For months, Trump and his newly retitled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth have been working to fully remake the U.S. military into an openly white supremacist, patriarchal, Christian nationalist fascist institution. While the U.S. military has always been an institution serving the interests of the system of U.S. imperialism and its domination and plunder of the world, this is a qualitative—and extremely dangerous—leap. It is also riddled with contradiction.

A central principle of the U.S. military is that soldiers take an oath to the Constitution, not to a single president or political party. Trump and Hegseth are working to transform this to an institution where soldiers pledge loyalty to Trump and his fascist regime. In an institution that is over 40 percent Black and Latino, they are attempting to hammer a blatant white supremacist ideology into place. And they are tearing away even the façade or pretense of concern for things like the laws of war, making it openly aggressive and lawless.

These moves are incredibly dangerous, they are happening very quickly and they underscore the urgent need and basis for the Trump fascist regime to be driven from power through mass, sustained, nonviolent protest, beginning November 5 in Washington, DC.

Hegseth Orders Unprecedented Meeting of Generals

On September 25, Hegseth ordered almost all generals and admirals in the U.S. military (approximately 800 officers) from all over the world to show up at a meeting at a Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, this coming Tuesday, September 30. This is unprecedented. Many commentators are also pointing out that, in an era in which such meetings can be held using secure electronic communications, it’s needless.

No explanation or reason has been given for the meeting, no agenda provided. Trump has now announced he will also speak at this gathering, which heightens concern as to its potential significance.

The call for this meeting has been met by controversy. Ret. Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commander of all U.S. troops in Europe, tweeted this message: “July 1935 German generals were called to a surprise assembly in Berlin and informed that their previous oath to the Weimar constitution was void and that they would be required to swear a personal oath to the Führer. Most generals took the new oath to keep their positions.”

While he didn't explicitly link this to the Tuesday meeting, his message—and warning—is clear.¹

Hegseth—a Christian fascist whose dark ages worldview we have spelled out here—retweeted this post from Hodges with the snarky reply, “Cool story, General.” (“Cool story bro” is a sarcastic social media meme said to dismiss what someone is saying.)

Very little has been said by Hegseth or Trump as to the point of this meeting, but several “Department of War” officials told the Washington Post anonymously that the point was to have “an eyeball-to-eyeball” conversation about military standards and Hegseth’s “warrior ethos.” Having Trump speak at this gathering also raises big concerns about “politicizing the military.” Being “nonpartisan” (not beholden to a political party or any section of the rulers) is supposed to be a bedrock principle of the U.S. military.

This mysterious meeting comes on the heels of a months-long purge of very high-ranking officers who were either Black, or women, or thought that diversity was a good thing, or who were unwilling to lie about the “success” of not-so-successful military operations. And Hegseth has made clear that he intends to get rid of roughly 100 more high-level officers in the near future. 

Military Tries to Silence Media Criticism and Oversight

Prior to this, on September 20, the Pentagon issued major new media restrictions, demanding that all members of the Pentagon press corps sign a pledge not to report anything that is not specifically authorized: “Department of War information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.” Anyone who does not agree to these terms will have their press passes revoked. 

In other words, if you bring to light anything other than what the fascist officials at the “Department of War” say, you cannot have official access to press briefings with the chance to ask Pentagon officials questions.

As New York Times reporter David Sanger pointed out, under this rule things like the Pentagon Papers (documents that exposed how the U.S. government had been lying to the public for years about the Vietnam War) and the exposure of a U.S. drone strike in Afghanistan that killed 10 innocent civilians, and many more crucially important stories would never have been published. The murderous U.S. attacks on civilian boats in international waters near Venezuela (done on the basis of evidence-free claims that those on the boats were “narco-terrorists”) could not even be investigated. Or if troops in U.S. cities clash with, or even kill, civilians and then make up lies about what happened, journalists will just have to repeat the lies, even if they know they are untrue.

The head of the National Press Club responded: “This is a direct assault on independent journalism at the very place where independent scrutiny matters most: the U.S. military. If the news about our military must first be approved by the government, then the public is … getting only what officials want them to see.” Even a Fox News contributor, attorney Jonathan Turley, called this out as “a bridge too far” and potentially “devastating.” 

