The Brooklyn Rail

“Last month I signed an executive order to provide training for a Quick Reaction Force that can help quell civil disturbances and this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war, too, because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of hand. . . . We are under invasion from within. . . I told Pete we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”

These words from President Trump on September 30, 2025 were nothing less than a repudiation of the Posse Comitatus Act, passed in 1878 to prevent the US military from being used in the South during Reconstruction, and to generally prohibit the military from being used against US civilians. Trump’s speech is a clear announcement of his intention to use the US military against his political opposition in US cities under Democratic, especially Black, leadership. He made this pronouncement as part of an interminable, deranged speech given to 800 generals, admirals, and senior enlisted advisors he had summoned to Quantico, Virginia to receive it in person.

The five-time draft dodger and physical coward Trump went on for more than an hour, slurring his words and rambling on about the quality of paper in the White House, his dislike of the way certain Navy ships look, the press, and all the “radical left lunatics,” and how careful he is walking up and down steps, as the top leaders of the US military forces from around the world sat stoically, quizzically, wondering what this was all really about.

Before the meeting in Virginia, there was a lot of speculation in the press about what would justify yanking all the highest-ranking officers in the military away from their posts all over the world and putting them all in one room with the President and the Secretary of Defense. Maybe to inform them that the US was about to go to war? Or that military secrets had been compromised? Or to publicly fire people and demand a swearing of allegiance to the President? Surely not to talk about grooming and physical fitness and not being woke.

Pete Hegseth, who came to this job eight months ago from being a weekend host on the Fox News Channel, and who is under investigation for sharing attack plans on a Signal chat, preceded Trump, haranguing the assembled forces for being too woke and fat and sometimes bearded (“beardos”) to be part of his army. “No more beards, long hair, superficial, individual expression. We’re going to cut our hair, shave, shave our beards and adhere to standards.” And he wants the rules of engagement to be cleansed of all pansy woke thinking and rules about roughing up prisoners of war or recruits to be loosened, right now. “If the words I’m speaking today are making your hearts sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he bloviated.

I was shocked at first that the administration allowed this entire embarrassing debacle to be livestreamed to the public, but then I realized that this was a trial balloon, to see how it would play with the military and with the American public before they tried to implement it. It’s Trump’s attempt to keep some kind of a leash on Stephen Miller.

The good news is that the assembled military brass reportedly mostly took Hegseth’s speech as a lame joke by a lightweight who has no business being Secretary of Defense and will hopefully be gone soon, and Trump’s speech as the ravings of tired old man with dictatorial delusions of grandeur. I suspect that none of them will resign over it, but neither will they agree to repudiate their oath of office to protect the Constitution and do what Trump wants them to do. These leaders have been protected from presidential overreach by the American constitutional order (including the 22^nd Amendment) for a long time and they aren’t going to abandon that legacy because of a TED talk and a rally speech.

And the American public largely responded to this pathetic spectacle with howls of derision. Hegseth’s emphasis on physical fitness put in ridiculous terms was a favorite topic of discussion. “It all starts with physical fitness and appearance,” said Hegseth as he swanned around the stage. “I don’t want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape or in combat units with females who can’t meet the same combat-arms physical standards as men.” Trying to evoke George C. Scott in the movie Patton, with a gigantic American flag behind him, strutting around as he read from the teleprompters, all this only heightened the comedy. This mixture of clownish absurdity and monstrous intent has become a Trump signature. It worked well in campaign rallies where supporters were entertained, but not so well outside of that context.

Observers more invested militarily were not amused. I heard a retired, career female combat veteran say that the most disturbing thing about Hegseth’s speech for her was his ignorance about how discipline works in the military. When you lose discipline, she said, you get Putin’s Russian army. She explained that the rules of engagement that Hegseth wants to relax are there to protect civilians in war. Without those rules, you get the current barbarism of the Russian military in Ukraine and the Israeli military in Gaza. You get war crimes.

The bad news is that Trump and Hegseth will not stop trying to get the military to agree to take up arms against US civilians, and they may eventually find some segment of the military willing to do what they want. And they already have a private militia being built up by the Department of Homeland Security with ICE, CBP, and HSI. The firing of non-lethal rounds at peaceful protestors at ICE facilities in Chicago is just the beginning, and the use of lethal military force against American civilians protesting against the authoritarian take-over will certainly increase.