Washingtonpost writes that Shanahan and Navy officials have faced intense scrutiny over a White House request to hide the USS John S. McCain warship during President Donald Trump's visit to Japan last month - a moment, among others, some defense officials and analysts have said is a sign of decay in the civilian-military relationship, which has been traditionally immune to partisan rancor.
Amid the backlash, Shanahan directed his chief of staff to tell the White House not to put the military in political situations, Shanahan's spokesman, Lt. Col. Joseph Buccino, told The Washington Post.
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The Navy confirmed Saturday that it received a request from the White House to "minimize the visibility" of the ship.
But Vice Adm. Phillip Sawyer, commander of the 7th Fleet, squashed any potential effort to "put the ship out of sight" a day or two before Trump's visit over Memorial Day weekend, a senior Navy official told The Post on Sunday, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
The request was apparently made to avoid angering Trump.
"I was not a big fan of John McCain in any shape or form," Trump said last week. "Now, somebody did it because they thought I didn't like him, OK? And they were well-meaning."
That an intervention by a senior commander was needed may have led Shanahan to consider formal guidance to avoid political entanglements in the future. Defense officials said Shanahan is weighing directives that bring clarity to how the military should support VIP visits and how to handle direct requests from the White House, the Associated Press reported.
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