All posts tagged "pentagon"

Hegseth orders Pentagon to oust disloyal civilian workers he likened to 'debris'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly ordered the Pentagon to oust disloyal civilian workers — whom he likened to "debris" — as part of a broad effort to remove people who don't subscribe to President Donald Trump's agenda.

The Washington Post reported on a memo issued just days before the government shutdown started that removed key protections to make it easier to get rid of such workers.

The memo sparked concerns among the Pentagon workforce and circulated over the last week, The Post reported Tuesday. The new guidelines were defined in a memo titled "Separation of Employees with Unacceptable Performance” dated Sept. 30 and directed managers to move with "speed and conviction" to fire employees whose performance reviews were "unacceptable" last month.

"The civilian firings are part of a larger effort by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that aims to get rid of the 'debris' he claims is obstructing his mission to deliver on President Donald Trump’s agenda," The Post reported.

“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies. Personnel is policy,” Hegseth said in September during his speech to hundreds of top military brass at Marine Corps Base Quantico.

“The Department is in the process of adapting to the new guidance outlined in Under Secretary of War Tata’s memo from September 30th and we have nothing specific to share at this time,” the Pentagon said in a statement to The Post.

Sean Timmons, a managing partner at the firm Tully Rinckey, who specializes in federal employment and military law, described what could happen next.

“They are gutting federal employee protections significantly,” Timmons said.

The lessened employment protections are expected to decrease the Pentagon's workforce. Earlier this year, Hegseth was directed to cut about 60,000 people, about 8% of its workforce.

“They’re trying to use any excuse they can to get rid of people who are not with the program,” Timmons said.

These shocking Trump orders are nothing short of murder

Donald Trump has ordered more deadly bombings of small fishing boats, killing everyone onboard, including an incident off the coast of Colombia. That was the ninth US attack against alleged drug dealers in international waters, just since September.

Another strike was announced on Friday, bringing the number of people Trump calls “narco-terrorists” to have perished in these attacks up to 43.

Trump previously told Fox News, “We take them out,” and later joked about how people, most of them desperately poor, are now afraid to fish along certain coastlines.

Without releasing credible evidence, Trump claims the victims’ vessels were “stacked up with bags of white powder that’s mostly fentanyl and other drugs, too.”

Trump says they were “smuggling a deadly weapon poisoning Americans,” on behalf of various “terrorist organizations.”

Trump is calling the victims terrorists so that he can treat them as enemy combatants in a war that does not exist, just as he is doing at home. Domestically, we know Trump calls groups who oppose him politically “domestic terrorists.” We know he fabricated a domestic terrorist organization he calls “Antifa” to sell his plan for violence. We also know his administration is lying about peaceful protestors threatening ICE agents in order to justify ICE brutality, and that ICE refuses to wear body cams without a court order.

Trump’s firehose of lies about domestic ‘terrorists’ won’t help his claims about ‘terrorists’ on the high seas.

Is Trump confusing South America with China and Mexico?

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has credibly accused Trump of murder. In response, instead of offering legal justification, Trump said he was cutting off foreign aid to Colombia, seemingly confusing that nation with Democratic-run states from whom he is also illegally withholding funds.

Bragging about the killings, Trump falsely claimed that every exploded shipping vessel “saves 25,000 American lives.”

In the factual world, about 100,000 Americans die each year from drug overdoses, mostly by fentanyl, which does not come from Venezuela, Colombia or any South American country.

The fentanyl killing Americans comes from labs in Mexico and China. Given his difficulty with geography, Trump may not know the difference. At any rate, South America produces marijuana and cocaine, not fentanyl. Most of the killing fentanyl is smuggled into the country by US citizens, over land.

Legal arguments don’t hold water

The White House claims the strikes are a matter of self-defense. To get there, Trump “determined” that drug cartels like Tren de Aragua are “terrorists.” But officials say Tren de Aragua is not operating in the shipping routes under attack, and that the route Trump and Hegseth are targeting carries cocaine and marijuana to Europe and Africa, not the US.

Legal experts on the use of armed force say Trump’s campaign is illegal because the military is not permitted to target civilians who are not directly participating in hostilities. Key legal instruments prohibiting extrajudicial killings and murder include the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the Statute of the International Criminal Court, and customary international humanitarian law. The Trump administration has not publicly offered a legal theory that comports with any of these laws.

Instead, the White House has argued that the attacks fall under the law of armed conflict (LOAC), which limits methods of warfare and sets out legally required protections for noncombatants and civilians during conflict. The US is in no such conflict; we are not under attack in the US or anywhere else, and Congress has declared no war.

Designating drug cartels as “terrorist organizations” is also factually suspect. Drug cartels exist for profit; all purveyors of illicit drugs are in the business to make money. In contrast, “terrorists” by definition are motivated by ideological goals often involving politics or religion—not profit. Even if they were terrorists, international law would only allow the executive branch to respond through legal methods like freezing assets, trials and imprisonment.

