October 3, 2025 • 29 mins
In Trump’s America, the enemy isn’t abroad—it’s you. His latest military speech made it clear: he sees the U.S. Army as his domestic police force, his red hat shock troops, his tool for shutting down dissent. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court keeps handing him authoritarian cheat codes, the government shutdown grinds on, tariffs crush farmers, and Democrats keep pretending they’ll “find their message” someday.
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Follow Rick Wilson at @TheRickWilson on X and @therickwilson.bsky.social on Bluesky, and subscribe to his Substack at therickwilson.substack.com.
Join the fight with the Lincoln Project at www.lincolnproject.us and follow LP on X at @ProjectLincoln. If you'd like to help us continue our critical work, visit https://action.lincolnproject.us/helplp to make a difference.
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•
•
•
Follow Rick Wilson at @TheRickWilson on X and @therickwilson.bsky.social on Bluesky, and subscribe to his Substack at therickwilson.substack.com.
Join the fight with the Lincoln Project at www.lincolnproject.us and follow LP on X at @ProjectLincoln. If you'd like to help us continue our critical work, visit https://action.lincolnproject.us/helplp to make a difference.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Your attack will not be an easy one. Your enemy
is well trained, welly, but think about art.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Is not a liberal America and is conservative America, the
United States of America. Good luck.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hey, folks, it's Rick Wilson. Welcome back to the Elephant
in the Room. Every Friday, we do a quick mini podcast.
We're stretching it out a little bit more than we
used to. Where it used to be a fifteen minute show,
we're moving it out to about a half an hour
to make sure that we really can cover a couple
of big issues. And so we may end up having
multiple elephants in the room on some Fridays, But today
(00:37):
there's just one, and it's that Donald Trump. This week,
in front of a room of generals and admirals, flag
officers of our military, laid out a vision for a
presidency and a suite of policies that require the military
to play a role in his acquisition and retention and
(01:00):
abuse of domestic power. And that is one hell of
an elephant in the room, folks. We've talked a lot
about Trump running distractions, but sometimes the distractions, and they
are distractions, many many, many times, sometimes the distractions end
(01:21):
up having a core of truth inside of them, a
story buried inside of the distraction, to make sure we're
not talking about Jeffrey Epstein or whatever else he wants
to hide. Sometimes those stories have a core of truth
in them, and our revelations about what he really wants.
And this week, for all the meandering, for all the weirdness,
(01:44):
for all the back and forth and back and forth
in the course of his speech at Quantico, for all
the sur stories, and all the self aggrandizement, and all
the pointless attacks on Joe Biden and everything else, Donald
Trump called our cities war zones, called the people who
oppose them the enemy within, and told them military they
(02:04):
have to be ready to take action. Let's play some
clips here.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
We should use some of these dangerous cities as training
grounds for our military National Guard, but military. Last month,
I signed an executive order to provide training for a
quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. So
this is going to be a big thing for the
people in this room, because it's the enemy from within,
(02:31):
and we have to handle it before it gets out
of control. It won't get out of control once you're
involved at all. They all joke, they say, oh, this
is not good. But they're not going to stand in
our way ever again. You'll never see four years like
we had with Biden and that group of incompetent people
(02:51):
that ran this country that should have never been there.
While America is under invasion from within, we're under invasion
from within. No different than a foreign enemy, but more
difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms. At
least when they're wearing a uniform, you can take them out.
These people don't have uniforms. But we are under invasion
(03:14):
from within. We're stopping it very quickly. We will vanquish
every danger and crush every threat to our freedom and
every generation to come because we will fight, fight, fight,
and we will when.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Now look, there are a lot of you who say, oh, well,
you know, even now, Trump can't do that. Even now,
somebody would stop him. And while I'm a little more
optimistic than I was before this meeting because of the
icy reception with Trump and hecksets received from the generals
and the admirals in that room and the senior enlisted
in that room, it doesn't mean he will not try.
(03:51):
It does not mean that when he activates some National
Guard unit and some you know, Brigadier general says, no, sir,
I will not attack Portland. No, sir, I will not
that Trump doesn't engage in a public firing and a
court martial and all those things as an example to others.
(04:14):
It's the story of Admiral BEng b y n g
not I m G. Look it up, you'll enjoy it.
That is the origin of the story where the French
were terrified of the British in some wadys because, as
Voltaire said, sometimes they hang someone just as an example
to the others. But it doesn't mean that he won't try.
It doesn't mean he won't try. He will try. He
(04:38):
will try to order the military. He was telling them
in that room. This is not a matter of tick
him serious. Literally he was telling them in that room
what he wants. He was describing what he wants. He
was characterizing Americans who oppose him as the enemy. Think
(05:01):
about that for a second, the enemy within. I know
you may have been waiting for the reference to the
mustachio gentlemen of German extraction or Austrian extraction who ruled Germany.
And yeah, they talked a lot about the enemy within,
who were the enemy within? In Nazi Germany, the Jews,
(05:24):
the socialists, the intellectuals, the educated, anybody who opposed the regime.
