"At the Department of War, we do training, not trannies! It is a day-and-night difference. Training, lethality, accountability, discipline, readiness — the bedrock of what it means to be an American warrior is the only focus of our department. colorblind, gender-neutral, merit-based — that's it. We want the best! And anybody with half a brain knows that's common sense! I guess common sense isn't all that common in Washington."
These recent comments by Secretary of War/Defense/Whatever Pete Hegseth at the Iowa State Fair perfectly summarize the offensively stupid nature of the Trumpist military. A transphobic slur smothered in drug-fueled false bravado, easily swallowed by the Republican hogs as if it were any other diabetes-inducing meal peddled at the annual Real America Circle Jerk. For all Hegseth’s talk of creating high testosterone “warfighters,” the only fight the American military can win is against unarmed South American fishermen. As we begin the seventh month of the “two-week” Iran War, it's clear the highest-funded military on earth, the core function of the American state since 2001, can’t defeat a competent foe, even with its unparalleled advantage. (Not that I would want it to.) If past and present are any indication, then Pete Hegseth’s “warfighters” are the cutting edge of modern warfare, unless their enemy can shoot back. Which, according to my extensive research, tends to happen in war.
Along with losing wars, drunk texting strike plans to The Atlantic, and snorting enough cocaine to kill a horse, Pete Hegseth’s tenure as Secretary of War has been defined by his aggressive imposition of MAGA cultural values on the American military. Like most armies, American soldiers lean conservative. But that doesn’t mean they’re down with ‘Deus Vult!’ and the other White nationalist slogans Hegseth tattooed over his gin-fueled body. For all its faults, the military was an early victory for the Civil Rights Movement. Truman desegregated it in 1948, two decades before the movement won its historic 1960s legislative victories. Naturally, the armed forces have become the first target for resegregationists, who seek to reimpose as much of the pre-1960s social hierarchy as possible. Along with racist symbolism — the restoration of a Confederate monument in Arlington National Cemetery, and renaming forts after Confederate generals Benning and Bragg — Hegseth’s regressive impulses have driven a political purge of the American military that holds no equal in our two-hundred-and-fifty-year history.
Since taking command, Hegseth has tried to rid the American military of women, Black people, minorities, and anyone else likely to object to illegal orders. So far, Hegseth has forced out the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the first woman to serve as the Navy’s top admiral, and the first woman to lead the Coast Guard. The Secretary has personally intervened to block women and Black men from being promoted to brigadier general, as well as striking many off the Navy’s promotional list. Racial, gender, and ideological purity of high command is Hegseth’s top priority. He’s personally intervened to stop over a dozen more Black and women senior officers from receiving promotions, something that is far, far beneath the job description of the Secretary of Defense. Currently, the military is without leadership. The Army has not had a chief of staff since Hegseth fired General Randy George and his three top officers in April. No explanation was given for George’s termination, but political ideology is the obvious answer. George was the senior assistant to Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, which is unacceptable to Trump and Hegseth. To make matters worse, The New York Times reports that Hegseth is forcing out the current Army Secretary, the service’s top civilian leader. As all signs indicate, the purge is far from over, and will likely continue until Hegseth has run out of enemies. He makes a new one every time a Black person says hi to him in the hallway. So, prepare for this to continue indefinitely.
The mass firings come on top of an aggressively bigoted effort to expel soldiers who don’t fit the MAGA archetype. As his statements above make clear, Hegseth is strongly opposed to “DEI.” The military does have diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. But Hegseth is using “DEI” as a dog whistle. He’s ended many race-, sex-, and ethnicity-based recruitment goals in the military, indicating his preference for a strictly White, male service. It’s not about merit. It’s about remaking the military to fit Pete Hegseth’s vision (which is usually blurry and spinning).
The White supremacist push is the by-product of the Republican Party’s core beliefs in neo-Confederatism and resegregationism. Depreciating Black, minority, women, and queer officers advances the White supremacist culture war. But it also poses a concrete political threat. By removing non-traditional military identities from the chain of command, Hegseth is carrying out a political purge of officers more likely to object to illegal orders — such as ordering the overturning of a democratic election because Donald Trump didn’t like the results.
American veterans lean conservative in a 60-40 split. But that’s likely not enough to carry out a political coup. Pete Hegseth holds many grudges against this “woke” military because it forced him out over his extremist tattoos. For all my critiques of American militarism, I don’t believe its typical form would follow orders to turn its guns on Americans. (It could have on January 6th, 2021, but did not.) However, the military is not in its typical form. That is the point of a purge: to get rid of the rule-followers and turn the military into a loyalist private army.
The Times story I mentioned above calls the Army “rudderless” and condemns Hegseth for failing to adequately prepare Patriot missle stockpiles for the Iran War. There’s no doubt Hegseth is a bad military leader in the most basic sense: he doesn’t know how to win the war he started. But I don’t think that’s Hegseth’s goal. If a general wants to win a war, they’ll fill every post with competent commanders. Failing to do so is, quite literally, suicidal. However, if the administration's priority is domestic control and repression, it's better to fire top officers and leave the top command a hollow shell. With fewer generals, admirals, and secretaries, there are fewer roadblocks to whatever Hegseth orders, and fewer commanders who will instruct their soldiers to refuse orders that violate the rules of war or the U.S. Constitution. Trump and Hegseth correctly recognize their goals require silencing any and all dissent. After the military publication Stars & Stripes reported on the inhumane conditions on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, its publisher was fired for telling the press Pentagon censorship was unacceptable. Clearly, Hegseth believes censoring the military press (and, as I fear we’ll learn, the civilian press) is within his powers.
Pete Hegseth’s political purge of top commanders and the resegregation of the military are among the many ways the Trump Administration has already begun to steal the 2026 midterms and, likely, the 2028 presidential election. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court reviewed Trump’s attack on mail-in voting. And wouldn’t you know it, the Roberts Court ruled that Republican Presidents can make it harder to vote in an election largely understood to be a referendum on the Republican Party. What a surprise! The Department of Homeland Security says it has no plans to send shock-gloved ICE agents to polling stations this November. But the agency left the door open, saying it was possible they would arrest voters during a “targeted enforcement action.” Sure, whatever you say, Mark Wayne Mullin.
There’s an entire cottage industry that covers Trump’s threats to democracy and autocratic tendencies. Much of this coverage focuses on whether Trump ‘will’ try to cling to power against democratic wishes. The question of whether Trump ‘will’ try to overturn elections is irrelevant. He’s already doing it, and the entire Republican Party, from the lowly congressman to the esteemed Supreme Court justices, is helping him. The GOP is a well-oiled fascist machine that knows how to ratfuck opponents, steal elections, and bend this supposedly democratic country to its minoritarian will. In years past, it hasn’t had the military support needed to drop the mask and go fully authoritarian. It’s not clear that Pete Hegseth has achieved his goal of purging the Army, Navy, and Air Force of dissent, nor is it determined that the military would follow his illegal orders. But that is Hegseth’s goal, and he is aggressively striving for it. The intent alone should alarm us all.
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Curious as to what the recruiting targets vs. actual would look like if a significant minority of disfavored people (black, Latino/a, women, LGBTQ) opted to stop volunteering for this neo-Jim Crow military? And how the citizens would react to an “executive order” reimposing the military draft? Assuming the lickspittle Congress wouldn’t pass a draft, which seems like it would be kind of unpopular…