MAGA COSPLAY, COCKTAIL #3, MERCY CLAPS, NEVER AGAIN

You’ve probably heard this spine-tingling Halloween joke already: A sleazy drunk and a fat draft dodger walk into an auditorium and lecture a roomful of 4- and 5-star generals and admirals. That’s it! As Rick Wilson writes on Lincoln Square,  commenting on Secretary of War Hegseth’s and the President’s addressing military leaders in an ill-conceived ‘pep talk,’ at Quantico, Virginia’s Marine Corps Base, “Here’s the thing, and you know it in your bones: That speech was insane. Not ‘politician riffing’ insane. Not ‘grandpa got a little too stoked on Adderall’ insane. It was the kind of rambling, aggrieved, slack-jawed performance you get when a man has fused his ego to a teleprompter and still can’t find the plot. Donald Trump shuffled out, tried to grunt his way through a ‘speech’ that was really just a slurry of ‘Sir’ stories, and absurd lies…and then inevitably fell back into the only narrative he’s truly capable of sustaining: grievance, fantasy, and the endless autobiographical fan fiction where he alone is hero, martyr, and field marshall. And the room knew it.”

This forced assembly of America’s senior military leadership, some having traveled from remote outposts around the world, with supporting staff, “manage more complexity before breakfast than Trump, Hegseth, and their entire MAGA cosplay corps could comprehend in a lifetime,” says Wilson. “They lead in real danger, in real time, in real space, against real adversaries. They run multivariate operations across the globe that would leave the weekend cable-host-turned-pretend-Patton drooling into his third morning cocktail. Instead, they had to sit for two hours and watch Pete Hegseth try to swing his rhetorical broadsword before Trump wandered onstage and word-vomited all over the carpet.” The silence was deafening, with only smatterings of polite applause — mercy claps from the DC MAGA entourage? The fact that the assembled brass were standing at attention, unable to clap as Trump strode onto the stage, escaped Donald Trump, and he chided them for not giving him the kind of ovation he expects when his orange magnificence enters a room. “I’ve never walked into a room so silent before,” the president began, “Just have a good time. And if you want to applaud, you applaud. And if you want to do anything you want, you can do anything you want. And if you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank; there goes your future.” A ripple of laughter — from backstage?

Secretary Hegseth encountered the same awkward situation during his address, waiting for laughs and applause that never came. Trump appeared quieter and more confused than usual facing an uncertain event, perhaps because he had announced his participation only a few days earlier, leaving him with little time to prepare? Nah, probably not the case! He began his rambling discourse right off the bat, giving the captive audience a history lesson about the Department of War, the Atomic Energy Commission and the recent destruction of Iran’s nuclear program, whining about the ‘victory’ in the ‘Gulf of America‘ court case against the Associated Press (still unsettled), and a story about the “three thousand year conflict of the Israelis’ and the Palestinians’.” “That’s a long time. But we got it, I think, settled. War is very strange,” he surmised.

And so, from the “enemy within” his brain, he began to recycle campaign speeches, lies and more lies, whining and misrepresentations, preoccupations about Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and disappointment at not having a Nobel Prize on his resumé. The generals and admirals were probably elated to hear his take, and self-congratulation, about levying tariffs which “could buy a lot of battleships, to use an old term.” And then, joking/not-joking (?), he criticized the US Navy for building ships from “paper-mâché and aluminum stuff that melts if it looks at a missile coming at it. It starts melting as the missile is about two miles away.” Yikes, that’s one for your Halloween lawn display! As Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic, “The president talked at length, and his comments should have confirmed to even the most sympathetic observer that he is not okay.” According to Hegseth’s gang, the goal was to energize America’s top military leaders at the conclave, getting them to focus on the Secretary’s vision for a new Department of War, but the assembled video props, or pawns, sitting in the audience should be forgiven if they returned to their respective commands wondering: What on earth is wrong with the commander-in-chief?

