The Fort Bragg Fiasco

Authoritarianism on the Move...And Fast

From the illegal federalizing of troops to police an American city, to Trump calling Gavin Newsom a criminal for simply being a Governor, to his threatening potential protesters of his military/birthday parade, the past week has seen a dramatic ramp-up in the emergence of American autocracy.

This is not a “warning sign.” Or a red flag.

It’s actually happening.

And unlike judges (who are holding the line in most decisions, even if too slowly and with not enough accountability for my taste), it looks like military leaders are complying. Or cowering in a way that equals compliance.

Just take a look at the Fort Bragg speech earlier in the week. A true fiasco.

Let’s review its worst elements:

Sorting Soldiers Based on Politics

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the entire episode was what happened before the event, where the military “sorted” troops based upon political views. A note before the event explained the following to American troops: “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.”

So now we not only have a politicized military audience behind and around Trump cheering him on, but we have a set of soldiers self-identified as either for or against Trump.

Where does that information go? How is it used going forward? Is this a precedent for future “political vetting”?

Political and Ideological Paraphernalia

Military.com reported that a retailer was also allowed to be present and sell “pro-Trump and other conservative-coded memorabilia…on Army property.”

As if they were at a campaign rally, “[s]oldiers were seen purchasing clothing and tchotchkes, including "Make America Great Again" chain necklaces to faux credit cards labeled "White Privilege Card: Trumps Everything."

“Permitting the sale of overtly partisan merchandise on an Army base likely runs afoul of numerous Defense Department regulations aimed at preserving the military's long-standing commitment to political neutrality.”

The Speech Itself

In the speech itself, all of the following happened:

• The Commander in Chief attacked the media in front of the military: “And for a little news, for the fake news back there, the fake news, ladies and gentlemen, look at them, look at them, aye yai yai, what I have to put up with. Fake news.”

• The Commander in Chief attacked the prior Commander in Chief:

  • “You've never had a crowd this big, that's an honor. You think this crowd would've showed up for Biden? I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so.”

  • “They were put into the United States and allowed to stay here because we had a grossly, grossly unfit president who listened to whoever was operating the autopen, and they allowed these people to stay. And by the way, I've known this guy for a long time, he was never the sharpest bulb. But you know what he was? He wasn't a radical left lunatic, he never dreamt about open borders, he never said that when he was of sound mind, which actually was a very long time ago.”

• The Commander in Chief hyped and politicized domestic activity to appear as if was a foreign invasion and on ideological terms:

  • “I want to say a few words about the situation in Los Angeles, California. Have you heard of the place? Where I've deployed thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines to protect federal law enforcement from the attacks of a vicious and violent mob, and some of the radical left.

  • “Well, if we didn't do it, there wouldn't be a Los Angeles, it'd be burning today just like their houses were burning a number of months ago. Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness here at home like is happening in California. As Commander-in-Chief, I will not let that happen, it's never going to happen. What you're witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order, and on national sovereignty carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country, we're not going to let that happen.”

  • “The agitators are throwing firebombs, Molotov cocktails, lighting vehicles ablaze, you saw all the cars that were burning, mobbing police officers and ICE officers”

  • “We will not allow federal agents to be attacked, and we will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy, and that's what they are.”

  • “We will not be deterred and the mob in Los Angeles or anyone else, anywhere else will not succeed.”

  • “We will use every asset at our disposal to quell the violence and restore law and order right away. We're not going to wait seven days and eight days and wait for a governor that's never going to call and watch cities burn. And let me tell you, if we didn't do this, Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now, just like the houses burned to the ground just a few months ago.”

• The Commander in Chief attacked a sitting, democratically elected American Governor and Mayor, suggesting they are paying “agitators and insurrectionists” and “invaders”:

  • “In Los Angeles, the governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles, they're incompetent and they paid troublemakers, agitators, and insurrectionists, they're engaged in this willful attempt to nullify federal law and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders. That's what it is, they're invaders, no different.”

  • “Let's give it to Gavin Newsom so he can waste it in Los Angeles. No, we don't want to do that.”

• The Commander in Chief attacked one of the nation’s largest cities: “Los Angeles has gone from being one of the cleanest, safest, and most beautiful cities on earth to being a trash heap with entire neighborhoods under the control of transnational gangs and criminal networks. It's horrible what's happened so quickly as the entire world can now see uncontrolled migration leads to chaos, dysfunction, and disorder.”

• The Commander in Chief told troops that the 2020 election was stolen, and bragged about his political victories:

  • “And I said, "If this ever happens again," 'cause I was thinking about running because the election was rigged and stolen. We all know it. I said, "We're going to run again, and if I win, which I hope remember too big to, we're going to make it too big to rig." But we did. We won by millions and millions of votes. So beautiful to watch, that was such a beautiful. 9:02 in the evening, he said, "Ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump is projected to be the winner."

The Response: Boos and Laughs

Breaking from usual military neutrality, the hand-picked political crowd responded to Trump’s partisan and militant rhetoric with boos, jeers and laughs. As military.com wrote: it was “a shocking and rare public display of troops taking part in naked political partisanship.”

Disinformation and Propaganda

The speech was full of outright lies and disinformation.

As CNN documented, he lied about the “Big Lie” of the 2020 election, about the California fires, about defeating ISIS in weeks, as well as:

Minnesota:

As part of attacking Tim Walz, Trump said: “I’ll never forget in Minnesota: that city was burning down, Minneapolis, it was burning down, it was gonna burn to the ground, and he wouldn’t call the guard. And I waited for a long time, and I called the guard, and I saved it.”

As CNN pointed out: “Walz first deployed the Minnesota National guard more than seven hours before Trump publicly threatened to deploy the guard himself. While Walz was criticized by many Republicans and some Democrats for not sending in the guard faster, it is indisputable that Walz, not Trump, was the person who deployed the guard.”

Military Recruiting

Trump said: “Just think of this: six months ago, we couldn’t recruit anybody to join the military. Nobody wanted to join. That was six months ago.”

But CNN, again, clarified: “The ongoing uptick in recruiting actually began under the Biden administration. The Defense Department announced in October 2024, before Trump’s second victory, that recruitment was up more than 12% in the 2024 fiscal year compared with the previous fiscal year; Military.com reported in October 2024: “After years of negative recruiting news and headlines, all the military branches managed to eke out wins this year and meet their recruiting goals – largely aided by new programs and policies that allowed them to sign up recruits who would have been disqualified in previous years.” The Army, for example, added just over 55,000 recruits, up substantially from just under 45,000 in fiscal year 2022.”

“A Bad Week” — Y’think?

A Fort Bragg commander acknowledged: “This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution…This was shameful. I don't expect anything to come out of it, but I hope maybe we can learn from it long term."

Lesson: if nothing “comes out of it,” the only learning that will happen is that Trump, Hegseth and others will keep doing it. Because they will learn that they can cross yet another bright line with no repercussions.

Stand up! Your country needs you.