Donald Trump Is Running the Military Like a Warlord

“No king” Donald became a strong collection cry in the second period of Trump. On Saturday, Protestors in hundreds of American cities In order to satisfy his ego, he will gather under the flag of “No King” to provide a message against the president who uses the coincidence of the flag day falling on his birthday to give a great military parade to satisfy his ego. As a message, the charm of “no king” is clear: both call the noble small Republican spirit of the American Revolution and scold Trump’s autocratic claims.

However, although “no king” is a resonance and popular, it may be analytically accurate to say “no warlords”. As a result, Kings based on the legitimacy that confirms the tradition (albeit fake). Trump’s abuse of power is more common than the claim that everyone in the government (including law enforcement officers and the army) should be able to order without shooting from the judiciary or Congress as president. This is not the power of the kingdom, which is connected to the powerful nobles even under the form of absoluteist – traditions and privileges – but closer to the governance of a war lord, a ruler who needs to be executed.

The fact that Trump is a candidate warlord is that he tries to destroy the tradition of keeping the army depot. In the last few weeks, Trump has made it clear that he wanted the army to be connected to him alone, from transforming a conversation in Fort Bragg into a campaign rally to a campaign rally – to send troops to suppress the protesters in Los Angeles.

Trump’s project to suppress the army is at the center of the authoritarianism. Experts and Historians skeptical He points out that Trump is a fascist threat, often does not have the mobilized mass movement of classical fascist dictators: proud children may be annoying goats, but Benito Mussolini does not measure the brown gangs of Blackshirts or Adolf Hitler to the organized terrorist gangs that break down political enemies. The attack on Capitol on January 6 was a serious attempt to destroy democracy, but the Capitol Police supported by the National Guard gushed when he restored the order. The Maga Movement is about more passive audience than street wars, worthy of social media age.

However, despite the limitation of Maga as a mass movement, Trump always had a clear path towards fascist style governance. If Trump could overcome the traditional taboos against politicization of the army, then he could destroy democracy. Instead of Maga Blackshirts, Trump could only command a maga army. He can do the same with federal law enforcement officers and gives him a maga gestapo.

In the first period of Trump, an important moment of danger came when Trump wanted to use the army to crush the protesters who were angry with the murder of George Floyd. As I mentioned then, this was the clearest example of Trump’s authoritarianism and Military leaders resisted Trump’s attempt to use them as political tools helped to save American democracy in the event of maximum danger.

With Trump’s second period, he explicitly strives to eliminate any military resistance against his rule. On Tuesday, he made a speech that broke the tradition as an extremely partisan in Fort Bragg. To address the troops, Trump in question“In Los Angeles Governor Los Angeles, the Mayor of Los Angeles, the incompetent and the scourge of the scourge, the agitators and the uprisings. Federal laws invalidated and by criminal invaders to help the occupation of the city.”

In a disturbing way, some soldiers applauded Trump’s invitation. But as a new site Miliary.com clarifiedThis applause was also a kind of political manipulation, because the units in the audience were examined for their beliefs:

The internal 82. Air communication reviewed by Militaral.com makes a strict effort, including selective soldiers for audiences based on political tendencies and physical appearances to curated the optics of Trump’s last visit. Ultimately, the troops that were selected behind Trump and could be seen by cameras were almost only male.

At the unit level, a message clearly said, “There is no fat soldier.”

Trump’s Fort Bragg speech was a use of the army as a political support. Trump products were even sold at the base. Like New York Times notesThis speech said, “It was the last of a series of high -profile efforts to reshape the army more with its own similarity.”

. Times It provides a striking catalog of Trump’s politicization of the army:

It started with the decision of the management to remove the positions in the positions of senior officers, common personnel chiefs and other command positions, many black and women,, reported As part of diversity, equality and attempt to include. After rejecting Covid vaccines, he continued with the determination of the former service members who were discharged to the former service members by violating their military health duties. And it was fully exhibited when Mexico and active troops to form military zones along the US border.

However, in the best way, Mr. Trump’s protests about immigration policies this week was exemplified by approximately 4,000 National Guard Union and 700 maritime placement in the streets of Los Angeles. The president is now pitting American forces directly against American citizens, most of them do not contain violence, and only angry by the decisions of the Trump administration.