Some, and maybe most, of the officers had never attended a MAGA rally, and perhaps, had never witnessed such a video, but they can now chalk up a first-hand account of seeing a typical, unhinged Trump tirade — worthy of another ribbon on their uniform? In essence, Trump was simply riffing off the teleprompter, snagging a word or phrase here and there that he felt would enhance his performance to the stone-faced officers who would have been more receptive to a Churchillian rip-off. The Founding Fathers were undoubtedly spinning in their graves with the president’s ominous suggestion that our military would be part of the solution to domestic threats, fighting the “enemy from within,” by using our ‘dangerous cities’ as training grounds. “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military — National Guard, but military — because we’re going into Chicago very soon. That’s a big city with an incompetent governor. Stupid governor,” he menacingly growled.

The late New York senator, Daniel Patrick Moynihan called such jumbles of fantasy, menace, and autocratic peacocking as “boob bait for the Bubbas,” and Tom Nichols suggests that George Orwell might have termed Trump’s notions “prolefeed.” Nichols offers, “It’s one thing to serve it up to an adoring MAGA crowd: They know that most of it is nonsense and only some of it is real. They find it entertaining, and they can take or leave as much of Trump’s rhetorical junk-food buffet as they would like. It is another thing entirely to aim this kind of sludge at military officers, who are trained and acculturated to treat every word from the president with respect, and to regard his thoughts as policy.” In the past, American officers dealt with presidents who behaved badly and suffered mental and emotional setbacks, but they knew the commanders-in-chief they served under were basically normal individuals surrounded by other normal men and women, and that the constitutional system would insulate the military from any mad orders emerging from the Oval Office.

Now, the second coming of Trump doesn’t have even a hint of the control and influence of others that were present during his first term, appointees who were able to control his goofiest ideas. Today’s military has to wonder who will shield them from the impulses of the person who had a melt-down onstage at Quantico. How are they to respond to the slippery lies, and the insults thrown at fellow soldiers and past commanders-in-chief — and what of his love affair with Putin? Air Force nuclear-missile officer Harold Hering, asked during a 1973 training session, “How can I know that an order I receive to launch missiles came from a sane president?” Hering quickly found himself bounced from the military because in his position, officers are trained to execute orders, not question them. Those officers who watched the Trump/Hegseth Show at Quantico now have Hering’s question staring them in the face, knowing that they just watched the man who can order use of nuclear weaponry, and the one who would verify such an order, start the drumbeat of war.

Already the advance contingents of National Guardsmen are moving into, or are being scheduled for deployment into Democrat-run cities. Agents ransacked a Chicago apartment building last week, leading zip-tied families into unmarked vans in the darkness, which MSNBC’s Chris Hayes called “one of the most egregious abuses of our basic rights.” Witnesses told local news sources that heavily armed ICE agents arrived in the neighborhood in U-Haul vans and a Black Hawk helicopter, then broke down residents’ doors, dragging them out of their beds. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has directed state agencies to investigate the “unconscionable treatment” of children who were separated from their parents, and detained for several hours. Pritzker is quoted as saying, “This didn’t happen in a country with an authoritarian regime — it happened here in Chicago.” Daily Dose of Democracy’s blog suggests that JB might want to rethink that statement — “an authoritarian regime, by any other name would smell as foul.”

The blog goes on to say that, “in his desperation to justify sending federal troops into yet another American city, to crack down on citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest, America’s fascist ignoramus-in-chief is literally playing make believe.” Telling reporters outside the White House, with not a shred of evidence except for what Stephen Miller told him, Trump claimed that Portland, Oregon is “burning to the ground,” that city leaders are “afraid for their lives,” — the reason they say, “there’s nothing happening.” Any constitutionalist knows that a president must justify any domestic deployment of the US military, and with no evidence, that’s why Daily Dose of Democracy calls it “fascism because it is fascism.”

Trump-appointed District Judge Karin Immergut blocked his order — twice — to deploy troops to Portland to stop what the president has called “lawless mayhem,” saying the relatively small protests did not justify such action, acting against the state’s sovereignty. Of course, Trump’s whining about judges he appoints not falling into line with his edicts began, and he chided Immergut, saying, “That judge ought to be ashamed of himself,” — “herself” would have been correct, proof that The Don is a bit out of line himself. Immergut’s ruling reads, “This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs. This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition: this is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law. The president’s determination was simply untethered to the facts.” Trump’s claim that all we have to do is look at TV and read the newspapers to back him up indicates that he is tethered to Stephen Miller’s old 60’s news videos or some WWII movie that has captured what’s left of his imagination. Both Oregon and California leaders are suing the administration for the allegedly illegal call-up of their state’s troops for the Portland occupation.

