Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with growing concern about a politicised military among serving and retired officers

that Secretary of Defense Hague says firing of the top JAG officers in the Army, Navy, and Air Force

will mean that unlawful orders from Trump, like ordering the military to fire at Black Lives Matter protesters

in the legs, which he tried to have done in his first term, will be allowed by sycophance

Trump will appoint to replace the military's professional lawyers.

Joining us is Rachel Van Lendingham, a retired United States Air Force lieutenant colonel,

the co-associate dean of research and a professor of law at Southwestern Law School, as well as a former judge-advocate in

the United States Air Force. During her military career, she served as a senior legal advisor on the

international law of armed conflict, military prosecutor, criminal defense attorney,

appellate defense attorney, and nuclear security inspector stationed in the United States, South Korea,

and Italy with deployments to the Middle East.

She was the legal advisor for international law at headquarters U.S. Central Command,

where she advised on operational and international legal issues

related to the armed conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Then we're looking to Trump's

plunging historically low poll numbers after just one month of his new term and speak with Bill

Cher, the politics editor of the Washington Monthly. He is the host of the history

podcast when America worked and the co-host of the bipartisan online show and podcast, the DMZ.

We will discuss his latest article at the Washington Monthly. Trump's historically bad first

month of polls should terrify Republicans.

Then finally we'll assess the one-two-punch Trump has delivered to the FBI in an apparent effort to destroy the agency so that he can use it to go after his enemies

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