--- title: Leon Panetta Criticizes President Trump For 'My Military' description: Former defense secretary Leon Panetta chastised President Trump for saying he authorized "my military" to drop a bomb on Afghanistan. canonical: https://time.com/4739810/donald-trump-leon-panetta-military/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-14T11:30:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:24:41.973Z article:section: Politics og:title: Leon Panetta Criticizes President Trump For 'My Military' og:description: Former defense secretary Leon Panetta chastised President Trump for saying he authorized "my military" to drop a bomb on Afghanistan. og:url: https://time.com/4739810/donald-trump-leon-panetta-military/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4985cd5c9f99070/6988c29cbc6cfc9e0f3e0dfb/gettyimages-667808734.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Meets With President Trump At The White House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Leon Panetta Criticizes President Trump For 'My Military' twitter:description: Former defense secretary Leon Panetta chastised President Trump for saying he authorized "my military" to drop a bomb on Afghanistan. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4985cd5c9f99070/6988c29cbc6cfc9e0f3e0dfb/gettyimages-667808734.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Former Defense Secretary Criticizes President Trump For Saying 'My Military' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Apr 14, 2017 11:30 AM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a a joint press conference inside the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump listens during a a joint press conference inside the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, April 12, 2017. Olivier Douliery—Bloomberg —Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Apr 14, 2017 11:30 AM UTC When the United States dropped “[the mother of all bombs](http://time.com/4739302/mother-of-all-bombs-afghanistan-what-is-that/)” on [Afghanistan](http://time.com/4738838/afghanistan-military-mother-of-all-bombs-isis-afghanistan/?xid=homepage) Thursday, President Trump said he had authorized “my military” to do so. But one former defense secretary was upset by the president’s word choice. “When it comes to the military, the military belongs to the country,” [Leon Panetta](http://time.com/4427643/dnc-leon-panetta-no-more-war-chants/?iid=sr-link2), secretary of defense and CIA director under President Obama, said on MSNBC. “Our defense system belongs to the country. And it’s not the president’s military, it’s the military of the United States of America.” “He has responsibility obviously, as commander in chief, to be able to make decisions with regards to our military,” Panetta continued. “But I think if you ask the men and women in uniform who they are responsible to, I think their answer would be, ‘We’re responsible to the United States of America.'” Trump’s comment came in response to questions by reports in the White House Thursday afternoon. When asked whether he had authorized the bombing, he said, according to a pool report, “What I do is I authorize my military. We have the greatest military in the world and they’ve done a job as usual. We have given them total authorization and that’s what they’re doing and frankly that’s why they’ve been so successful lately.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4739810/donald-trump-leon-panetta-military/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4739810/donald-trump-leon-panetta-military/"},"headline":"Former Defense Secretary Criticizes President Trump For Saying 'My Military'","datePublished":"2017-04-14T11:30:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:24:41.973Z","description":"Former defense secretary Leon Panetta chastised President Trump","url":"https://time.com/4739810/donald-trump-leon-panetta-military/","keywords":["Military","White House","Donald Trump","onetime","president trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4985cd5c9f99070/6988c29cbc6cfc9e0f3e0dfb/gettyimages-667808734.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd4985cd5c9f99070/6988c29cbc6cfc9e0f3e0dfb/gettyimages-667808734.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Meets With President Trump At The White House","caption":"NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg Meets With President Trump At The White House","creditText":"Olivier Douliery—Bloomberg —Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4739810/donald-trump-leon-panetta-military/","name":"Former Defense Secretary Criticizes President Trump For Saying 'My Military'"}}]}] ```