Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump succeeded masterfully at Quantico last week in earning media attention. But all the finger wagging over “fat generals and admirals,” “dudes in dresses,” and the “warrior spirit” was a side show and a tactical diversion from the main event of the day – Trump’s call to arms against a new enemy. Americans.
While many may want to write off the day as embarrassing and clownish, it was also a highly dangerous turning point – one that too many political leaders and everyday Americans are not marking for what it is.
Was it really necessary to summon 800 of the highest-ranking military leaders from all corners of the globe on a moment’s notice despite security risks and at exorbitant cost to taxpayers just to issue a bunch of memos rewriting hair and fitness standards? No, of course not.
Trump needed these leaders in the room together so he could send them a clear message: Get ready to deploy in the homeland against, in his words, the “the enemy from within.”
Using the language that he used and, most importantly, labeling left wing protestors as “insurrectionists,” crossed a clear red line in civil-military relations. It is the Insurrection Act he seems keen to invoke, which would give him dictatorial-like powers like we’ve never seen used before in this country – not even in the civil war. The civil war was a war between states with militaries fighting on battlefields. A Trump-led deployment of federalized Guard and active-duty troops to quell a fabricated insurrection inside American cities, should only be understood as war on the American people.
Trump long-term supporters, like popular right-wing podcaster, Ben Shapiro, may urge us not to lose perspective, or worry because there is no nefarious, real plan here. Such thinking is just “silly,” according to Shapiro. “The president uses colorful language. He exaggerates. He uses superlatives. It’s a thing that he does.”
But when the Commander-in-Chief’s recent actions are matched to his “colorful” language, we should pay attention. The president has already sent national guard units from Tennessee, unwelcomed, into Washington D.C., federalized the California National Guard against the governor’s wishes and sent them to Los Angeles alongside active-duty Marines. He has federalized the Oregon Guard, and when blocked by a federal judge (whom he appointed) attempted to mobilize federalized California and Texas national guard forces to be sent to Portland. Trump also said in his speech “we’re going into Chicago very soon,” and now reportedly followed through by threatening the governor of Illinois to either deploy the Guard or have the Pentagon take control over 300 of those forces, and apparently mobilized the Texas National Guard for Chicago. And while the Adjutant Generals of the states’ National Guard were curiously not invited to attend the Quantico gathering, the president’s reference to his ramping up a “quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances” – and the related executive order making such troops ready for “rapid nationwide deployment” — only adds to this alarming chain of events.
And last week, in Quantico, he signaled he is ready to cross one of the biggest lines in civil-military relations. In flagrant disregard for the Posse Comitatus Act, a law that explicitly prohibits the direct use of the military against Americans, he clearly put our Active Duty military leaders on notice:
“San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles — they’re very unsafe places, and we’re going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war, too. It’s a war from within…That’s what the oath says, foreign and domestic. Well, we also have domestic.”
This was not just bluster or blather. It was a serious call to arms by the Commander-in-Chief to our nation’s highest ranking battle-hardened active-duty military leaders.
Our military leaders should be focused on the very real threats to our nation in the South China Sea, the Red Sea, and Ukraine. They should be training with NATO and patrolling sea lanes. They should be planning for the increasing number of challenges to our space and cyber national security infrastructure. They should be racing to reinstate deterrence in an age of hypersonic weapons, AI, and nuclear proliferation.
But instead, they were called on to be staging for Trump and his “Secretary of War” as the two lay the groundwork to use the tools of warfare against the American people and the destruction of our withering democratic institutions.
While this key message may have been obscured by chest thumping about fitness standards, racist and sexist dog-whistling, and disjointed musings about how to safely walk down a flight of stairs as an old man, make no mistake the generals and admirals heard Trump’s message loud and clear and they know what is at stake, not only for our nation, but for them personally:
If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future …”
What is at stake for the rest of us? It’s time to pay attention.
