“Full Force”: Hegseth’s Loyalty Test

Trump and Miller set the stakes. Now a former Fox host has to convince the military to go along with it.

When the president of the United States sends troops into an American city and the “Secretary of War” summons nearly a thousand generals to a pep rally, you are not watching governance, you are watching a loyalty test.

The U.S. federal government no longer resembles a legitimate, functional republic. It now serves a personalist dictator who is not only failing to honor his oath to protect the Constitution, he is deliberately setting it on fire.

The descent into lawlessness and disorder has accelerated in recent days as the specter of the Epstein files being released looms. Speaker Mike Johnson has delayed swearing in the final Democrat who would bring the Epstein matter to a vote in the House; and Trump canceled negotiations with Democrats on a budget resolution, virtually ensuring a shutdown of the government—and more delay.

Trump’s narcissistic collapse has not just ruptured his own psychology; the government mirrors his breakdown. Hunting for a scapegoat, he has fixated on to the phantom of “Antifa” and ordered military “protection” for ICE facilities in Portland—an order dutifully mirrored by his “Department of War.”

There is no “siege.” Portland is not “War ravaged.” This is a unilateral declaration of war on a U.S. city.

As I wrote, “Antifa” is a myth. The only organization that uses the name “Antifa” is Rose City Antifa—which is in Portland, but it was founded to protest Nazis in 2007. The idea of sending the U.S. Armed Forces to defend Portland from its own antifascist citizens is not just illegal and unconstitutional; it’s the equivalent of trying to find a ghost with a flamethrower. You won’t find anything—and you will set the house on fire just looking.

Setting the fire is the point, of course.

A brief recap of the timeline of events:

• 9/21: New York Times article published Trump Is Expanding the National Guard’s Role. Some Former Generals Worry.

• 9/22: Mike Flynn quotes-tweets the article to Pete Hegseth

  • “Many flag officers (generals and admirals) must be relieved of duty immediately.”

  • “We MUST get back to a winning attitude in warfare.”

• 9/23: Trump cancels meeting with Jeffries and Schumer on budget shutdown

• 9/25: Hegseth orders all flag officers (800+ generals and admirals) to a unique meeting on Tuesday, 9/30.

• 9/25: Trump signs presidential memorandum NSPM-7, Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence, targeting leftist and antifascist groups, including “Antifa.”

• 9/25: Trump indicts James Comey based on non-existent evidence after firing the U.S. Attorney who refused to bring the case.

• 9/26: Pete Hegseth proclaims that the participants in the Wounded Knee massacre, in which hundreds of Native American women and children were slaughtered, should be allowed to keep their Medals of Honor.

• 9/26: Stephen Miller tweets “We are witnessing domestic terrorist sedition against the federal government. The JTTF has been dispatched by the Attorney General, pursuant to NSPM-7. All necessary resources will be utilized.”

• 9/27: Pam Bondi declares that she will deploy federal agents to cities across America to “protect ICE facilities.”

• 9/27: Trump declares that he will send troops into Portland authorized to use “Full Force.”

The “generals meeting” has disturbed many, but not enough in my view. Reporting so far is that Hegseth intends to give a talk about “warrior ethos”—which sounds a lot like Mike Flynn’s recommendation of getting back to a “winning attitude in warfare.”

The secretive meeting will serve as a kind of pep rally where Hegseth focuses on conduct and expectations for military leadership, according to three military officials and a congressional aide familiar with the planning.

Flying the entire leadership of the military to one location is a severe risk to national security and a clear sign of desperation—and intent. This kind of gathering has never happened in the history of the U.S. Armed Forces for a very good reason: an enemy could cripple our defense with one successful operation.

The clear goal of the meeting is a loyalty test; it is a way for the Trump regime to figure out who will be on board with using the military against American civilians. That’s why the timing is so important. The promise to illegally send troops into Portland, while simultaneously forcing officers to gather in one place under the potential threat of losing their careers is a classic authoritarian move.

Hegseth and Trump don’t need to force the officers to pledge a personal oath, as Hitler did in 1934, or force them to follow an illegal order—yet. All he has to do is promise to follow Trump’s illegal orders himself—which he already has—and gather his subordinates for a “pep rally” to celebrate it. This forces the military to say nothing, knowing Hegseth’s illegal plans, or speak up and be fired. Either outcome creates undue control.

There is, of course, no emergency in Portland. It is a completely manufactured enemy, and that is part of the point. There are two paths: total loyalty, to the point of denying reality, or rejection in front of your colleagues.

“A CALL TO VIOLENCE”

Friday morning, the right-wing website co-founded by Tucker Carlson, The Daily Caller, published an “opinion piece” called “A CALL TO VIOLENCE” by Geoffrey Ingersoll which explicitly and repeatedly promotes illegal, racist violent harm against his perceived enemies, e.g. left-wing protestors.

• “Today, I choose violence. Literally.”

• “Some of this cost needs to be summary and ultra-violent.”

• “Book the kind of security that has no qualms hospitalizing her and people like her… Bros dismounting with cudgels”

• “Turn it into an instant brawl. Break bones. Force corrupt police to intervene. I want blood in the streets.”

It is unmistakable incitement to organized violence—the kind of thing you would hope would be addressed by law enforcement. But on the same day the White House followed suit and published the names of 30 Democrats in article called “Democrats’ Unhinged Crusade Against ICE Fuels Bloodshed.”

Both the Daily Caller and White House articles would easily fit under the parameters of NSPM-7 Section 1 which warns of “sophisticated, organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats, and violence” and includes “organized doxing, swatting, rioting, looting, trespass, assault, destruction of property, threats of violence, and civil disorder”.

If anyone on the left had written an equivalent article, they would have been taken in for questioning.

The government’s projection of a violent left is a perfect mirror of what they want to inflict themselves—organized violence. And they want to use the monumental power of the U.S. Armed Forces to do it. That’s what the big “warrior ethos” meeting is really about: “Are you willing to commit violence against civilians? If yes, welcome aboard. If no, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

It’s Too Obvious to Work

We are witnessing an effort to illegally detach the federal government—and its power over our resources, labor and armed forces—from the rule of law and the Constitution, so a personalist dictator under severe psychological stress can commit crimes with it. The Supreme Court, unfortunately, is not going to help.

However, in my view, it’s going too fast. It’s far too frantic, too desperate, and too obvious to work in the long term. This basic plan was something the regime always had in mind, but the way it has been rolled out over the last week is manic, thoughtless, and blatantly criminal. The incompetence is a function of Trump’s psychology: Epstein has led to desperation, has led to failure, has led to more desperation.

This cycle of failure and destruction is not finished, that we know. But how long it lasts is not determined yet. The generals and admirals in Quantico who will listen to Pete Hegseth on Tuesday have a lot of power between them. They could put a stop to this nightmare right now. They could collectively tell Hegseth that they will not take illegal orders, nor will they use the military against civilians.

Are there enough of them with that kind of courage at this point? Doubtful. But a meeting of that many people who have served their country with honor will certainly lead to conversations, to the sharing of concerns. It is possible that the event Hegseth hopes will cement his control actually guarantees his exit.

“He who is reckless in temper exposes himself to insult; he who is hasty can be defeated.” —Sun Tzu, Art of War

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