Glenn Kirschner: Military Members Say They WILL NOT OBEY Trump's Unlawful Orders

Oct 31, 2025 | From Trump ordering unlawful military strikes on boats in international waters murdering dozens of human beings, to Trump saying he can order soldiers into the street of US cities and even the courts can't stop him, Trump behavior vis-a-vis the military is getting more dangerous and lawless by the day.

Two members of the Illinois National Guard just spoke out publicly, announcing that they would not obey unlawful order from Trump to deploy to the streets to Chicago.

I discussed these and other military-related developments with law professor and military law expert Dan Maurer.

"Secretary of War" Pete Hegseth's Utter Lack of Leadership Is a Disgrace

Oct 4, 2025 | Earlier today, Steve Schmidt spoke with MSNBC's Ali Velshi about the total lack of credibility of the Trump regime, and the utter unfitness of Pete Hegseth as the leader of the US Armed Forces.

Trump Preparing to Deploy Military on ‘Domestic Enemies’

Oct 1, 2025 | “The core of President Trump’s speech was how he wanted to use the military against the enemy within.”

In one of the “darkest speeches Trump’s made,” the “heavy emphasis” of using the US military domestically is “concerning” many military observers, says US Assistant Editor for The Times David Charter.

Trump and Hegseth Threaten America's Military

Oct 1, 2025 | After Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth spoke to America's military leaders, this regime's plans to take control of our military became crystal clear. Steve Schmidt reacts to the speeches at Quantico and explains why it's a dangerous sign of things to come.

America is being turned into a very sick, dangerous joke. — © Mark Alexander

Pete Hegseth Declares War on ‘Fat Generals’, ‘Woke Garbage’ and ‘Beardos’

THE IRISH TIMES: US defence secretary says all fitness tests to be set to male benchmarks, and emphasises importance of grooming standards

US defence secretary Pete Hegseth slammed “fat generals” and diversity initiatives that he said had led to decades of decay in the military, and told a rare gathering of commanders on Tuesday they should resign if they do not support his agenda.

Mr Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, was joined by US president Donald Trump, himself a former reality television host, for an on-camera event in Quantico, Virginia, that had a made-for-TV character to it, with generals and admirals assembled on short notice.

“Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading and we lost our way. We became the ‘Woke Department’,” Mr Hegseth said as he kicked off the event. “But not any more,” he said.

Addressing an auditorium full of top brass summoned from around the world without explanation last week, Mr Hegseth defended his firings of flag officers, which include the top US general, who is black, and the Navy’s top admiral, who is a woman. He said the officers he relieved were part of a broken culture. » | Reuters | Wednesday, October 1, 2025

What Trump & Hegseth's Lecture to Generals Really Means

Oct 1, 2025 | t an unprecedented gathering of hundreds of top generals and admirals from U.S. military installations around the world, President Trump delivered a rambling speech Tuesday alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. They laid out their vision of a "warrior" culture in the U.S. military and claimed the United States is facing an "invasion from within." Eugene Fidell, a military scholar at Yale Law School, says the meeting was a means of "exacting loyalty, special loyalty, from the most senior officers and enlisted personnel" and that by promoting a solely "white male" image of the U.S. armed forces, the administration has made clear it "wants to turn back the hands of the social clock."

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Hegseth Wants to Bring Toxicity Back into the Military

Jennifer Welch explains.

'Very Dangerous Time for Our country': Fmr. Air Force Secy. on Trump's Speech to Military Leaders

Sep 30, 2025 | President Donald Trump addressed the country's top military officials today during a rare gathering of military leaders in Quantico, Virginia. During his speech, the president suggested using "dangerous cities" as "training grounds for our military" and aired his political grievances.

Lawrence: Trump Was 'On the Verge of Outright Insanity' in Deranged Speech to Military Commanders

Oct 1, 2025 | MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell details how military commanders who listened to Donald Trump’s “deranged” speech have to be wondering “just how much more dangerous their jobs are now that they've seen just how lost and sick their Commander-in-Chief is.”

The Trump Administration Wants to Turn Your Soldier into a Criminal and Fascist

Steve Schmidt explains.

Bulwark on Sunday: The Persecution of Trans Americans

Aug 24, 2025 | Bree Fram joins Bill Kristol to discuss the escalating attacks on transgender Americans—from the removal of federal health care benefits to subpoenas for hospital records and even reports of the Department of Justice searching VA files for evidence of transition. What does this mean for trans service members and for the broader assault on trans lives?

The Trans Officers Banned from the US Military by President Trump - BBC World Service Documentaries

Jul 6, 2025 | In his first weeks in office, President Trump fulfilled campaign promises to ban what he termed ‘transgender lunacy’.

