NEWS: Pentagon orders military to shut its eyes and ears
Order forbids officials from attending outside conferences -- where they might encounter criticism of the President.
Bottom Line Up Front:
The Defense Department has suspended participation in all think tank and research events. The stunning move — officials cited “the evil of globalism,” as one reason — echoes tactics used by authoritarian regimes to isolate their government workers from independent scrutiny and dissenting ideas.
WHAT HAPPENED
This week, the Pentagon issued a directive banning DOD personnel from attending any outside forums, conferences, or think tank events, including long-established gatherings like the Aspen Security Forum and Halifax International Security Forum. The announcement came via internal email obtained by Politico, and marks a profound (and quite absurd) departure from decades of bipartisan practice.
The decision followed a last-minute Pentagon withdrawal from the Aspen Security Forum just one day before its start, with Trump officials deriding it for promoting “the evil of globalism.” Now, attendance at other major events appears to be under review or banned entirely.
Per the great reporting of Jack Detsh at Politico:
The directive, which took effect Tuesday, applies to all DOD military officers, civil servants and senior enlisted leaders. The Pentagon’s public affairs team must approve any future events…. “In order to ensure the Department of Defense is not lending its name and credibility to organizations, forums, and events that run counter to the values of this administration,” said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, “the Department’s Office of Public Affairs will be conducting a thorough vetting of every event where Defense officials are invited to participate.”
Under the new rules, the Pentagon’s public affairs, legal, and policy teams must approve any engagement in advance, including reviewing talking points and remarks.
WHAT IT MEANS
Blocking attendance at outside programming is more than a bureaucratic annoyance. It’s a sweeping attempt to shut the Pentagon’s eyes and ears to outside ideas. Or as Trump officials have already suggested, to keep its people from encountering the “evils” of viewpoints it doesn’t like.
I hardly need to conjure up comparisons to autocratic regimes. The similarities hit you in the face.
In Soviet Russia, military and political elites were forbidden from attending foreign forums unless cleared by party censors … in Nazi Germany, senior officers were purged for participating in “un-German” intellectual circles … and in Communist China, the PLA is isolated from international discourse to ensure ideological obedience to the party.
Now the United States is following their lead. Once the standard-bearer for open security dialogue, America’s defense leaders are ordering their people to retreat behind an ideological firewall.
As someone who has spent twenty years working in Washington, it’s difficult to overstate how absurd this order is. The total DOD workforce is almost three million people. They get invited to participate in conferences and events every single day — to learn about new threats, engage with foreign allies, explore emerging technology, and on and on. Thousands of events. Tens of thousands of events.
This isolation has real-world consequences. For decades, think tank events like Shangri-La Dialogue, Reagan National Defense Forum, and Halifax have served as informal backchannels for crisis diplomacy. They’ve helped America avoid war, build coalitions, and test policy ideas under public scrutiny. Pulling out weakens transparency, but it also undermines our strategic edge.
WHAT’S NEXT
So now military officials will be wary to leave the building, worried about what they’re allowed to hear or say. That’s not good. If the military’s top minds can’t engage with academic, diplomatic, and civil society voices, they’re flying blind. Groupthink will grow. Bad ideas will fester. Worse, the only “acceptable” opinions will be those that flatter the regime.
Apparently, Trump’s vision of “loyalty” demands that even our warriors be shielded from inconvenient truths. If this trend spreads beyond the Pentagon (say, to State Department or intelligence officials), then we undoubtedly risk a national security community that’s no longer independent, but fully indoctrinated.
By forbidding U.S. military officials from attending outside conferences — where they might encounter ideas Trump doesn’t like — the military effectively embraces a new motto: Don’t Ask, Don’t Listen. And that puts all of us in danger.
Share this post with others and on social media:
I guess I need to ask, why are they at all compliant? Why allow themselves to be isolated and groomed? Why not band together and refuse to be shut out? I’m having a hard time understanding why so many are allowing themselves to become part of evils vision! How can I hold onto hope knowing that so many are willing to sacrifice their own values for self preservation!?
I hope that military leaders are thinking long and hard about the implications of the last 6-7 months of the catastrophe that has become the United States...and remember that their oath of allegiance is to the Constitution.