This is just the latest attack on Pentagon press coverage. In February, Hegseth evicted eight news organizations (including CNN, NPR and the New York Times) from their offices in the Pentagon, and moved in lunatic fascist “news” media like Breitbart and One America News Network in their place. In May, new rules dramatically restricted what parts of the Pentagon journalists were allowed into, crippling their ability to talk to Pentagon employees.

While many journalists may still—for now—have access to sources through online means, this is an attempt to crush any and all dissent and questioning of the military's “official story.” 

Openly Celebrating War Crimes

On September 26, Hegseth announced that 20 U.S. soldiers who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for a massacre in 1890 at Wounded Knee will keep their awards. This was the result of a review that previous Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had called for in 2022. When Hegseth made this announcement, he criticized Austin for being “more interested in being politically correct than historically correct.”

In upholding these soldiers, Hegseth kept saying they fought at the “Battle at Wounded Knee.” This is an ugly blood-soaked lie. This was a massacre, not a “battle.” The 7th Cavalry killed 300 innocent Lakota men, women and children who had surrendered. This was just one of many crimes in the genocide of native peoples systematically carried out by the U.S.

A survivor described the massacre this way:

There was a woman with an infant in her arms who was killed as she almost touched the flag of truce.... Right near the flag of truce a mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that its mother was dead was still nursing, and that especially was a very sad sight. The women as they were fleeing with their babes were killed together, shot right through, and the women who were very heavy with child were also killed. ... [A]fter most all of them had been killed a cry was made that all those who were not killed [or] wounded should come forth and they would be safe. Little boys who were not wounded came out of their places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them there.

In addition to the 300 Lakota Sioux killed, 25 soldiers were killed, mainly by other U.S. troops shooting in a blind frenzy. 

Twenty of these murderers were issued the Medal of Honor—the highest military medal—the most ever issued for one battle. To this day, the 7th Cavalry Regiment’s coat of arms features the head of a Native American chief. 

In his announcement, Hegseth declared, “We’re making it clear that without hesitation, [these] soldiers ... deserve those medals,” and that “their place in our nation’s history is no longer up for debate.” He ended, “We salute their memory, we honor their service, and we will never forget what they did.”

We too won't forget and will make it clear, without hesitation: this shameful genocidal slaughter typified the behavior of U.S. troops for centuries. For Hegseth to go out of his way to honor and celebrate this genocidal terror shows you what these fascists have in store for the non-white world.

This goes along with Hegseth’s decisions to restore statues of Confederate enslavers and generals—openly celebrating the history of the U.S. founded in slavery and genocide. In a military where nearly half the soldiers are Black and Latino, this kind of open white supremacy is essential to forge the military into a fascist force—and it contains major contradictions, in terms of potential for dissent within the ranks.

But this is not just white supremacy, the open celebration of war crimes is an important part of Hegseth’s fascist military strategy—upholding lawlessness as a way of war. As we wrote previously: “Hegseth has written that rules of war are ‘why America hasn’t won a war since World War II.’ He says that ‘We are just fighting with one hand behind our back—and the enemy knows it… If our warriors are forced to follow rules arbitrarily and asked to sacrifice more lives so that international tribunals feel better about themselves, aren’t we just better off winning our wars according to our own rules?!’”

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As we said at the beginning, all this underscores the extreme danger of Trump/MAGA fascism, which is moving quickly to consolidate all-out fascism. And it shows how riddled with contradictions these moves are.

All this also underscores the urgent need, and profound basis, to bring forward millions to act on the Call from RefuseFascism.org, and open to all: “The Time has come for...THE FALL of the TRUMP FASCIST REGIME – Beginning November 5, 2025 – Washington DC”:

“Fascism is not a looming threat. It is upon us now.

“Humanity’s only hope is for the decent people of this country to rise in our millions. We cannot wait for future and rigged elections. We must drive the Trump Fascist Regime from power.

“Beginning November 5, the one-year anniversary of Trump’s election, flood DC in nonviolent protest. Surround the White House. Surround the Capitol. Surround the illegitimate fascist-packed Supreme Court. Come back again and again. Across the country, refuse to comply. Every person of conscience, millions of us together, grind the machinery of the fascist regime to a halt.

“Don’t stop until Trump is removed.”