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" | David Cotton

Feb 28, 2025

BREAKING: Pentagon Says It Will Start Kicking Transgender People Out of Military This Month

ADVOCATE: While a federal judge considers blocking the policy altogether, the Pentagon is moving forward.

One day after Department of Justice lawyers struggled to explain the need for a ban on transgender people‘s service in the U.S. Armed Forces to a federal judge in Washington, D.C., the Trump administration’s aggressive efforts to purge transgender service members from the military have taken another step forward. The U.S. Department of the Navy has issued formal procedures for the removal of transgender personnel, filing the directive in federal court Thursday as part of an ongoing legal battle. The new guidance orders the Navy and Marine Corps to begin involuntary separations of service members with a history of gender dysphoria after March 28, two days after a previous March 26 deadline for voluntary separations—unless they obtain a so-called “waiver,” which, according to legal experts, is nothing more than an illusion. » | Christopher Wiggins | Thursday, March 13, 2025

'Rogue President': Trump Removal of Senior Military Leaders, Military Lawyers Raises Alarm

Feb 25, 2025 | Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall talks with Rachel Maddow about Donald Trump's dismissal of senior military leaders, and former Fox News personality, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, removing the U.S. military’s top judge advocates general, and his concern that Trump's disregard for the rule of law will extend to U.S. military conduct.

Trump Fires Black Joint Chiefs Chair Hegseth Accused of Promoting Diversity

THE GUARDIAN: US secretary of defense had questioned whether history-making air force general CQ Brown Jr got job because of race

Donald Trump abruptly fired the air force general CQ Brown Jr as chair of the joint chiefs of staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making Black fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign to purge the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.

The ouster of the second Black general to serve as chair of the joint chiefs comes three months after Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, outlined a plan for ridding the US military of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts during a podcast interview.

“First of all, you’ve got to fire the chairman of the joint chiefs,” Hegseth said during a November interview on the Shawn Ryan Show. “Any general that was involved, general, admiral, or whatever, that was involved in any of that DEI woke shit has got to go.” » | Guardian staff and agencies | Saturday, February 22, 2025

Thom Hartmann: Why Hegseth Is Trying to Ban Military Religious Freedom w/Mikey Weinstein

Feb 18, 2025 | Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is attacking the religious freedom of America's military by working to ban the military from contacting the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Mikey Weinstein joins Thom Hartmann to let Pete Hegseth know what we think of his Christo-fascist plan.

Donald Trump Orders Military to Stop Recruiting Black People!

Feb 11, 2025 | Jesse talks about reporting from Military.com about Trump’s direction to the Pentagon to stop recruiting highly skilled and capable candidates because they’re Black.

Donald Trump Bans Trans People from Serving in the Military in Hateful Executive Order

LGBTQ NATION: His order says that no trans person is "honorable, truthful, and disciplined."

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning transgender people from the military. The order refers to trans identity as a mental disorder that is selfish, dishonorable, deceitful and undisciplined. It gives the secretary of defense 60 days to implement its directives and will affect an estimated 8,000 trans soldiers. The order also comes at a time when the military is experiencing a recruitment shortage. The Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal have pledged to challenge the ban in court.

The directive follows others recently issued by Trump gutting the military branches’ diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, getting rid of military leadership that supported these efforts, and also follows an executive order from his first day in office directing the federal government to recognize only two “immutable sexes,” male and female. » | Daniel Villarreal | Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Trump Moves Toward Pushing Openly Transgender People Out of Military

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The president also ordered the Pentagon to end diversity programs, reinstate many service members dismissed for refusing the coronavirus vaccine and create a new missile defense system.

President Trump on Monday moved toward pushing openly transgender people out of the military, directed the Pentagon to end diversity programs and ordered the reinstatement of many service members dismissed for refusing the coronavirus vaccine as he sought to reshape America’s armed forces.

The directives, contained in a batch of executive orders, advanced what Mr. Trump and his new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, have described as an effort to return the military to an unapologetically masculine professional culture, while rejecting the sorts of equitable hiring and staffing practices that Mr. Hegseth has blamed for lowering the military’s standards and warfighting capacity.

In some respects, the orders on Monday mirrored others Mr. Trump signed last week aimed at eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government and limiting government recognition of an individual’s gender to their sex at birth.

But the new guidance related to gender went much further by authorizing the Defense Department to potentially bar transgender soldiers by considering identifying as a gender other than the one assigned at birth an impediment to the physical and mental well-being necessary for military service. » | Zach Montague | Reporting from Doral, Fla. | Tuesday, Januardy 28, 2025