Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at his confirmation hearing refused to rule out opening fire on protesters if Trump ordered it.
As Donald Trump ramps up his use of the military to quell domestic dissent, he has on his side a Pentagon chief apparently ready to carry out any order Trump gives him, possibly including a potentially illegal one to shoot American citizens.
Pete Hegseth, specifically asked during his January confirmation hearing whether he would have obeyed a 2020 Trump demand to shoot protesters — as Trump had wanted then-Secretary Mark Esper to do in his first term — would not answer and instead dodged the question.
On Monday, even as California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued Trump and Hegseth to rescind the deployment because he had not requested it, as he said the law requires, Trump escalated the situation by adding 700 Marines, a full battalion, to the mix.
It is unclear what, precisely, they can accomplish. Federal law prohibits them from arresting people unless Trump were to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act. While he has referred to the protesters as “insurrectionists” multiple times, he has not used his authority to declare the riot an “insurrection” against the United States, which would suggest that the participants are trying to overthrow the national government.
More like the Pentagon wants to shoot Americans, and Trump is their “yes man”
You won’t convince me Trump is actually in charge. Not unless DOGE investigates the Pentagon, and the reason Musk cut ties is so that he wouldn’t be assassinated for that investigation.
The Pentagon has failed every annual audit since they started auditing it 7 years ago.
The day before 9/11, Donald Rumsfeld gave a speech about how the Pentagon lost over 2 trillion dollars that it couldn’t account for. 9/11 was the distraction the Pentagon needed to prevent an audit, and they got 20 years if increased military spending thanks to the “war on terror”
The Pentagon will kill anyone who tries to hold it accountable. They will steal any amount of money, including trillions and trillions of dollars. They answer to no one.
Right there. That’s the real enemy to our Republic.