Whether we want it or not, it seems our news screens are filled this week with deployments of America’s military — for everything other than the lethal work for which they have been trained.
And now, a federal district court injunction to halt deployment of troops against immigrant protests and the shocking, physical takedown of Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., in a federal building for asking a question at a press conference is deepening the concerns that the rules governing military deployment in a democracy are playthings for this president.
It’s U.S. tradition and law that puts the military subservient to civilian command, and this week it has become painfully obvious that under Donald Trump, the civilian leadership is using its best-in-the-world troops as stage pieces in a continuing political theater meant to show adoration for Dear Leader rather than protecting our democracy and that of allies.
We’re hearing plenty in advance of Saturday’s long-planned military show that will bring 70-ton tanks and big armaments through the streets of Washington, all in tribute not only to a notable U.S. Army anniversary but for the viewing pleasure of Trump for his birthday. The ostentatious display of weaponry is better suited for dictators and authoritarian leaders abroad, we are told, just as Trump promises that any public dissent seeking to besmirch his imperial parade will be met with unidentified “great force.”
About what exactly is this parade intended to make us so proud?
So, even before we get to the inevitable imagery that will show split-screen political dichotomy of a would-be monarch with toy soldiers against the images of hundreds of thousands gathered in 800 “No Kings” protests across the nation’s cities and small towns, we are being braced by a host of questions about why we need to spend $45 million to salve the raging narcissism of this president in a time of serious dangers at home and around the world.
The same Trump who regularly refuses to recognize injured veterans, who refused to go to a military cemetery in the rain, who reportedly has called those who enlist “suckers and losers,” who has sought to ridicule and debase military leaders and heroes, including former Sen. John McCain, for policy disagreements, who ducked military service himself, now wants to wrap himself in the embrace of a military he seems not to know how to command. To Trump, his status as commander in chief is solely an artifact of office, like gold curtains in the Oval Office, meant to enhance his political status as our most nation’s powerful figure.
Political Power and Military
It adds to the hypocrisy of Trump’s weird obsessions about power and armies that this military display is happening as Trump has sent 5,000 federalized National Guardsmen and U.S. Marines to bolster masked, unidentified Homeland Security agents fanning into the streets of Los Angeles — and now many other cities — to halt public unhappiness about his mass deportation tactics, and another 8,000 active-duty troops to the southern border with the gauziest of mission and preparation.
We’re using U.S. troops to face down American protest. We’re asking Marines who include the sons and daughter of undocumented migrants to help round up and deport potential members of their own families, all under dubious legal and political justifications that have once again ended up in a federal courtroom.
This week, Trump spoke to soldiers at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and used the event as a political rally.
According to Military News. Trump could not even avoid using combat troop as political props in his ever-present resentment for having lost the 2020 elections. Military News says internal 82nd Airborne Division communications show Trump’s visit was a tightly orchestrated effort to curate its political optics, including handpicking soldiers for the audience based on political leanings and physical appearance. The troops visible to cameras were almost exclusively male, and a unit message bluntly said “no fat soldiers” were allowed.
“If soldiers have political views that are in opposition to the current administration and they don’t want to be in the audience then they need to speak with their leadership and get swapped out,” another note to troops said. Officials declined to describe the screening effort, though they acknowledged that soldiers displayed partisan cheers on television — a violation of long-standing Pentagon rules, as were the accompanying sales of MAGA merchandise at the base event.
Active military leadership missed a chance to reinforce the military’s nonpartisan nature. Trump used much of his speech to slam California Democrats and tout the need to stamp out dissent, though presidents in the past have used appearances before military crowds to talk policy.
Our Military Leadership
We also saw Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth face Congressional hearings this week. Hearings before House and Senate committees ostensibly were about money, but Hegseth’s first appearance since confirmation drew questions about the Los Angeles deployments and their cost, his own use of a Signal app for unsecured communications of sensitive material, and dissension within the Pentagon over dismissal of key personnel. Hegseth refused to directly answer many of the questions he was asked. He insisted the Pentagon’s deployment of troops to Los Angeles was lawful, for example, but could not cite the law he was following or whether the Pentagon would obey a court order to stand down. He had trouble with questions about research budget cuts and the impact of tariffs on the defense manufacturing, on budget adherence and the withdrawal of support for Ukraine and whether the Pentagon has plans to invade Greenland.
Amid the bureaucratic side-stepping, it would be hard to see how Hegseth’s insistence on ridding the military of transgender troops and symbols of diversity, its elimination of programs for women, its renewed commitment to rebuild Navy ships and a “golden dome” missile defense are preparing us in a time when mobile electronic drone warfare is proving so effective.
Those questions include the slashing of support for veterans’ health and services and financial backing for military families — all on the Trump budget-cutting board.
With Hegseth’s constant drive for a “lethal” military, he had trouble explaining why we are pulling American troops out of Europe or how deployment to U.S. cities makes us stronger and safer as a nation. Rather, Hegseth came across as another Turmp political prop. It would not be an overstatement that Hegseth rejects the idea of congressional oversight altogether.
It seems that Trump, Hegseth and Homeland Security can recognize the dangers of scrawled graffiti on a federal detention center on a three-block area in Los Angeles that most of the city never goes near, but cannot fathom how to mount a defense of Chinese invasion of Taiwan, or deal with a Russia that is showing us it has no intension of halting its invasion of Ukraine, or keep Israelis from an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities at the very time we say we are negotiating with Iranian officials.
So, why not have a parade. Everything else about America’s national security and military readiness is hunky-dory, right?
“FREEDOM OF THE PRESS IS NOT JUST IMPORTANT TO DEMOCRACY, IT IS DEMOCRACY.” – Walter Cronkite. CLICK HERE to donate in support of our free and independent voice.