Different era, same song, same beat. And so Donald Trump
proposing this trial run, he just did, you should go
and train your troops in these cities. Good training grounds?
(05:47):
Are they? Are they?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
You know?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
He's tweeted about five or six times since he sent
folks to Portland. They were going to use full force.
What does that mean? Donald? That's full force to you
for me, full forces. You know you can do airstrikes
US drones. You're gonna bring an armor, you bring in
(06:15):
the a tens to go after a bunch of kids
on unicycles. While you're hearing it and saying it, it
sounds absurd, doesn't it. It sounds absurd, It sounds ridiculous.
It sounds ridiculous. But Donald Trump is now a man
(06:39):
without constraint. He knows to continue feeding the beast of
the Maga Bass, he has to let Stephen Miller run
rough shot. To continue feeding the beast of the Maga Bass.
He has to keep the ice raids going because everything
(07:00):
else for him right now is a train wreck, is
a disaster, is very very very bad. He is not
having a good time, y'all. He's not enjoying himself. He's
not waking up in the morning thinking this is the
greatest job ever. The shutdown is going to hurt him politically.
That already has. If you look at any of the
initial polls, it is the Republicans are taking a bath
(07:23):
on this already. Don't let them spend you otherwise. The
economy is in an absolute shambles. We cut ourselves off
from the world, just like we did in nineteen twenty nine,
and how'd that work out for us? But Trump's intention,
his desire, his stated ambition for a long time, going
(07:50):
back to twenty twenty, has been to use the military
against people who he does not like. To attack people,
can't you shoot them in the leg? To attack people
who protest him, To attack people who protest ice, to
attack people who protest his policies. In a lot of cases,
(08:13):
like universities, he's used the blunt force trauma of cutting
off their money. And they're piably influenced by that kind
of thing. It's a real thing for them. Man, that hurts.
That's not pretty for them. They don't like that, that's
not easy for them. And a lot of them given
in a lot of them sign these consent agreements and
signed these deals with Trump and paid in the big
(08:35):
and promise to get rid of the EI and all
the other imaginary demons. But when it comes to American
cities Chicago, Portland, you think he's going to stop in
those two places. He's going to stop there. Why not
San Francisco? Why not actual troops in Los Angeles? And
(08:56):
you can see him teeing up to do this in
New York City. A part of me really hopes he does.
Part of me really hopes he does, because, well, the
folks in Portland may show up on their unicycles, and
the Knitters may be there, and the Victorian Tea Party people,
they may do their street theater. New York is han'ting
(09:18):
to fuck with. They're not going to play. This will
not go like Trump thinks it will go. Those guard
units that go to New York, that is not going
to be the experience they think they're going to have.
It's going to be much different and now much more
negative experience than they think they're going to have. But
he's teeing up for it. He's telling you who the
enemy is. The enemy are people in cities. The enemy
(09:40):
are people who are the intellectuals, who are the Jews,
who are the people that are opposed to him ideologically. Interestingly,
he's more opposed to them aesthetically in a weird way,
because Trump doesn't understand much about ideology. He'll say, though,
rodical love. But that speech, it will be one of
(10:04):
the hallmarks. It will be one of the history lessons
of this country. It will be one of the inflection
points in this country where we realize that our military
was either going to hold the line or burn us down.
(10:27):
I want to believe, and I think I'm right, And
I think from what I've talked to people since that speech,
and I've heard from people since that speech, I think
I'm right that Trump did himself a lot of harm,
that their ice cold, sub zero reception of this was
a signal. I hope I'm right. I hope that I
(10:50):
hope that we don't end up with Pete. He saith, saying, Okay, well,
we're gonna fire everybody who opposes us. We're gonna check
a loyalty check, We're gonna going to polygraph you until
you tell us if whether you're with us or against
this whatever it is, and he May he May Hexith
is already talking about polygraphing people at the general officer level,
(11:10):
people with security clearances of the very very highest level,
who are responsible for tens of thousands of lives in
their major commands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of lives and
their major commands. People who are responsible for billions of
dollars of equipment, people who have the capacity and the
(11:32):
mission in the assignment to handle nuclear weapons. Pete Hegseth
is going to polygraph them to make sure they're superly loyal.
So I think when we write this history, we go
back and look at this, when we write the rise
and fall story of Trump, this will be a moment
(11:53):
I pray where one institution stood firm, where the US
military said, We're not going to fire on our fellow citizens.
We're not going to accept this assignment. We're not going
to play this game. We're not going to be a
part of this conspiracy. We're not going to accept culpability
(12:16):
for a man who quite clearly does not believe in law,
the constitution, justice, or the role of the American military,
which is not foremost as a domestic law enforcement agency,
and which is not foremost a political enterprise dedicated to
(12:39):
the president's will and the president's power. The commander in
chief is a truly, truly powerful role under our constitution
and in our modern world. At an argument one time,
I'm not an argument, a discussion time with the guy
(13:01):
who was one of the strategic weapons planner types. It's
not a lot about nuclear war. And I said, do
you ever do you have to think that the founders
could have considered the scope of the power that is
reposed in the president, who can call the guy into
(13:21):
the room with the football, crack open the book and
order up one hundred million deaths. He had a sort
of counterfactual to me, and he says, you know, they
considered that the president would be a person of discretion.