Hegseth and others will face court martial

Trump and Hegseth’s legal arguments have been universally rejected by military legal experts including former lawyers in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, who have condemned the attacks as unlawful under both domestic and international law. Nevertheless, Hegseth has stated enthusiastically that the military will continue these executions.

In February, Hegseth fired the JAGs whose job was to assess the legality of military actions. He may have deliberately done so to engage in illegal conduct and later claim a “mistake of law” defense, but that maneuver won’t save him. In US Servicemembers’ Exposure to Criminal Liability for Lethal Strikes on Narcoterrorists, Just Security lays it out under the Manual for Courts-Martial, and Article 118 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), concluding in the Venezuela strikes that:

Despite the clear absence of an “imminent threat of death or serious injury” or “grave threat to life,” the U.S. Coast Guard did not interdict the alleged criminal narcotrafficking in the way this conduct has been historically (and recently) approached.

These suspected criminals were not arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced through a regular course of criminal procedure and neutral adjudication in a court. They were killed extrajudicially for conduct that could not be plausibly labeled a military attack, use of force, or even threat of imminent harm to anyone in the United States or any other nation, and despite the opportunity and ability to use less-than-lethal force to stop the boats.

An extrajudicial killing, premeditated and without justification or excuse and without the legal authority tied to an armed conflict, is properly called “murder.” And murder is still a crime for those in uniform who executed the strike even if their targets are dangerous criminals, and even if servicemembers were commanded to do so by their superiors, including the President of the United States.

Under this analysis, “every officer in the chain of command who … directed downward the initial order from the President or Secretary of Defense” would likely fall within the meaning of traditional accomplice liability, and could be charged for murder under Article 118.

Even if a corrupt Supreme Court gave Trump criminal immunity for murder (an unsettled question), someone should let Hegseth know that immunity does not extend to him, or to other service members piloting the drones or firing the missiles under orders that are obviously illegal.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

'Fluffers': Fury erupts as Hegseth's Pentagon unveils 'next generation' of press corps

Fury erupted Wednesday as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's Pentagon introduced what he called the "next generation" of press corps after forcing out media organizations and journalists who refused to sign a loyalty pledge.

Hegseth's right hand and chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell made the announcement Wednesday on X.

"Today, the Department of War is announcing the next generation of the Pentagon press corps. We are excited to announce over 60 journalists, representing a broad spectrum of new media outlets and independent journalists, have signed the Pentagon’s media access policy and will be joining the new Pentagon press corps. Twenty-six journalists across 18 outlets were among the former Pentagon press corps who chose to sign the DOW media access policy," Parnell wrote.

"New media outlets and independent journalists have created the formula to circumvent the lies of the mainstream media and get real news directly to the American people," Parnell added. "Their reach and impact collectively are far more effective and balanced than the self-righteous media who chose to self-deport from the Pentagon. Americans have largely abandoned digesting their news through the lens of activists who masquerade as journalists in the mainstream media. We look forward to beginning a fresh relationship with members of the new Pentagon press corps."

Noticeably missing from the list of media organizations is Fox News — and instead, "sycophants" and "yes men" from super conservative Turning Point USA, among others, have made the cut, according to The New Republic.

Social media users reacted to the update:

"The Pentagon Propoganda Corps," Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) wrote on X.

"They didn't self-deport; they were pushed out for refusing to let the Pentagon pre-approve their stories. This isn't a new press corps. It's a compliant one. What happens when the only news you get is government-approved?" Investor Thomas Antony wrote on X.

"Wait a minute. The pledge required them to not go where they did not have clearance to go, and to not ask questions about subjects they did not have clearance to discuss. Those same rules applied to me as a Captain in the Marine Corps with a Secret Clearance," EMS helicopter pilot Ken Cox wrote on X.

"Fluffers and propagandists, not journalists," writer Carla Marinucci wrote on X.

Trump is preparing a coup — the evidence is clear if you know where to look

Is the U.S. military already in the early stages of a Trump-led coup against our Constitution?

Inside the Pentagon, loyalty is being elevated above law as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth quietly removes senior military lawyers, the very officials meant to uphold legality and restraint, and replaces them with loyalists.

The purge has also happened to senior military leadership. On Thursday, the New York Times reported that Adm. Alvin Holsey, the head of U.S. Southern Command, which has overseen the strikes against boats off the coast of Venezuela, is stepping down.

While Adm. Holsey has not said why he’s leaving, it may well be a continuation of the troubling trend of purges of highly qualified senior military officials who may have been inclined to restrain Trump’s illegal and fascistic impulses.

The recent purge of military attorneys, in particular, isn’t routine bureaucracy; it’s the deliberate dismantling of the safeguards that prevent America’s armed forces from becoming a political weapon against America’s citizens and democracy.

It’s hard to overstate the significance of what’s happening right now inside the Pentagon.

