Hawks are screeching about a series of high profile firings and resignations that occurred at the Pentagon last week, seeing in the personnel moves a dark portent of a possible coup by the Trump administration. The dismissals are "nefarious… decapitations," according to The Washington Post's Jennifer Rubin; while journalist Mona Charen dubbed the high-profile resignations a "purge."

"The president is burning down the Department of Defense in the midst of a presidential transition, which in my experience is unprecedented in American history," said Eric Edelman, former under secretary of defense and ambassador to Turkey.