WASHINGTON 5 Jul (ANA) - America’s top brass spurned President Trump’s Fourth of July celebration in Washington last night amid criticism that he was using the armed forces as props in his re-election campaign.

 

The Pentagon said that the heads of the army, navy, air force and Marine corps were absent from Mr Trump’s “salute to America” speech because of “schedule conflicts”.

 

General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Mark Esper, the acting defence secretary, were present, but without other members of the country’s most senior military council. The deputies of the absent commanders took their places.

 

The event was billed as a display of patriotism and pride in the armed forces, with Mr Trump promising spectators the “show of a lifetime” to mark Independence…(ANA)

FA/ANA/5 July 2019---------