They considered that the president would be a person of judgment,
(13:42):
of character. They considered that the men who would take
orders from the president would know of his character, not
only respecting the role and the office, but respecting who
the man himself was, what kind of person and he was?
You know what, It's easy to go back through history
(14:03):
now and say you could easily have followed a George
Washington or John Adams or Thomas Jefferson or an Abraham Lincoln.
You can find yourself easily saying I could follow a
Teddy Roosevelt, follow a Franklin Roosevelt. I can follow a
Harry Truman, follow an Ike, follow a JFK. Follow Linda Johnson.
A little more difficult. Sometimes you could even follow Nixon,
(14:28):
follow a Carter, could follow a Reagan, could follow George H. W. Bush.
You could follow Bill Clinton flawed as he was. You
could follow a George W. Bush, flawed as he was,
could follow a Barack Obama. But these members of the
military now, who saw what he was, who had his
(14:49):
entire vision of what America is, and what their role
is in prosecuting a war against Americans. I think this
is the first time in history, outside of the movies,
where the military has truly been called to make a
(15:11):
fundamental decision, to make a fundamental decision about the man
who has that magnificent title of commander in chief and
the lowest possible character. A man they know is a
chronic liar, a man they know is corrupt at every level,
(15:36):
a man they know who does not have America's values
at heart, A man they know has sold this country
down the river for his own ego to Vladimir Putin
and to foreign dictators, a man they know they would
never have wanted in a unit they commanded. A man.
(15:59):
They know that, no matter what their ambition is, for
that first or second, or third or fourth star, that
if they get it on the back of carrying out
his orders to attack American citizens, if they get it
on the back of his orders to oppress American liberties,
if they get that star on the back of attacking protesters,
(16:25):
if they get that star on being part of Stephen
miller styled domestic Purge operation, it's unbounded by law. They
get that star by bending the knee and abandoning the
oath they swore to the Constitution in this country, and
(16:46):
the oath that is held as sacred by every person
who works in this government. Everybody takes an oath. They
mean nothing to Trump if they if they put their ambition,
(17:07):
and there will be these, There will be colonels, and
there will be lieutenant colonels out there who have come
up in the last ten years under more of a
trumpy environment and who think, well, maybe that's the way
it is now, Maybe this is how the game is
played now. Maybe if I just kiss the right ass
and say the right words. I can I can get
(17:31):
promoted below the zone. Maybe the president will put me
in a position of power and responsibility, and maybe that'll
help my career. There's some of them out there. I'm
sure that's a big organization, you know. William Krow, the
former Trumber Joint Chiefs, once asked Dick Cheney to imagine
what the worst thing you could imagine was, like great murder, insest, pedophilia,
(17:52):
all the horrible, and James like okay, and Craft said,
in an organization with three million people, it's happening somewhere.
So there are ambitious men and ambitious women out there
in the military who would step in because some of
these generals and animals said I can't do this and
(18:12):
I won't do this. I'm glad we're in the second
term of Trump, and I'm glad we're in the beginning
of the end of Trump's power lame duck seasons coming, Donny,
because I think those young ambitious colonels and lieutenant colonels
would be working very hard to become best friends with
(18:34):
Pete Hegseth and best friends with Stephen Miller and playing
the game with the people that are there. Now I
have more faith then, I have more confidence that they
are men and women of honor. It's one thing when
Trump orders them to do something overseas they disagree with,
there's very little likelihood any of them are going to go, no,
(18:57):
thank you, No, sir, can't do that. But when it
comes to what Trump wanted in that meeting, when it
comes to Trump, what Trump wanted, what he described to
them in clear, sharp terms, Yeah, the attack on the
(19:18):
enemy within. I think we're okay. I think we're okay.
And I hope that one of them, when they're called
to do that, says publicly, no, sir, I shall not.
(19:40):
I resign my commission. Immediately. Country would rally to that person,
His fellow officers would rally to that person. The maga
media machine would go after that guy or that woman,
But it would be a signal, it would be a
salutary moral gesture in a country that lacks a lot
(20:02):
of good, salutary moral gestures from leaders and institutions. We've
seen institution after institution collapse in this country, some by
their own actions, some by their own inactions. But when
it comes to Trump, most of these institutions have collapsed
for one reason, just cowardice, just fear. What's he going
(20:25):
to do to me? How's he going to hurt me?
Let's see, how's he going to hurt my family, How's
he going to hurt my my company, my school, my university.
Especially these guys who are billionaires, awful lot of these billionaires,
just like you know, we've got to for shareholder value purposes,
we've got to kiss Trump's ass. During the military, you're
(20:48):
a senior flag officer. That should be the least to
your worries. You're all right, You're going to be fine.
