The Purges In the Army

“If my words today make you shudder, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth told senior U.S. Army officers.

Having gathered 900 generals and admirals at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia—which also houses the renowned FBI academy, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s training center, and several other interesting institutions — Hegseth warned them that purges were awaiting the military’s leadership.

More precisely, he warned them that the purges would continue — after all, starting in February 2025, the following were fired: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General K.K. Brown, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Lieutenant General Jeffrey Cruz, Vice Admiral Nancy LaCor, Vice Chief of Naval Reserves, and Director of the National Security Agency General Tim Ho. And this is clearly not the end — Trump intends to retain only loyal officers in the military leadership.

Speaking to those gathered at Quantico, Hegseth lashed out at several retired officers who have incurred Trump’s wrath, including former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley and former head of US Central Command General Frank McKenzie.

“The new course is clear: out with the Chiarellis, McKenzies, and Milleys — we need the Stockdales, Schwarzkopfs, and Pattons. I’m sure there will be other personnel changes. Not because we want to, but because we must,” he said. (General Peter Chiarelli was Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Obama.)

A military purged of liberal military leaders will be ready to carry out Trump’s orders to restore order in megacities like Chicago. Trump, speaking after Hegseth, made it clear he intends to use the military to address domestic security issues:

“I told Pete that we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military—the National Guard, but specifically the military. Because we’re about to enter Chicago. It’s a big city with an incompetent governor…

Our military continues a great and glorious tradition: from protecting frontier settlements to fighting bandits in the Wild West. Our history is filled with heroes who have fought all enemies — foreign and domestic. You know the phrase well: it’s the oath — “against enemies foreign and domestic.” And today, we have such enemies within.

George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, George Bush, and many others used the military to maintain order within the country. Many leaders have done so. But now they like to tell us, “You can’t use the military.” Do you know what people say in those cities where they’re raped, robbed, and murdered? They say, “We love the military.””

The significance of today’s meeting in Quantico is that Trump and Hegseth made it clear: anyone who disagrees with their policy of using the military to solve domestic problems can resign now. Only after they succeed in crushing liberal opposition within the military’s upper echelons will Trump be able to declare real war on the “deep state.” Not before.

This, incidentally, is a response to those skeptics who criticize Trump for still failing to deal with his powerful enemies — from the Clintons to Soros. Trump remembers all too well how the generals in 2020 resisted his desire to use the military to suppress the Black Lives Matter riots, which ultimately cost him the presidency.

It’s only just beginning.

900 generals and admirals at the Marine Corps base in Quantico.