At the Washington Post, David Ignatius asks why the military has not spoken out against Trump’s attacks on boats off the coast of Venezuela and what I characterize as his unconstitutional deployments of troops against American civilians. Ignatius answers his own question in the article’s second paragraph:

“One chilling answer is that the Trump team has gutted the JAGs — judge advocate generals — who are supposed to advise commanders on the rule of law, including whether presidential orders are legal. Without these independent military lawyers backing them up, commanders have no recourse other than to comply or resign.”

Judge Advocate Generals, or JAGs, are the institutional safeguard against unlawful orders: they advise commanders on rules of engagement, the Geneva Conventions, and the limits of presidential authority.

When an administration starts purging them, we’re not looking at a routine personnel shuffle. We’re seeing the careful dismantling of the guardrails that prevent America’s military from being weaponized against the American people.

This purge began with Hegseth’s February firing of the top lawyers for the Army, Navy and Air Force. He claimed they simply weren’t “well suited” to provide recommendations on lawful orders. But no criminal charges were alleged, no ethics complaints cited; he simply removed them wholesale.

The message is clear: loyalty trumps legal judgment. Just like in Third World dictatorships. Just like in Putin’s Russia, which increasingly appears to be Donald Trump‘s role model.

Once the old guard was removed, Hegseth quietly moved to remake the JAG corps itself. According to reporting in the Guardian, his office is pushing an overhaul to retrain military lawyers in ways that give commanders more leeway and produce more permissive legal advice.

His personal — not military — lawyer who defended him against sexual abuse allegations, Tim Parlatore, has been involved in this process, wielding influence over how rules of engagement are interpreted and how internal discipline is handled.

At the same time, the Secretary has transformed Pentagon press controls. This week, the Washington Post exposed how Hegseth used Parlatore to help draft sweeping restrictions on journalist access and movement within the Department of Defense.

Under the new rules, similar to the way the Kremlin operates, reporters are required to sign pledges stating they won’t gather or use unauthorized material (even unclassified), or risk losing their Pentagon credentials if they stray. The policy also limits reporter mobility within the Pentagon and curtails direct contact with military personnel unless escorted.

The reaction was swift. Dozens of media organizations — Reuters, the Times, the Post, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, the Atlantic — refused to sign Hegseth’s pledge, citing constitutional concerns and the chilling effects of such controls. Only the far-right One America News agreed. Meanwhile, the Pentagon Press Association declined to sign and warned that these rules constitute “a disturbing situation” intended to limit leaks and suppress accountability.

Put these moves together and a frightening pattern emerges: purge independent legal advisers who might say “no,” and gag the press before the damage can be exposed. Combine that with increasingly aggressive, unilateral action by the military abroad, and you have the outlines of a strategy for bypassing democratic oversight.

A Trump-forced coup, in other words.

Wednesday, the U.S. Navy again struck what Trump claims was a drug-trafficking vessel off Venezuela, reportedly killing six people. There was no clear congressional authorization, and the legal justification remains opaque. When you remove internal legal dissent and public scrutiny, the threshold to use force becomes dangerously low.

The domestic implications are equally chilling. Trump has publicly said that he wants to use U.S. cities as training grounds for troops, and openly declared he would fire any general who fails to show total loyalty.

A wannabe dictator can’t deploy troops into American neighborhoods if he still has JAGs saying “that’s not legal,” or a press corps reporting on where they go. First he has to make sure there are no internal brakes and no public witnesses. That’s how coups are built.

Defenders will argue this is about “efficiency,” about correcting an overly cautious JAG culture, or about closing leaks. But that’s clearly a lie: real reform would emphasize transparent standards, not loyalty tests.

If the JAG corps must be reformed, it should be done by independent committees, not by one political operator calling shots. If press controls must be tightened for security, those rules should be public, constrained by constitutional guardrails, and open to judicial review, not enforced behind closed doors.

Make no mistake: this is not abstract. JAG officers are a bulwark against unlawful war, war crimes, and misuse of force at home. Silencing and replacing them is not the act of a healthy republic: it’s the early work of authoritarian takeover.

Combine that with gag orders and the purge of senior military leadership that might resist Trump’s illegal moves, and we’re watching the architecture of strongman autocracy being assembled piece by piece.

A military coup doesn’t typically happen in one dramatic moment, even though it appears that way when it reaches a climax. It begins through personnel decisions, institutional erosion, secrecy, and incremental normalization of power. The moment the legal counsel corps stops buffering against rash orders, the moment the press is muzzled, the path darkens.

We’re closer to that moment than many — including across our media — realize or are willing to acknowledge.

So the question now is whether there are still Republicans in Congress who will demand hearings, whether military leaders will raise alarms, and whether citizens will recognize the stakes.

Saturday's “No Kings Day” wasn’t just a slogan. It was a literal call to defend the republic. The time to act is before the tanks roll, not after.

