Trump and Hegseth — Fighting the Last War — And Us
October 5, 2025
Hundreds of America’s military top brass, summoned at a cost of millions last Tuesday, reportedly “sat stone faced” while harangued by Trump and Hegseth about making our armed forces more macho.
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius called their speeches “an exercise in military nostalgia.” Trump even spoke of bringing back battleships — “already outmoded” during WWII. Hegseth, to turn back the clock, pushed “the 1990 test,” with anything later being suspect.
Well, at least 1990 was post-WWII. Hegseth also decried how our military looks. Hates fat guys or “beardos.” And wants no talk about climate change. That’s a “bad look” too. As if “wokeness” is our prime enemy.
While Russia threatens the world order in Ukraine and wages semi-war against NATO with air incursions, cyber attacks, sabotage, and subversion, and China similarly harries Taiwan. Hegseth and Trump said nothing of this.
But Hegseth’s main thrust, to fulfill his he-man ideation, was to toughen up our troops. So they can reprise storming Iwo Jima. As if such a thing will again be needed.
All this swaggering talk is just putting on a show, both guys having cut their teeth as TV performers. And it’s not just fighting the last war, nor even the last but one, it’s fighting the last but four or five; clueless about the changed reality of war today. As Ukraine shows, it’s now all about non-manned drones, computers, cyber-war, Artificial Intelligence, totally high-tech. It’s not he-men we need, but brain-men.
And women. Hegseth misogynistically hates any idea of women in the military. And of course people with non-conforming sexuality. As if that has anything to do with serving admirably. Trans people doing so for years are being kicked out. Denied honorable discharges, voiding their pension rights. This is shameful and sick.
America’s annual defense budget is a trillion dollars. Making us not strong but actually weaker — because most of that money is thrown down the toilet. With the whole Pentagon in fact long a vast fantasy of gearing up to re-fight ancient wars. To piss away all that wealth, rather than spending it usefully, weakens us as a nation.
Hegseth’s manliness shtick includes not only tougher physical training, but rolling back rules against bullying and hazing, and relaxing discipline for officers guilty of such behavior. He seems to see brutalizing recruits as actually desirable, maybe on the theory, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Not likely to attract anyone to the military, let alone the kind of nerdy tech geeks we need most. With physical fitness very much a secondary concern. As Ignatius suggests, “Beijing would be delighted if America focused on how many push-ups a soldier can do rather than how many computer tools he or she can use.” China is methodically building up its military capabilities for the 21st century, not the 20th.
Trump delivered mostly his usual unhinged rant cursing out anyone not showering him with praise. We could shrug that off were he not acting on it, abusing his power to punish and intimidate. And now he’s telling the military it’s being repurposed to battle not foreign foes but “a war from within” against an “invasion from within.”
Who are the invaders? Anyone not worshipping him. But not everywhere. Only in certain cities governed by “radical left Democrats.” Like Portland, Oregon, which Trump has luridly described as a “war zone,” based on some isolated clips he saw on TV. Screaming that U.S. crime is out of control, when the actual fact is a steep decline. Nevertheless, Trump said U.S. cities should be training grounds for the military. To hone their fighting skills — with Americans for target practice?
The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act bars our military from domestic law enforcement. Trump was already driving a tank through that. Will the military obey illegal orders? When Mark Milley headed it, he pushed back against such Trump travesties, but now the regime has installed its own new top brass.
Trump’s explicitly targeting Democratic cities makes clear this is about partisan politics, not security. As today’s Albany Times-Union editorializes, that’s “an insult to soldiers’ oath to defend the Constitution and their long tradition of rising above politics in service to all Americans.”
China and Russia will love it too if America’s military is engaged not in challenging their aggressions, not in aiding Europe, Ukraine or Taiwan, but rather against ourselves.
What our generals and admirals learned Tuesday, if they didn’t already know, is what kind of leaders we’ve got.