You're going to be fine. You're going to be out
there in the industry because he'll be soon. He'll be
out of the picture at some point soon, and the
warld will house some gravity. But if you choose the
(21:09):
wrong path, choose the path that he wants you to take,
you choose the path where you become an executor of
his will against domestic targets. There's no world in which
history does not destroy you. There's no world in which
history does not excommunicate you from the ranks of honor
(21:31):
and courage, no matter what you've done before. And I
think that that matters to these folks, I think the
fact that they sat there when Pete Hexath finished his
Moto speech, dead silent, The fact that they sat there
when Trump finished his speech, dead silent, even after he
(21:53):
threatened them in the room. Let's play that clip.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
I've never walked into a room so silent before.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
This is don't laugh, don't live if you're not allowed
to do that, you know, I just have.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
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,
they goes your rank, There goes to your future.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
There's a threat. Oh, there goes your career. That was
a threat. And look, as much as I would like
to err and sorkin the whole thing, and how do
everybody stand up turning their backs on him and mark
out of the room, that didn't happen. It wasn't necessary.
The silence of those officers, The silence of those officers,
(22:38):
the absolute dead air, the absolute contempt in the room
was a message. Hegseth. God, if you watch the video
of Hegseth, and there's just It's a subtle moment. Remember
this is a TV actor. He knows how to preen
for the camera. He knew the shot was on him,
(23:00):
except goes and goes, oh you're the War Department. Oh blah.
He sat there for a beat, another beat, waiting for
that applause. His eyes flickered down. I know he was thinking, God,
damn it, one do you fucking clap? Just one of
you clap for me? Come on, man. They didn't because
(23:20):
we are the War Department, God speeding real, let's job.
They wouldn't, they couldn't. And he walked off stage destroyed.
And when Trump went through the whole thing again, all
(23:43):
the madness, all the attacks on his fellow citizens, all
the ideas that he wants to attack the homeland, to
attack the enemy within, they didn't applause. You know why
because they didn't and they wouldn't, and they couldn't. They
made a choice. The elephant in the room is that
(24:05):
Donald Trump wants to attack Americans using the US military.
The elephant in the room is that Donald Trump is
a man whose ambition for control and power and autocracy
is unrivaled in American political history. And to do that,
he has to control the military in a way where
(24:26):
they are willing to pull the trigger against their fellow
citizens for political reasons. Donald Trump failed, I think in
this speech he showed us a lot about what he is,
who he wants, what he wants, and what he was
willing to do to hold power. But he failed to
get a signal from the one institution he has to
(24:49):
control if he wants it, not talk to install an autocracy.
He failed to get that applause, to get that off
the record statement. Literally, oh wholl you know the president
made some good points because no one said that, No one,
no one.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I've meant a good number of general officers, good number
flag officers over my career. I've talked to a lot
of them in the last couple of days about this,
and the response universally has been dear God, love that
I see. In fact, I spoke to somebody who endorsed
him in twenty sixteen. I was very angry with the guy.
(25:28):
He was like, I'm out and done. I can't he'd
stayed away in twenty twenty. But he's like, I don't
know what I just saw. I don't know what I
just saw. And I asked him, I said, Am I
right that the domestic attack part was really the main
part of the speech? Yeah? I asked him, I said,
what do you think of the guys in the room.
What do you think those guys in the room were thinking?
(25:50):
He goes, God, get me anywhere else, because and this
is pretty good, pretty good take on I think where
the leadership culture is still today in the in the
DoD military. And he's like, if I was, if I
was in that room, I want to be anywhere else.
Nobody wants to get those orders. And with a real president,
(26:14):
with the same president, no one would ever get those orders.
Those orders would never be written or delivered or intended
no one in the presidency short of some extraordinary moment,
the Civil War being the one that I can think of.
(26:35):
Do you order attacks on American citizens? Do you call
for cities to be the military use full force in
American cities? Well, look at what an American city would
look like after full force. Look at Gaza, look at
Fallujah after we went full force there, full force is
(26:57):
a lot Trump. When's that? Luckily for America, the men
and women in that room do not God bless them.
I hope they stay morally and intellectually strong about this
because our future depends on it, and that Folks is
the elephant in the room. Hey, everybody, thanks for listening
to the Elephant in the Room this week. We'll be
(27:17):
back again next week with the same show, different topic.
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(27:40):
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(28:05):
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we'll talk to you sin Bye bye.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
The Lincoln Project Podcast is a Lincoln Project production executive
produced by Whitney Hayes, Then Howe and Joey Wartner.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Cheney, edited by Riley Maine.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Hey, folks, if you want to support The Lincoln Project's
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If you'd like to get in touch, or have suggestions
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Speaker 1 (28:55):
Please no more news, Thanks so much, and we'll talk
to you again next time you live here.