Because what’s happening right now may not look like a coup to the average American, but it is unmistakably the preparation for one.

'There will be more leaks now': Ex-Pentagon insider says Pete Hegseth plan will backfire

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last month that he would be requiring all media outlets covering the Pentagon to sign a loyalty “pledge” to not seek or report on leaked information, a demand that ultimately “went over like a [wet] fart in a hot car during a first data,” argued conservative political strategist Rick Wilson.

“Only one ‘media’ outlet – the infamous [One America News Network] – signed the pledge to serve not as reporters but as Pentagon stenographers,” Wilson wrote on his Substack Friday.

Indeed, OANN was the only news outlet that agreed to Hegseth’s demand, a request that drew sharp criticism from media outlets who argued it was antithetical to a free press, including the conservative outlet Fox News, which refused to agree to the proposed terms.

“I worked in the Pentagon. I dealt with reporters daily. The distinction between leaking classified information and seeking news is fairly clear. I never met a defense reporter who would have released classified information that posed a national security threat to the country,” Wilson wrote.

“I met many who would take an off-the-record briefing to gain context for what they didn’t understand, and then not report it if it was made clear that it would endanger our troops. I met many who correctly reported that the classified system was being used to hide corruption.”

Under the new policy, outlets that refused to agree to Hegseth’s demands would lose access to the Pentagon starting Wednesday, meaning that for the first time since the early 1960s, “no major U.S. television network or publication will have a permanent presence in the Pentagon,” The Hill reported this week.

But for Wilson, not only was Hegseth’s new policy a failure, it would likely backfire as journalists zero in on the Pentagon amid heightened secrecy.

“Reporters aren’t stupid, and neither are their sources, generally speaking,” Wilson wrote. “There will be more leaks now, and more flag officers with the understanding that the people they’re working for are both stupid and evil.”

'Shows poor judgment': Hegseth forced top Pentagon aide to back his wife having a key role

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly forced a top Pentagon aide to support Hegseth's wife having a key role in closed-door meetings — an unusual move, and one the aide eventually admitted he didn't back.

Following Hegseth's request to remove Courtney Kube, an NBC News reporter who covers the Pentagon, his wife, Jennifer, apparently also wanted her gone, The New York Times reports. Hegseth has apparently wanted to remove several reporters, including his former colleague Jennifer Griffin, whom he "had developed a professional disdain for," according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Jennifer Hegseth was allegedly assisting her husband's team with communications strategy. She has denied that she wanted Kube's credentials removed from the Pentagon Press Association, a group that advocates for the press to have access to military information and events.

“It’s hard to find previous reports of a defense secretary letting his wife sit in on official closed-door meetings or task his senior staff in their official duties,” John Ullyot, former chief Pentagon spokesman when Hegseth gave the instructions, told The Times. "It shows poor judgment and may pose a risk to national security. As I’ve said before, President Trump deserves better.”

Ullyot served as a chief spokesman for the National Security Council and deputy assistant to President Donald Trump during his first term. He left the Pentagon job in the weeks after Hegseth was appointed.

"But while there, Mr. Ullyot defended Ms. Hegseth’s role, saying that 'she is welcome any time in the Pentagon.' He now says Mr. Hegseth directed him to issue that statement despite his view that the arrangement was 'strange and inappropriate,'” The Times reports.

Hegseth was reportedly upset that reporters could have access to the Pentagon and walk around "unescorted past his office."

"In the end, Mr. Hegseth’s colleagues announced a rotation plan to remove outlets from their dedicated spaces and invite others to take their spots," The Times reports. "The reshuffling proceeded in two waves, with NBC News among the first to lose its workspace."

We have proof Trump is unfit for office. Will these key players use it to bring him down?

Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News bobblehead with documented alcohol problems, summoned the military’s top 800 generals, admirals and flag officers to Quantico, Virginia this week to degrade them with a juvenile rant he could have delivered on Zoom.

Pacing back and forth in front of a backdrop from Patton, cosplaying Hegseth delivered what’s been called “an unhinged address filled with confusing contradictions, wild-eyed cheerleading, and politically charged rhetoric.”

Hegseth seemed oblivious to the fact he was lecturing brass with far more military expertise and experience than his own.

Hegseth’s speech was a tired attack on “woke.” He told the officers, “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate-change worship. No more division, distraction, or gender delusions... As I’ve said before and will say again, we are done with that shit.”

He then suggested hazing and harassment are now OK, assuring brass that they shouldn’t be overly concerned with legalities. He offered up new directives “designed to take the monkey off your back and put you, the leadership, back in the driver's seat.”

He defined, for the four-star generals, what it means to be in the US military: “We don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country.”

The enemies of our country, they would next learn from Donald Trump, are Americans.

Proof of insanity

At the conclusion of Hegseth’s immature rant about beards, killer ethos and real men, Trump stepped into the spotlight like it was a MAGA rally.