Laura Esposito of The Daily Beast highlighted another whiner — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who she describes as “tough on immigration but apparently soft on lunchtime.” Noem told Fox & Friends Weekend hosts that she is agonizing over the not-so-warm welcome ICE agents are receiving in Chicago. The “war zone city” residents are accused of intimidating the armed, masked, and largely unwanted federal officers, “not letting our ICE officers and our border patrol officers use restrooms and facilities. Those men and women were telling us that they have to figure out even where they can go sit down for five minutes to have lunch or use the restroom throughout their shift or their break.” Esposito reminds Noem that war zones aren’t exactly known for safe and secure public restrooms, and the secretary’s own experience of being denied access to a government building’s bathroom by a barrage of protesters should have cleared up that misconception. Let’s hope that the Fox & Friends studio was more accommodating for her needs.

Governor Pritzker agrees, “People are booing her on the street. ICE is raiding neighborhoods where instead of going after the bad guys, they’re just picking up people who are brown and Black, then checking their credentials…I don’t know about you, but I don’t carry around papers that say I’m a US citizen.” Right-wing commentator Benny Johnson posted a video of Noem, saying, “We’re sending in the Department of War. I sent a request to Secretary Hegseth. We’ll be rolling in the next 24 hours…this is a country of laws. If you don’t like the laws, go change them. We are enforcing them. That is sending a message to the whole world.”

Steve Schmidt on his The Warning blog asks, “What do you think about the new look of federal law enforcement? These are Miller’s men. Look at the rage in his eyes. Notice his lack of control and professionalism. Miller’s thug cannot control his temper. When he finally strikes it is for no reason whatsoever beyond his lack of discipline, bearing and zest for violence. This is a man who looks like he wants to beat someone, or maybe shoot up a street film of protestors.” Schmidt suggests that Governor Pritzker should call the Illinois General Assembly into a special session and establish committees to investigate every abuse, document every federal aggression, and conduct public oversight of federal police agencies that are out of control, and operating like American Gestapo in American cities.

“Some people said that what was happening in America couldn’t happen here, but they were wrong. It is happening here. How did it happen? Arrogance, ignorance and incompetence, of course, but indifference, mainly. Step by step, tweet by tweet, and threat by threat, is how it happened. Fascism didn’t rise in the 30s because it was strong. It rose because democracy was weak,” writes Schmidt. He brings up the often used quote attributed to Sinclair Lewis: “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross,” with which he agrees, saying, “It’s so very true. These men have been told who their enemy is. It is us.”

On his show last weekend, John Oliver poked fun at co-president Stephen Miller for trying to sound tough during his speech to police officials in Memphis — “which only sounded tough in his own head” as he talked about facing off with “gangbangers.” Oliver asked, “I’ve got to say, at this point, white supremacists just have to be embarrassed, right? This is your champion, right here? A man who looks like he still has a soft spot on his skull?!?” Oliver notes that Miller’s ‘tough talk’ has been accompanied by “nauseating footage” from Trump’s expansion of ICE activity, particularly in the apartment building raid in Chicago. He also targeted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump for their presentations to the military brass in Quantico, saying, “This administration is clearly still hellbent on trying to intimidate communities with shows of force. They are obsessed with appearances, kicking out all the beardos and fatties, but what they cannot do is cover up the ugliness of what they are doing right now.”

With a scathing post on Facebook last summer, Alisa Kasmer, Stephen Miller’s cousin, publicly disowned him for his role as the architect of Trump’s immigration policies. She recently made a new entry in which she revealed that most of Miller’s extended family has disowned him, highlighting the family’s history of surviving persecution with their Jewish heritage. She explained, “We celebrated holidays each year with the reminder to stand up and say, “never again.” But what you are doing breaks that sacred promise. It breaks everything we were taught. I am living with the deep pain of watching someone I once loved become the face of evil. I will never knowingly let evil in my life, no matter whose blood it carries — including my own.”