Opinion
Former President Donald Trump swept the Iowa Caucus this weekend with a historic victory. As if it wasn’t clear enough, after this weekend, it should be self-evident that barring a freak incident, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for President.
Going toe-to-toe against President Joe Biden, Mr. Trump is pulling ahead by some rather large margins in certain parts of the country, like Georgia, which indicates the United States may see a second Trump administration. This reality has many on the left and even some who claim to be on the right fearing what Trump’s round two might look like.
Talk of possible dictatorship, retribution, and, of course, the destruction of our democracy as we know it are creeping up on mainstream media headlines. Turns out, there is a group of not-so-silent operatives setting up to mobilize against Mr. Trump in the event he takes office under the ruse that a Trump presidency will mean the abuse of his authority over the military.
Interesting wording
NBC News posted an article that honed in on the fears apparently running rampant through D.C. elites that Donald Trump will misuse the United States military if he wins the presidency.
Yes, the guy most famous for refusing to use the military as his predecessors did, and his successor is. To translate: this cabal of elites is concerned he won’t create enough war.
The article opens up with the following:
“Donald Trump is sparking fears among those who understand the inner workings of the Pentagon that he would convert the nonpartisan U.S. military into the muscular arm of his political agenda as he makes comments about dictatorship and devalues the checks and balances that underpin the nation’s two-century-old democracy.”
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The assumption in the above is that the Pentagon works efficiently, isn’t clearly left-leaning if not thoroughly liberal run and operated at this point, and does little to check or balance anything other than their own personal gains against what is best for the nation.
The article goes on to highlight a group of individuals who are tirelessly working behind the scenes to stop Donald Trump at all costs from “abusing” the military:
“…a loose-knit network of public interest groups and lawmakers is quietly devising plans to try to foil any efforts to expand presidential power…”
This group of self-appointed saviors of democracy aren’t so quiet with their plans. One of those plans is to try to tighten the left and right parameters of the Insurrection Act.
Right from wrong
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal is one of these “quiet” lawmakers trying to sabotage a possible Trump presidency. His focus has been on trying to limit the scope of the Insurrection Act.
The Insurrection Act gives the President the authority to deploy the United States military domestically in order to suppress rebellion or domestic violence. The scenario those on the left claim to be worried about is a future President Trump deploying the military on the streets of America in the event of violent riots against his election.
The reason this possibility seems likely to them is his alleged desire to use the military to squash the horrific and historical destruction that came during the Black Lives Matter riots. The same riots forced then President Trump and his family to reportedly be rushed to a bunker after the gates of the White House were breached by “protesters.”
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Senator Blumenthal warns:
“A malignantly motivated president could use it in a vast variety of dictatorial ways unless at some point the military itself resisted what they deemed to be an unlawful order. But that places a very heavy burden on the military.”
It’s revealing that the left doesn’t believe the senior military leaders that they entrust powerful commissions to might be unable to distinguish between right and wrong, lawful and unlawful. Are they unable to tell the difference even after oodles of taxpayer dollars go into educating them at prestigious universities?
Or are they unwilling?
Terrible track record
NBC News made sure to point out that the last time Donald Trump was Commander-in-Chief, there were people around him to manipulate and adjust his orders:
“A circle of appointees independent of Trump’s political operation steered him away from ideas that would have pushed the limits of presidential power in his last term…”
The article points to the alleged suggestion former President Trump had to use the military to bomb drug cartel factories in Mexico. Upon being told that would be an act of war, the story goes that the then President said the United States could claim they hadn’t bombed the cartels.
Besides the fact that this allegation has literally played out throughout modern American military history numerous times with other countries by both Republican and Democratic administrations, it’s also an allegation…one of many against the former President. I prefer to stick to facts.
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Like the time former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley told our main adversary that if the United States initiated an attack he would give them a heads up. General Milley testified to Congress that he told China’s General Li Zuocheng:
“I said, hell, I’ll call you. But we’re not going to attack you. Trust me, we’re not going to attack you.”
Then there is also the 2018 orders President Trump made to fully withdraw troops from Syria that went ignored by his Generals and staff.
Former diplomat Jim Jeffrey confirmed this in an interview with Defense One:
“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there.”
It seems the military has no problem deciding what orders they will follow and which ones they won’t, and they aren’t shy about operating in their own capacity outside the desires of the Chief Executive.
To put it another way, they seem perfectly fine going as far as to disobey direct orders from the Commander-in-Chief, and even lying to him after the fact.
To put it yet another way, a cabal of permanent bureaucrats actually calling the shots rather than the elected government could be called, say, a “deep state.”
The actual point
As usual, the fears Donald Trump will turn the United States into a dictatorship by using the military or any other arm of the federal government to impose his will is not just unfounded but not even real. These “quiet” entities aren’t scared of any of that; they are scared Mr. Trump will unmask them as the dangerous, unelected puppet masters they are and strip them of their undeserved power.
The NBC News article alludes to just that:
“Part of the aim is to identify like-minded organizations and create a coalition to challenge Trump from day one…”
The goal isn’t to protect democracy; it’s to do everything in their power to keep Donald Trump from executing his duties as President of the United States. The duly elected President.
These “like-minded” organizations are undoubtedly tied to the defense industry itself, with lobbyists and board members of varying military backgrounds wishing to maintain the same erosion of military integrity that has been growing for decades within the Pentagon.
Former senior Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon said of a second Trump presidency:
“You’re going to see a massive housecleaning at the Pentagon. President Trump wants to put in a philosophy of how to win wars.”
Since the military-industrial complex has no interest in winning wars as it means less money and opportunities for soon-to-be-retired military and defense officials looking for their next career move in the defense contractor industry, naturally, Donald Trump poses a threat. Not to democracy but to their shadow oligarchy.
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