"Trump fascism is a regime that openly and aggressively strips away basic rights and blatantly declares that there is no rule of law and due process of law other than what it dictates, and that raw destructive power is what must rule in the international arena, without even the pretense of adherence to international law or concern about the sovereignty, or even the right to exist, of less powerful peoples and countries." 

- Bob Avakian, from Revolution #114, Defeating Trump/MAGA fascism: Looking to some future elections... or working now to mobilize millions around this powerful unifying demand: The Trump fascist regime must go!

Pete Hegseth—Trump's "Secretary of War"—is on a mission to forge a fully fascist military geared to serve these fascist aims. Hegseth is a dark ages Christian fascist, working aggressively to turn the biggest military in the world into an even leaner, meaner and fully fascist war machine—preparing to contend even more intensely to maintain the U.S.'s top-dog global position and to target people within America's borders.

For background on Hegseth, see extensive coverage at revcom.us here, here, and here.

"A Wartime Footing"

On November 7, Hegseth gave a major speech to military and industry leaders responsible for producing the machinery of death that enables the U.S. to terrorize the world with high-tech missiles, bombs, surveillance equipment and more. Hegseth announced a major change in the process through which weapons get acquired and produced for the U.S. military.

This is dealing with a strategic problem that the U.S. military has faced for decades—of an outdated, bureaucratic and relatively slow "military industrial base." In a major article in The Atlantic last year, Mark Bowden wrote, "The vaunted American war machine is in disarray and disrepair." He quoted the former assistant secretary of the Army for acquisitions, logistics, and technology: "The system for equipping the war machine is 'peacetime designed,' the basis of it is not built for war.”

Hegseth announced he is changing this to get on a "wartime footing." In line with Trump's change from calling it the "Defense Department" to "the Department of War," Hegseth announced "the defense acquisition system as you know it is dead. It's now the warfighting acquisitions system.... We're not building for peace time. We are pivoting the Pentagon and our industrial base to a wartime footing." Using a frat boy taunt short for "fuck around and find out," Hegseth continued, "Building for victory should our adversaries FAFO." 

In actual fact, it is the U.S. military that—at Trump's fascist direction—is openly violating international law, bombing inside Iran without provocation, assassinating fishermen in international waters, and threatening invasions into places as far flung as Greenland, Venezuela, and Nigeria!

In this speech, Hegseth did not specify who these American "adversaries" are, but he has repeatedly talked about the need to specifically get into position to face off with, and defeat, China in its imperialist aspirations. 

In the midst of an intensifying trade war last spring, China's embassy posted on X: “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end." Hegseth responded, “We’re prepared." He threatened, "That’s why we’re rebuilding our military. That’s why we’re re-establishing deterrence in the warrior ethos. We live in a dangerous world with powerful, ascendant countries with very different ideology. They’re rapidly increasing their defense spending, modern technology, they want to supplant the United States.” 

Keep in mind: these are two nuclear-armed powers jockeying for position and imperiling the world with the danger of nuclear war. And when Hegseth means that China wants to "supplant the U.S.," he means the U.S.'s position on top of a global imperialist order based on ruthless exploitation of the precious resources on our planet and billions of people around the world, including millions of children. 

A Military Streamlined for War Crimes

On November 4, the New York Times published an opinion piece starkly titled “Whom Will Our Military Be Ordered to Execute Next?”, written by Frank Kendall, the former secretary of the U.S. Air Force. Kendall starts by exposing the criminal nature of the Trump regime’s ongoing attacks on boats off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia, which have killed at least 76 civilians. Kendall describes this as “intentionally killing people who, as far as can be determined, are not engaged in any violent, hostile act against the United States, have no perceived intent to engage in hostile acts against the United States, do not appear to be armed to carry out any attack and could be apprehended easily instead of killed summarily.” 

Kendall points out that U.S. military training teaches officers that “they have a duty to challenge any order they believe may be illegal—and disobey any order they know to be illegal.” But then he brings out that Hegseth has systematically gutted the legal apparatus that could provide backing and backbone to officers or soldiers considering such refusal—for which they could be court-martialed if the order is ultimately judged to have been legal. 

Hegseth fired many top judge advocate generals (JAGs) and other legal officers up and down the line. These are the people who are supposed to guide military personnel to recognize illegal orders. Now these positions are filled by people who agree with Hegseth’s mantra prioritizing “maximum lethality, not tepid legality.” Kendall writes that “the legal chain of command for the military, at least at its senior echelons, has been populated with lawyers who will not say no to virtually anything Mr. Trump or Mr. Hegseth directs them to do.” And Kendall says that without the backing of these lawyers, “a few officers may, as a matter of conscience, still say no,” but most “would almost certainly obey the [illegal] order.” 