Your attack will not be an easy one. Your enemy
is well trained, welly, but think about art.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Is not a liberal America and is conservative America, the
United States of America. Good luck.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hey, folks, it's Rick Wilson. Welcome back to the Elephant
in the Room. Every Friday, we do a quick mini podcast.
We're stretching it out a little bit more than we
used to. Where it used to be a fifteen minute show,
we're moving it out to about a half an hour
to make sure that we really can cover a couple
of big issues. And so we may end up having
multiple elephants in the room on some Fridays, But today
(00:37):
there's just one, and it's that Donald Trump. This week,
in front of a room of generals and admirals, flag
officers of our military, laid out a vision for a
presidency and a suite of policies that require the military
to play a role in his acquisition and retention and
(01:00):
abuse of domestic power. And that is one hell of
an elephant in the room, folks. We've talked a lot
about Trump running distractions, but sometimes the distractions, and they
are distractions, many many, many times, sometimes the distractions end
(01:21):
up having a core of truth inside of them, a
story buried inside of the distraction, to make sure we're
not talking about Jeffrey Epstein or whatever else he wants
to hide. Sometimes those stories have a core of truth
in them, and our revelations about what he really wants.
And this week, for all the meandering, for all the weirdness,
(01:44):
for all the back and forth and back and forth
in the course of his speech at Quantico, for all
the sur stories, and all the self aggrandizement, and all
the pointless attacks on Joe Biden and everything else, Donald
Trump called our cities war zones, called the people who
oppose them the enemy within, and told them military they
(02:04):
have to be ready to take action. Let's play some
clips here.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
We should use some of these dangerous cities as training
grounds for our military National Guard, but military. Last month,
I signed an executive order to provide training for a
quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. So
this is going to be a big thing for the
people in this room, because it's the enemy from within,
(02:31):
and we have to handle it before it gets out
of control. It won't get out of control once you're
involved at all. They all joke, they say, oh, this
is not good. But they're not going to stand in
our way ever again. You'll never see four years like
we had with Biden and that group of incompetent people
(02:51):
that ran this country that should have never been there.
While America is under invasion from within, we're under invasion
from within. No different than a foreign enemy, but more
difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms. At
least when they're wearing a uniform, you can take them out.
These people don't have uniforms. But we are under invasion
(03:14):
from within. We're stopping it very quickly. We will vanquish
every danger and crush every threat to our freedom and
every generation to come because we will fight, fight, fight,
and we will when.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Now look, there are a lot of you who say, oh, well,
you know, even now, Trump can't do that. Even now,
somebody would stop him. And while I'm a little more
optimistic than I was before this meeting because of the
icy reception with Trump and hecksets received from the generals
and the admirals in that room and the senior enlisted
in that room, it doesn't mean he will not try.
(03:51):
It does not mean that when he activates some National
Guard unit and some you know, Brigadier general says, no, sir,
I will not attack Portland. No, sir, I will not
that Trump doesn't engage in a public firing and a
court martial and all those things as an example to others.
(04:14):
It's the story of Admiral BEng b y n g
not I m G. Look it up, you'll enjoy it.
That is the origin of the story where the French
were terrified of the British in some wadys because, as
Voltaire said, sometimes they hang someone just as an example
to the others. But it doesn't mean that he won't try.
It doesn't mean he won't try. He will try. He
(04:38):
will try to order the military. He was telling them
in that room. This is not a matter of tick
him serious. Literally he was telling them in that room
what he wants. He was describing what he wants. He
was characterizing Americans who oppose him as the enemy. Think
(05:01):
about that for a second, the enemy within. I know
you may have been waiting for the reference to the
mustachio gentlemen of German extraction or Austrian extraction who ruled Germany.
And yeah, they talked a lot about the enemy within,
who were the enemy within? In Nazi Germany, the Jews,
(05:24):
the socialists, the intellectuals, the educated, anybody who opposed the regime.
Different era, same song, same beat. And so Donald Trump
proposing this trial run, he just did, you should go
and train your troops in these cities. Good training grounds?
(05:47):
Are they? Are they?
Speaker 3 (05:51):
You know?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
He's tweeted about five or six times since he sent
folks to Portland. They were going to use full force.
What does that mean? Donald? That's full force to you
for me, full forces. You know you can do airstrikes
US drones. You're gonna bring an armor, you bring in
(06:15):
the a tens to go after a bunch of kids
on unicycles. While you're hearing it and saying it, it
sounds absurd, doesn't it. It sounds absurd, It sounds ridiculous.
It sounds ridiculous. But Donald Trump is now a man
(06:39):
without constraint. He knows to continue feeding the beast of
the Maga Bass, he has to let Stephen Miller run
rough shot. To continue feeding the beast of the Maga Bass.
He has to keep the ice raids going because everything
(07:00):
else for him right now is a train wreck, is
a disaster, is very very very bad. He is not
having a good time, y'all. He's not enjoying himself. He's
not waking up in the morning thinking this is the
greatest job ever. The shutdown is going to hurt him politically.