Meandering from topic to topic for more than an hour, Trump mused on his fondness for the television show Victory at Sea, asserted his claim to a Nobel Peace Prize, criticized how former Presidents Obama and Biden walk down stairs, described how he walks down stairs, insulted “radical Democrats,” declared his love for tariffs, attacked Biden or his autopen 11 times, criticized how military ships “look,” mentioned making Canada the 51st state, and described the kind of thick paper he prefers to use when signing promotions.

Trump bizarrely told the officers he’d ended more than six wars, even though many people in the room continue to work on his “resolved” conflicts as they rage on. He also repeatedly mentioned nuclear weapons.

“I rebuilt our nuclear … I call it the N-word. There are two N-words, and you can’t use either of them.”

Several officials called Trump’s speech truly disturbing and evidence its speaker is unwell — “even for Trump.”

After bragging earlier in the day that he could and would fire “any officer” he “doesn’t like … on the spot,” Trump told assembled brass they were crucial in his fight against the “enemy from within.” Distilled, Trump said they would soon be fighting Americans.

Hyping the pitch, Trump claimed, “We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms.” He then added ominously that “our inner cities” were becoming “a big part of war now,” and that “we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”

Using American cities as “training grounds” for Hegseth’s extra-legal “lethality” operations meant to “kill people and break things” is batshit Reichstag Fire lunacy.

If we had a functioning government, Trump’s speech would already have triggered his 25th Amendment removal for mental infirmity, and his declaration(s) of war against American cities would be adjudicated as “levying war” against the US, otherwise known as treason.

Silence isn't golden

CNN reports that Trump was thirsty for a reaction, but the brass sat quietly.

Trump’s frustration was clear, given that he had so successfully whipped up lower-ranking troops at Fort Bragg earlier in the year. In June, he shamefully got young enlistees to boo as he attacked Biden. This week, in front of a mature audience, he got crickets.

At one point, Trump implored the audience to applaud him, saying, “I’ve never walked into a room so silent before … If you want to applaud, you applaud.” He then attempted a joke, saying hey, “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank. There goes your future.”

Hilarity did not ensue.

Instead of clapping wildly — or even at all — the Generals served up discipline, delivering the silent message that they took an oath to the Constitution, not to him.

Attendees were aghast at the whole affair. The Intercept reports multiple officials who called Trump’s speech “embarrassing” and criticized Hegseth for gathering top commanders from around the world for a speech that was just like “his social media posts.”

One officer called Hegseth’s address “garbage.” Another said: “We are diminished as a nation by both Hegseth and Trump.” Another called it disqualifying, adding that, “It shocks the conscience to hear Hegseth — he is no warrior — endorse bullying and hazing of service members. How dare this former National Guard major lecture our military leaders on lethality.”

Patriots worried about the Constitution should take heart. The disastrous spectacle delivered a silver lining that may well save the republic.

Generals know what they must do

The silver lining is that every high-ranking officer stationed everywhere in the world now knows, without a doubt, two crucial facts they may only have suspected before Quantico:

Hegseth plans to disregard the rules of engagement to deliver maximum “lethality,” regardless of domestic and international law; and
Trump is unwell, and mentally unfit to serve as Commander-in-Chief.

Knowledge of those two facts will inform decisions on how to respond to illegal orders. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, they are required to disobey illegal orders, including those that violate US law as well as the Constitution.

Having heard Hegseth’s criminal intent, and having experienced Trump’s insanity, the officers’ resolve to disobey any and all illegal orders will only strengthen.

Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

Pete Hegseth wants 'male warrior spirit'? He's lucky my Mom isn't here to set him straight

On Tuesday, our newly-dubbed “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth told our military’s top brass that they must restore the "male warrior spirit" to the armed forces.

“Male” spirit, Pete? Excuse me, Pete. My mother, Gladys Palast, was honored by President Bill Clinton as the very first woman who volunteered for the US Coast Guard after the attack on Pearl Harbor

Let me tell you, Little Petie, Mom was a WARRIOR. How DARE you insult my mother’s courage and initiative and then introduce General Bone Spurs Trump as the guy “who has your back.” Hmmm. Trump got out of the war in Vietnam by claiming he had a bone spur in one foot — but he can’t remember which one.

And let’s not forget, on the day after his second inauguration, Trump fired Adm. Linda Fagan as Commandant of the Coast Guard for no visible reason other than she has a vagina. Trump is lucky that Mom ain't around anymore, because I know she'd go back to the White House to kick his ass and show him what a woman warrior can do.

Gil and Gladys Palast in uniform at their wedding 1943. Dad fought in the Phillipines.

And also, just one day after the inauguration, he fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown, a 4-star general, Chair of Joint Chiefs of Staff, a pilot with 130 hours of combat flights in an F-16, for no other visible reason other than Brown is, well … brown.