Pervasive Purges to Create an Atmosphere of Fear and Blind Obedience

On November 7, the New York Times published a report (“Hegseth Is Purging Military Leaders With Little Explanation”) bringing out that Hegseth has “fired or sidelined at least two dozen generals and admirals over the past nine months,” which is “without precedent in recent decades.” Top military leaders with decades of experience are removed for a whole host of reasons or no apparent reason at all. This includes for being too "woke" or for "DEI" (in other words, being Black or female), for having worked closely with former Chief of Staff Mark Milley (who stood against Trump's attempts to use the military as a tool of political suppression), for questioning the Caribbean boat attacks, for pushing to have woman instructors in SEAL training, for failing to doctor reports to make the Pentagon look good, and many other signs of real or even just possible disagreement with the MAGA fascist crusade. Hammering into place this kind of obedience is essential if the regime is going to consolidate its hold on the military apparatus. But for now, it has created an atmosphere of fear and mistrust, and likely resentment. Even very high-level people feel that they their positions depend entirely on the wishes and whims of Hegseth and Trump. 

It Could Quickly Become Too Late... but It Is Not Yet Too Late 

As we wrote previously, "We here at revcom.us have documented many crimes that have been committed by the U.S. armed forces in their 'normal functioning' as the enforcer and protector of this imperialist system. The horrors have been many, with millions of lives taken by this killing machine after World War 2. But to wield this military to crush and lock down the tens of millions opposed to, or just in the way of, the Trump fascist program would be a leap on to a whole other level of horror, and would make any chance of fundamental change or even basic protest against this system or any of its outrages qualitatively more difficult."

This is what the Trump MAGA fascists are rapidly working to consolidate: a fascist program of rule through open terror and violence, open white supremacy and the patriarchal hatred of women and LGBT people, terror and deportation inflicted on immigrants and the gutting of the rule of law, basic right to due process, and crushing of all dissent and protest. To do this requires a military that is loyal to the fascist tyrant Trump, and not the Constitution they pledged an oath to. This is what Hegseth is working to hammer in and compel.

The longer the regime remains in power, the more this machinery of oppression and terror will consolidate, and it could quickly become “too late.” But it is not yet too late.

All these moves represent big strategic changes and hold big potential risks.

As we wrote above, Hegseth is purging Black and female generals. Hegseth and Trump are bringing back the names of Confederate generals on military bases, and Confederate military statues while purging military libraries of books about the truth of America's history—rooted in slavery and genocide. 

All this, and more, in a military where nearly half the soldiers are Black, Latino and other oppressed nationalities.

In violation of the law and separation of powers, Trump has sent the U.S. military to Washington, DC and Los Angeles (and now Memphis, New Orleans and more)—to counter a supposed "invasion" that is not, and has not been, happening. And he has been fighting the courts to be allowed to use the military in Chicago, Portland and more. In a speech last month, Trump said: “I told Pete [Hegseth], we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military...” 

There are a number of vets speaking out against this, and a few brave active-duty soldiers. Captain Blaha, an active-duty member of the Illinois National Guard and Democratic candidate for Congress, has said he would refuse orders to be deployed to Chicago: “I never, never expected that I would be deployed against my neighbors, against my community.” Staff Sgt. Demi Palecek, also in the Illinois National Guard and a state legislative candidate, said, "It's disheartening to be forced to go against your community members and your neighbors... It feels illegal. This is not what we signed up to do."

When this kind of stand began to be taken during the criminal Vietnam War, it spread throughout the ranks—in the U.S. and among the soldiers in Vietnam itself.

Finally, the supposed legitimacy of the armed forces is that it is "apolitical" in its nature (i.e., not standing with any political party). In addition to Kendall, there are others with ties into the dominant ruling institutions who have expressed profound concern about what Trump and Hegseth are doing, from the perspective of the U.S.'s standing in the world. The New York Times quoted retired General McChrystal about shredding the "norm in which the military avoided politics." He continued that “recent months have challenged this paradigm, at significant risk. Once lost, the legitimacy of a military that reflects and represents all Americans will be difficult to recover.”

This whole fascist regime—and the moves to remake the U.S. military to serve that fascist regime—is completely ILLEGITIMATE! What is needed—urgently—are millions amassing in Washington, DC, determined to drive this regime from power through sustained nonviolent protest coming back again and again until the demand is met: The Trump Fascist Regime Must Go NOW!