That already has. If you look at any of the
initial polls, it is the Republicans are taking a bath
(07:23):
on this already. Don't let them spend you otherwise. The
economy is in an absolute shambles. We cut ourselves off
from the world, just like we did in nineteen twenty nine,
and how'd that work out for us? But Trump's intention,
his desire, his stated ambition for a long time, going
(07:50):
back to twenty twenty, has been to use the military
against people who he does not like. To attack people,
can't you shoot them in the leg? To attack people
who protest him, To attack people who protest ice, to
attack people who protest his policies. In a lot of cases,
(08:13):
like universities, he's used the blunt force trauma of cutting
off their money. And they're piably influenced by that kind
of thing. It's a real thing for them. Man, that hurts.
That's not pretty for them. They don't like that, that's
not easy for them. And a lot of them given
in a lot of them sign these consent agreements and
signed these deals with Trump and paid in the big
(08:35):
and promise to get rid of the EI and all
the other imaginary demons. But when it comes to American
cities Chicago, Portland, you think he's going to stop in
those two places. He's going to stop there. Why not
San Francisco? Why not actual troops in Los Angeles? And
(08:56):
you can see him teeing up to do this in
New York City. A part of me really hopes he does.
Part of me really hopes he does, because, well, the
folks in Portland may show up on their unicycles, and
the Knitters may be there, and the Victorian Tea Party people,
they may do their street theater. New York is han'ting
(09:18):
to fuck with. They're not going to play. This will
not go like Trump thinks it will go. Those guard
units that go to New York, that is not going
to be the experience they think they're going to have.
It's going to be much different and now much more
negative experience than they think they're going to have. But
he's teeing up for it. He's telling you who the
enemy is. The enemy are people in cities. The enemy
(09:40):
are people who are the intellectuals, who are the Jews,
who are the people that are opposed to him ideologically. Interestingly,
he's more opposed to them aesthetically in a weird way,
because Trump doesn't understand much about ideology. He'll say, though,
rodical love. But that speech, it will be one of
(10:04):
the hallmarks. It will be one of the history lessons
of this country. It will be one of the inflection
points in this country where we realize that our military
was either going to hold the line or burn us down.
(10:27):
I want to believe, and I think I'm right, And
I think from what I've talked to people since that speech,
and I've heard from people since that speech, I think
I'm right that Trump did himself a lot of harm,
that their ice cold, sub zero reception of this was
a signal. I hope I'm right. I hope that I
(10:50):
hope that we don't end up with Pete. He saith, saying, Okay, well,
we're gonna fire everybody who opposes us. We're gonna check
a loyalty check, We're gonna going to polygraph you until
you tell us if whether you're with us or against
this whatever it is, and he May he May Hexith
is already talking about polygraphing people at the general officer level,
(11:10):
people with security clearances of the very very highest level,
who are responsible for tens of thousands of lives in
their major commands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of lives and
their major commands. People who are responsible for billions of
dollars of equipment, people who have the capacity and the
(11:32):
mission in the assignment to handle nuclear weapons. Pete Hegseth
is going to polygraph them to make sure they're superly loyal.
So I think when we write this history, we go
back and look at this, when we write the rise
and fall story of Trump, this will be a moment
(11:53):
I pray where one institution stood firm, where the US
military said, We're not going to fire on our fellow citizens.
We're not going to accept this assignment. We're not going
to play this game. We're not going to be a
part of this conspiracy. We're not going to accept culpability
(12:16):
for a man who quite clearly does not believe in law,
the constitution, justice, or the role of the American military,
which is not foremost as a domestic law enforcement agency,
and which is not foremost a political enterprise dedicated to
(12:39):
the president's will and the president's power. The commander in
chief is a truly, truly powerful role under our constitution
and in our modern world. At an argument one time,
I'm not an argument, a discussion time with the guy
(13:01):
who was one of the strategic weapons planner types. It's
not a lot about nuclear war. And I said, do
you ever do you have to think that the founders
could have considered the scope of the power that is
reposed in the president, who can call the guy into
(13:21):
the room with the football, crack open the book and
order up one hundred million deaths. He had a sort
of counterfactual to me, and he says, you know, they
considered that the president would be a person of discretion.
They considered that the president would be a person of judgment,
(13:42):
of character. They considered that the men who would take
orders from the president would know of his character, not
only respecting the role and the office, but respecting who
the man himself was, what kind of person and he was?
You know what, It's easy to go back through history
(14:03):
now and say you could easily have followed a George
Washington or John Adams or Thomas Jefferson or an Abraham Lincoln.
You can find yourself easily saying I could follow a
Teddy Roosevelt, follow a Franklin Roosevelt. I can follow a
Harry Truman, follow an Ike, follow a JFK. Follow Linda Johnson.
A little more difficult. Sometimes you could even follow Nixon,
(14:28):
follow a Carter, could follow a Reagan, could follow George H. W. Bush.
