me a plan within 30 days to defeat and destroy ISIS. This will require military warfare and also cyber warfare financial warfare and ideological warfare. As I laid on the speech to defeat radical Islamic terrorism. Several weeks ago. We will also seek to develop a state of the art missile defense system. Sometimes it seemed like there wasn't a country in the Middle East that Hillary Clinton didn't want to invade, intervene in, or topple. She's trigger happy and very unstable. Whether we like it or not, that's what's going on. 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