Brown was replaced, for the first time in US history, by a guy who never even attained the rank of general. Dan Caine is a flunky who flattered Agent Orange when he visited Iraq during his first term. Before taking charge of America’s military, Caine was a Wall Street speculator. Maybe, if the market drops again, Trump will award Caine a purple heart. Trump said he was moved to appoint Caine because of his nickname, “Razin' Caine.” Actually, his nickname is properly written, ”Raisin Caine,” because he was retired and dried up.

That's OK, because Trump doesn’t use our military to confront bad guys. The military’s new mission is to harass Democratic mayors because TACO Trump always folds and crumbles into pieces when an enemy bites. Vladimir Putin is still living in the glow of the Lewinsky he got from Trump in Alaska, and China boasts about invading Taiwan.

Putin and Xi Jinping don't think that Trump is a paper tiger. They've tagged him as a paper three-toed sloth.

To be old, un-gifted and fat

Hegseth called together all the top brass in the military to boost his side gig as a Jenny Craig Weight Loss Program salesman. He used the term “fat” three times. The generals and admirals, many of whom were ordered to fly thousands of miles to this PR dog-and-pony show, were forced to listen to their Secretary say:

“It's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world. It's a bad look.“

A bad look? Has Hegseth ever looked at our Commander-in-Chief, the bloviating porcine bigot in a red tie? Mom could have taken General Bone Spurs to the mat. (I am strictly non-partisan, but Mom wasn’t. Here’s a photo of her, two days before she passed away at 97, smiling in her “Impeach Trump” T-shirt.)

Gladys Palast, at 97.

Our enemies must be laughing their keisters off knowing that our commanders were pulled out of the field to hear Hegseth commanding them to get a shave.

“No more beard-os,” said our Secretary of War. (Though I do applaud his physically attacking JD Vance with a razor … OK, I made that up.)

Declaration of War — on America

The most pathetic moment of Trump’s speech was at the beginning when he complained that he did not get applause from the generals upon his entry. Instead of the applause he was begging for, he got sly laughter. Then Trump turned on his threat machine. “Don’t laugh! Don’t laugh! You’re not allowed to do that! ... If you don’t like what I’m saying you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future.”

Still no applause but some nervous laughter. This is, after all, their Commander-in-Chief and he’s punished dissent and competence with not only firing but physical threats. After 4-Star Gen. Mark Milley retired as head of the Joint Chiefs, Trump removed Milley’s security detail. It’s only been a month since Trump and Hegseth canned Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse as Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency after they caught him telling the truth. (Trump has re-named it the Defense Stupidity Agency … OK, I made that up as well.)

But while the Hegseth and Trump speeches seemed to have been drafted by Groucho Marx, I have to agree with Trump: “Don’t laugh.” His speech was, effectively, a declaration of war on Americans, specifically, “inner cities” — the oldest trope for Black Americans -- “which we’re going to be talking about because it’s a big part of war now. It’s a big part of war.”

WAR??? The generals didn’t miss the point: they were dragged back to the States because their Commander is telling them that the real enemy is America itself, “the enemy within,” a chilling phrase he borrowed from his mentor, Roy Cohn, the Grand Inquisitor of the McCarthy era of political terror. Scarier still, Trump is bringing back McCarthyism with a bullet. Literally. He said,

“I told Pete we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military.”

American citizens will now be target practice.

Think I’m kidding? It’s begun. Just this week, a member of our team was observing a demonstration in a Chicago suburb in front of a new ICE detention center. The demonstrators were outside a fence, protesting peacefully, when, according to our reporter, federal agents on the roof, utterly unprovoked, started firing pepper balls. How soon before some kid, trained as a soldier, not a cop, will fire real bullets after a “provocation”?

Broadview ICE facility, Illinois Protesters in front of the Broadview ICE Processing Facility, Illinois, just before the agents (on roof) began firing pepper balls at the demonstrators. Photograph: Patrice Gallagher for the Palast Investigative Fund 2025.

Trump’s hauling generals to his goofy confab can be put down as a ridiculous publicity stunt. But this stunt was scheduled only days after Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) directing the full force of the federal government to go after those who show “hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.”

We have located the enemy, and it is … Portland.

For all the stifled laughter, the military understood the grim order: their next war will be against America.

Greg Palast is the author of several New York Times bestsellers including The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. See his reports at https://substack.com/@gregpalastinvestigates

'This is so dumb': GOP lawmaker slams Pete Hegseth's latest plan as 'amateur hour'

News organizations are preparing for a legal battle after a government memo from the Pentagon called for reporters to sign a "pledge" — with one Republican lawmaker saying of the idea: "This is so dumb."

Multiple lawmakers, including Republicans, responded to the new policy — that would require journalists to promise to only report information authorized by the Defense Department as a condition of Pentagon access — over the weekend, CNN reports.

“This is so dumb that I have a hard time believing it is true," Don Bacon (R-NE) said.

“We don’t want a bunch of Pravda newspapers only touting the Government’s official position. A free press makes our country better. This sounds like more amateur hour," Bacon, who is leaving Congress in 2026, wrote on X.

