President Donald Trump has reportedly chosen Tennessee Sen. Mark Green (R-Clarksville) to be secretary of the Army.
Trump hasn’t formally made the announcement, but if selected, Green, an evangelical Christian, would replace the country’s first openly homosexual civilian leader in the Army’s history, Eric Fanning.
Green is currently the leading candidate to be Tennessee’s governor in 2018. If chosen, he will drop his campaign bid.
Green is a West Point graduate and was the medic for the special operations team that captured Saddam Hussein. Green wrote a book about the mission called A Night with Saddam.
He also founded AlignMD, a hospital staffing company that was bought out for about $26 million.
The nomination, however, is drawing criticism from LGBTQ activists. They are pointing to Green’s legislative history as a state senator, in which he sponsored a bill that would have protected business owners from having to violate their moral or religious conscience and take part in homosexual marriage ceremonies.
In February, Green tweeted: “President Reagan's legacy as a bold conservative leader is one I strive to live up to. ‘Man is not free unless government is limited.”
Trump’s previous nominee for secretary of Army, billioniare businessman Vincent Viola, withdrew his name from selection in March. Viola said “he couldn’t separate himself from his business enough so as not pose a conflict of interest.”
Photo courtesy: Religion News Service
Publication date: April 7, 2017