You could follow Bill Clinton flawed as he was. You
could follow a George W. Bush, flawed as he was,
could follow a Barack Obama. But these members of the
military now, who saw what he was, who had his
(14:49):
entire vision of what America is, and what their role
is in prosecuting a war against Americans. I think this
is the first time in history, outside of the movies,
where the military has truly been called to make a
(15:11):
fundamental decision, to make a fundamental decision about the man
who has that magnificent title of commander in chief and
the lowest possible character. A man they know is a
chronic liar, a man they know is corrupt at every level,
(15:36):
a man they know who does not have America's values
at heart, A man they know has sold this country
down the river for his own ego to Vladimir Putin
and to foreign dictators, a man they know they would
never have wanted in a unit they commanded. A man.
(15:59):
They know that, no matter what their ambition is, for
that first or second, or third or fourth star, that
if they get it on the back of carrying out
his orders to attack American citizens, if they get it
on the back of his orders to oppress American liberties,
if they get that star on the back of attacking protesters,
(16:25):
if they get that star on being part of Stephen
miller styled domestic Purge operation, it's unbounded by law. They
get that star by bending the knee and abandoning the
oath they swore to the Constitution in this country, and
(16:46):
the oath that is held as sacred by every person
who works in this government. Everybody takes an oath. They
mean nothing to Trump if they if they put their ambition,
(17:07):
and there will be these, There will be colonels, and
there will be lieutenant colonels out there who have come
up in the last ten years under more of a
trumpy environment and who think, well, maybe that's the way
it is now, Maybe this is how the game is
played now. Maybe if I just kiss the right ass
and say the right words. I can I can get
(17:31):
promoted below the zone. Maybe the president will put me
in a position of power and responsibility, and maybe that'll
help my career. There's some of them out there. I'm
sure that's a big organization, you know. William Krow, the
former Trumber Joint Chiefs, once asked Dick Cheney to imagine
what the worst thing you could imagine was, like great murder, insest, pedophilia,
(17:52):
all the horrible, and James like okay, and Craft said,
in an organization with three million people, it's happening somewhere.
So there are ambitious men and ambitious women out there
in the military who would step in because some of
these generals and animals said I can't do this and
(18:12):
I won't do this. I'm glad we're in the second
term of Trump, and I'm glad we're in the beginning
of the end of Trump's power lame duck seasons coming, Donny,
because I think those young ambitious colonels and lieutenant colonels
would be working very hard to become best friends with
(18:34):
Pete Hegseth and best friends with Stephen Miller and playing
the game with the people that are there. Now I
have more faith then, I have more confidence that they
are men and women of honor. It's one thing when
Trump orders them to do something overseas they disagree with,
there's very little likelihood any of them are going to go, no,
(18:57):
thank you, No, sir, can't do that. But when it
comes to what Trump wanted in that meeting, when it
comes to Trump, what Trump wanted, what he described to
them in clear, sharp terms, Yeah, the attack on the
(19:18):
enemy within. I think we're okay. I think we're okay.
And I hope that one of them, when they're called
to do that, says publicly, no, sir, I shall not.
(19:40):
I resign my commission. Immediately. Country would rally to that person,
His fellow officers would rally to that person. The maga
media machine would go after that guy or that woman,
But it would be a signal, it would be a
salutary moral gesture in a country that lacks a lot
(20:02):
of good, salutary moral gestures from leaders and institutions. We've
seen institution after institution collapse in this country, some by
their own actions, some by their own inactions. But when
it comes to Trump, most of these institutions have collapsed
for one reason, just cowardice, just fear. What's he going
(20:25):
to do to me? How's he going to hurt me?
Let's see, how's he going to hurt my family, How's
he going to hurt my my company, my school, my university.
Especially these guys who are billionaires, awful lot of these billionaires,
just like you know, we've got to for shareholder value purposes,
we've got to kiss Trump's ass. During the military, you're
(20:48):
a senior flag officer. That should be the least to
your worries. You're all right, You're going to be fine.
You're going to be fine. You're going to be out
there in the industry because he'll be soon. He'll be
out of the picture at some point soon, and the
warld will house some gravity. But if you choose the
(21:09):
wrong path, choose the path that he wants you to take,
you choose the path where you become an executor of
his will against domestic targets. There's no world in which
history does not destroy you. There's no world in which
history does not excommunicate you from the ranks of honor
(21:31):
and courage, no matter what you've done before. And I
think that that matters to these folks, I think the
fact that they sat there when Pete Hexath finished his
Moto speech, dead silent, The fact that they sat there
when Trump finished his speech, dead silent, even after he
(21:53):
threatened them in the room. Let's play that clip.
Speaker 4 (21:56):
I've never walked into a room so silent before.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
This is don't laugh, don't live if you're not allowed
to do that, you know, I just have.
Speaker 4 (22:04):
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,
they goes your rank, There goes to your future.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
There's a threat. Oh, there goes your career. That was
a threat. And look, as much as I would like
to err and sorkin the whole thing, and how do
everybody stand up turning their backs on him and mark
out of the room, that didn't happen. It wasn't necessary.