The Trump administration said it will impose new restrictions on press coverage of the military and require news groups to agree that they will not share information if the government has not approved it for release, according to Reuters.

According to the memo, the department "remains committed to transparency to promote accountability and public trust. However, DoW information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's press office has already removed some press organizations from reporting at the Pentagon. Some areas of the building are now off-limits and require an official escort for press.

A reporter at the White House Sunday asked Trump “Should the Pentagon be in charge of deciding what reporters can report on?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Trump said. “Listen, nothing stops reporters. You know that.”

It's expected that the move could push out and revoke press credentials.

Hegseth on Friday wrote on X that reporters could “wear a badge and follow the rules — or go home.”

A potential legal battle could be on the horizon, as several media organizations have already pushed back on the "pledge" and signaled a potential legal response.

“This policy operates as a prior restraint on publication, which is considered the most serious of First Amendment violations,” Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told CNN.

The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and NPR have already criticized the new rules.

“Asking independent journalists to submit to these kinds of restrictions is at stark odds with the constitutional protections of a free press in a democracy,” a spokesperson for The Times told CNN.

Elite Pentagon Marine appears on podcast that called for Hegseth's execution

A decorated Marine Corps colonel assigned to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon appeared on a podcast co-hosted by his brother that promotes antisemitism, white supremacy and political violence — including one segment that appeared to call for the execution of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Col. Thomas M. Siverts appeared on The Berm Pit podcast in March 2023. The 40-minute video shows Siverts discussing his career as a Marine Corps officer with his younger brother, Scott Siverts, the podcast co-host.

In a separate episode recorded in late 2024, the younger Siverts and co-host Matt Wakulik discuss how they would grade President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks.

“Why don’t we grade them on a scale of how many bullets I put in their head,” Wakulik proposed, as Scott Siverts laughed.

When Siverts named Hegseth, a soldier turned Fox News host and controversial cabinet pick, Wakulik said: “Six bullets. I’d have to put another one in there after I emptied the whole chamber — or the whole cylinder.”

Wakulik, a Pittsburgh-area resident, regularly espouses antisemitic views. Citing perceived failures in relation to the Jeffrey Epstein case and other conspiracy-adjacent fixations, he has said Donald Trump should be executed and FBI Director Kash Patel tortured.

In the segment about Hegseth, Wakulik also advocated execution for senior Trump administration officials including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.

Only Tom Homan, architect of Trump’s draconian deportations policy, would be spared.

Considering Hegseth, Wakulik also disparaged his support for Israel.

Siverts said: “The only problem with that is when you have dual allegiance — well, it’s Biblical, right? You can’t serve two masters.”

Scott Siverts told Raw Story that to some extent he understood why people would be outraged about the segment.

“It’s distasteful, off-putting, inflammatory,” he said. “Matt did it on the fly. He takes it to the next level, and I kind of laugh at it.”

While noting that The Berm Pit hasn’t produced a new episode since June 5, Siverts said he planned to scrub political content off the internet and sell the podcast to two active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton in California.

Citing reputational harm and strained family relationships due to public backlash against his and Wakulik’s rhetoric, Siverts said his decision to quit the podcast was also motivated by concern that he would be held liable if someone in his audience carried out a violent act.

“I’m agreeing with your position that some rhetoric probably will radicalize people, which is why I’m stepping away from the podcast,” Siverts told Raw Story. “I understand the backlash I’ve received.”

Raw Story also reached out to Col. Thomas Siverts. Reached by phone, and asked if he was aware that the podcast his brother co-hosts had featured a discussion about executing Hegseth, Col. Siverts hung up.

The Joint Staff Public Affairs office at the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment about Col. Siverts’ podcast appearance.

Scott Siverts said that following public backlash against the podcast including a successful campaign to get him fired from his job as a bar manager at Mario’s Saloon in Pittsburgh, his brother called to find out what the controversy was about. Scott Siverts said he offered to take down the episode featuring his brother.

“Nah, leave it up,” Col. Thomas Siverts said, according to Scott. “There’s nothing wrong with what we said. I didn’t serve my country and risk my life so you couldn’t have the freedom of speech. I like the episode. If they come after me at some point, I don’t care. It’s free speech.”

Matt Wakulik, an antisemitic podcaster and self-proclaimed militia leader, carried an AR-15 at a pro-Second Amendment rally in Richmond, Va. in January 2020. Anthony Crider

At the time of his interview with his brother in March 2023, Col. Thomas Siverts was commanding officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, stationed at Camp Pendleton. A communications officer with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit listened to the interview in real time and approved it for publication, Scott Siverts told Raw Story.

The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit could not be reached for comment.

Scott Siverts said his brother’s interview took place before the podcast took an explicitly political turn. Two months earlier, though, Siverts had hosted Wakulik, who would become his co-host, as a guest.

In an episode titled “The Militia Man,” the two discussed Wakulik’s unsuccessful run for Allegheny County sheriff, which drew controversy over his paramilitary group wearing patches displaying the Valknut, a symbol associated with white supremacy.

‘Lotta big projects’

While a spokesperson for the Joint Staff declined to confirm that Col. Siverts is employed there, Scott Siverts confirmed to Raw Story that his brother is currently assigned to the Pentagon.

Col. Siverts discussed his Pentagon assignment in an August 2024 interview for the 4 Years a Slave podcast, its title referring to the standard length of a U.S. military active-duty commitment.

“I’m on the Joint Staff, so I get to see some of the inner workings of how the Joint Staff supports the chairmen and SecDef and carrying out strategic objectives,” Col. Siverts said.

The Joint Staff includes representatives of all branches of the military, and assists Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in maintaining the integration of all combatant forces. Caine is the principal military advisor to President Donald Trump. In June, Caine stood alongside Hegseth and addressed reporters about the U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.

“Lotta big projects going on,” Siverts said on the 4 Years a Slave podcast. “You got everything going from, you know, current what’s going on in the world today to guys working programs 10, 15 years — maybe even longer than that — years out.”

As commanding officer of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Siverts’ operational focus was enhancing U.S. national security posture in Southeast Asia, where China has long been considered the primary geopolitical rival.

Siverts received the Legion of Merit “for exceptionally meritorious conduct in performance of outstanding services as a commanding officer” of the unit, which deployed for exercises with allies in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore.

“What they did there was absolutely amazing and gave our great nation a strategic hedge in the battle that’s going on in the Pacific and competition,” a Marine Corps officer said during the change of command ceremony at Camp Lejeune in June 2024.

The officer hailed Siverts’ unit for standing up a “credible, combat-capable force” that “can flip a switch and they can start laying down lead and stacking bodies, if need be, and offer a credible deterrent to any adversary foolish enough to threaten the United States citizens or our interests.”

Siverts’ Legion of Merit lauded him for fostering “meaningful interaction, mutual trust and respect” with allies and for “genuine passion for professional development and welfare of the Marines and sailors under his charge.”

Scott Siverts also served in the Marine Corps. His podcast’s name references an earthen mound surrounding a pit on a firing range.

“I’ve always looked up to you. You’ve been a role model for me, and you’re the reason I joined the Marine Corps, too, and enlisted right out of high school,” Scott Siverts said of his brother in their interview, adding that he was his “third-biggest fan,” after Col. Siverts’ wife and daughter.

Scott Siverts said he was present when his brother received his officer commission through the Marine Enlisted Commission Education Program at the University of Virginia in 1989 and when he was promoted to colonel at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia in 2021.

‘Allies of Evil’

Col. Siverts’ interview on The Berm Pit did not cover political issues, and his remarks did not give any indication of whether he agrees with his younger brother’s views.

The landing page for the podcast on the video streaming service Rumble features thumbnails for later episodes that clearly point to pro-Hitler, antisemitic stances.

One displays the text “The Allies of Evil,” alongside a photograph of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin. Another states, “General Patton said we fought the wrong enemy,” referring to Gen. George S. Patton, who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean during World War II.

Another episode, entitled “Remembering 9/11,” shows four men depicted as Jews who appear to be celebrating the attack on the World Trade Center.

In episodes of The Berm Pit which appear to have been recorded after Col. Siverts’ interview, his younger brother expresses agreement with the idea that murder of elected officials with opposing views is justified, and contemplates the possibility of race war.

“I still believe that it is the responsibility of the people to organize against any corrupt politician anywhere — I don’t care if it’s a school board member up to a senator or representative,” Wakulik says, in an episode published in April 2024.

“If they are that corrupt and all this is going on, then they need to be threatened, or actually shoot them in the face. Because violence and the threat of violence is the ultimate deterrent. Where is the lie, Scott Siverts.”

“Uh, no lies detected,” Siverts responds.

In an episode streamed four months ago, Wakulik asks: “If there was a race war between whites and Blacks, where whites still make up 55 percent of the population and Blacks make up 13 [percent], and white as we know are more likely to be not only trained but armed with firearms, if that was to happen … who would win that war, that race war?”

Siverts responds: “Well, I mean, it’s a no-brainer.”

Scott Siverts insisted his brother “does not share” his political views.

“My brother told me he hasn’t voted since 1996,” Siverts added. “He doesn’t get political. He serves the commander in chief, regardless of party. He doesn’t see color, except green for Marines. The last guy he voted for was Bill Clinton.”

Scott Siverts told Raw Story that in summer 2023, he asked his brother about Alan Sabrosky, a retired Marine Corps officer and frequent guest on The Berm Pit, including the “Allies of Evil” episode. When he asked his brother if he knew who Sabrosky was, Scott Siverts told Raw Story, his brother responded, “I think I do. I heard he’s an antisemite.”