The silence of those officers, The silence of those officers,
(22:38):
the absolute dead air, the absolute contempt in the room
was a message. Hegseth. God, if you watch the video
of Hegseth, and there's just It's a subtle moment. Remember
this is a TV actor. He knows how to preen
for the camera. He knew the shot was on him,
(23:00):
except goes and goes, oh you're the War Department. Oh blah.
He sat there for a beat, another beat, waiting for
that applause. His eyes flickered down. I know he was thinking, God,
damn it, one do you fucking clap? Just one of
you clap for me? Come on, man. They didn't because
(23:20):
we are the War Department, God speeding real, let's job.
They wouldn't, they couldn't. And he walked off stage destroyed.
And when Trump went through the whole thing again, all
(23:43):
the madness, all the attacks on his fellow citizens, all
the ideas that he wants to attack the homeland, to
attack the enemy within, they didn't applause. You know why
because they didn't and they wouldn't, and they couldn't. They
made a choice. The elephant in the room is that
(24:05):
Donald Trump wants to attack Americans using the US military.
The elephant in the room is that Donald Trump is
a man whose ambition for control and power and autocracy
is unrivaled in American political history. And to do that,
he has to control the military in a way where
(24:26):
they are willing to pull the trigger against their fellow
citizens for political reasons. Donald Trump failed, I think in
this speech he showed us a lot about what he is,
who he wants, what he wants, and what he was
willing to do to hold power. But he failed to
get a signal from the one institution he has to
(24:49):
control if he wants it, not talk to install an autocracy.
He failed to get that applause, to get that off
the record statement. Literally, oh wholl you know the president
made some good points because no one said that, No one,
no one.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
I've meant a good number of general officers, good number
flag officers over my career. I've talked to a lot
of them in the last couple of days about this,
and the response universally has been dear God, love that
I see. In fact, I spoke to somebody who endorsed
him in twenty sixteen. I was very angry with the guy.
(25:28):
He was like, I'm out and done. I can't he'd
stayed away in twenty twenty. But he's like, I don't
know what I just saw. I don't know what I
just saw. And I asked him, I said, Am I
right that the domestic attack part was really the main
part of the speech? Yeah? I asked him, I said,
what do you think of the guys in the room.
What do you think those guys in the room were thinking?
(25:50):
He goes, God, get me anywhere else, because and this
is pretty good, pretty good take on I think where
the leadership culture is still today in the in the
DoD military. And he's like, if I was, if I
was in that room, I want to be anywhere else.
Nobody wants to get those orders. And with a real president,
(26:14):
with the same president, no one would ever get those orders.
Those orders would never be written or delivered or intended
no one in the presidency short of some extraordinary moment,
the Civil War being the one that I can think of.
(26:35):
Do you order attacks on American citizens? Do you call
for cities to be the military use full force in
American cities? Well, look at what an American city would
look like after full force. Look at Gaza, look at
Fallujah after we went full force there, full force is
(26:57):
a lot Trump. When's that? Luckily for America, the men
and women in that room do not God bless them.
I hope they stay morally and intellectually strong about this
because our future depends on it, and that Folks is
the elephant in the room. Hey, everybody, thanks for listening
to the Elephant in the Room this week. We'll be
(27:17):
back again next week with the same show, different topic.
I also want to ask you all if you could
just do us a big favor. It would help Lincoln
Square and the Lincoln Project tremendously. If you could go
on our mutual YouTube pages and subscribe, hit the bell,
do all those things that feed the algorithm. You could
do the Rick Wilson's YouTube page as well. If you've
felt inclined, follow me on my social media at the
(27:40):
Rick Wilson almost everywhere social media can be found. I
am also on substack at Against All Enemies. It's been
a really fast growing community. I'm honored by the support
that so many people have given me in that regard.
You catch me streaming on Tuesday nights on Lincoln Square
for the Strategy Session, on Thursday nights for the Lincoln
Project on the Breakdown, and on Fridays with Andrew Wilson,
(28:05):
where we go behind the numbers and analyze the polling
that is rocking the country this week. Anyway, folks, I
appreciate you all subscribe to Lincoln Square. Give us a
shout if you've got questions, or you got comments, or
you got show titles recommendation. We will put a chiron
here on the bottom of the screen where you guys
can send us an email with your show ideas. Thanks again,
we'll talk to you sin Bye bye.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
The Lincoln Project Podcast is a Lincoln Project production executive
produced by Whitney Hayes, Then Howe and Joey Wartner.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Cheney, edited by Riley Maine.
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Hey, folks, if you want to support The Lincoln Project's
work against Donald Trump, Elon Musk and this Maga craziness,
go to action dot Lincoln Project dot us slash hel LP.
If you'd like to get in touch, or have suggestions
for a guest or a show topic, or just want
to say hi, our email is podcast at Lincoln Project
dot us for our MAGA friends.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Please no more news, Thanks so much, and we'll talk
to you again next time you live here.
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