In light of today’s news about Trump’s military actions here at home, I wanted to share this extraordinary conversation I had with former CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr the other day. We talked about one of the most serious developments of Donald Trump’s second term: a crackdown on press freedoms, paired with a dangerous acceleration in domestic troop deployments.
“This is the starting point for everything,” Starr said, referring to new oaths being forced upon journalists covering the Pentagon. These oaths, which bar reporters from covering even unclassified information without government pre-approval, signal that the Pentagon is trying to hide something other than the usual state secrets.
“I never thought I would say this,” Barbara explained, “and I feel a little bit odd saying it. But what are they afraid of? What do they not want the American public to see?”
Over the weekend, we got a better idea.
Trump announced surprise troop deployments into Illinois and Oregon without coordination or consent from local leaders. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said he wasn’t even notified that the military was being sent into his state and called it “Trump’s invasion.” Meanwhile, the Oregon deployment was paused by an emergency order from a federal judge, who angrily rebuked the Trump administration for trying to pull a bait-and-switch to evade the judge’s order.
Despite the effort to muzzle Pentagon journalists, a story also broke over the weekend that the administration had been contemplating sending the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division into Portland. That would have been a stunning escalation, given that this is the military strike team that helped lead the assaults into Iraq and Afghanistan. Although they didn’t go forward with it, we now know that elite parachute teams are on the table.
The White House says this a response to “anarchist violence.” But to anyone with a partially functioning frontal cortex, that’s obviously a lie. There were no organized, violent protests ahead of these Trump administration provocations, which are clearly designed to incite violence as a justification for further crackdowns. We may be stupid enough as a country to re-elect Trump, but we’re not stupid enough to believe U.S. cities need military invasion in order to deal with petty theft and street crime.
If that weren’t enough — dispatching troops into U.S. states as “training grounds” and muzzling Pentagon reporters so the public doesn’t know what’s happening — the administration has been mulling changes to the rules of engagement that would allow troops to use more force. As Barbara noted, last week Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signaled he planned to loosen the restrictions.
“One of the things that Pete Hegseth said, [and] I’m essentially paraphrasing: ‘No more crazy rules of engagement. The shackles are off,’” she explained, adding incredulously. “Well, what are you saying? What are you saying to American forces?”
Let’s do a quick refresher here. The “rules of engagement” are military directives that specify the circumstances, conditions, and extent to which military forces can use violence. This means defining for troops when, where, how, and against whom an attack is authorized. The guardrails are designed to make sure civilians are protected in war and that strikes are lawful, ethical, and effective.
But Hegseth seemed to be signaling plans to make it easier to attack civilians. “Outrageous! We wouldn’t do that!” someone in the Trump administration might say, to which my response would be: “Spare me your outrage.” I witness Donald Trump himself demand the shooting of civilians at the border during his first term. I have no illusions that — this time around — he still wants to rewrite the rules of engagement and that pliable people will try to follow through on it.
Trump’s former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warned about this happening. In 2020, he came forward publicly as it appeared Trump was careening toward attacking protesters, and he forcefully declared that we must not turn American cities into “battle space.”
That’s where Trump seems to be heading. And it raises the question: where are the generals? Are the military’s top brass being sidelined or silenced?
“I think the fundamental question right now is where are the Joint Chiefs of Staff?” Barbara asked. “Where is the Chairman General Dan Caine? Is he even privately able to approach President Trump without Hegseth and try and give the president his best military advice on this?…And does he want to do it?
“One of the things that everyone talks about is the U.S. military will never follow an illegal order. Why? Well, the whole idea is you never get to that point. You never present the U.S. military in this country with an order that is not legal.”
Illegal orders are apparently moving faster than the consciences of the top brass. Indeed, a judge in California already ruled that the troop deployment this summer was unconstitutional. Yet no one in the Pentagon stopped the White House before it happened. And now the administration is rushing ahead with more actions that are obviously lawless misuses of the military.
If we want to know where all of this is headed, we might want to look to the Caribbean. That’s where the Trump administration appears to be test-driving its “shackles off” approach to the military — designating Trump’s enemies as terrorists, loosening the rules of engagement, and attacking with lethal strikes instead of arrests.
The administration has labeled drug cartels in the region as foreign terrorist organizations and begun launching missile strikes on suspected drug boats, actions which analysts believe could violate the laws of war. The White House has not given any reason why the boats couldn’t have been intercepted, as would be standard protocol, and why they needed to be obliterated from the sky.
But I don’t need a reason. I already know the answer. Trump likes to create a bloody spectacle as a deterrent, a sick fetish which I’ve had to deal with personally. Others from the administration, like former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, have also come forward and revealed Trump’s desire to use force against civilians right here at home.
I’ve been warning that the same logic being used in the Caribbean could be used to attack the domestic political opposition, which sounds crazy until you realize all of this is crazy. In fact, the basic counterterrorism framework being used to justify the drug cartel strikes is now being applied to left-leaning domestic groups, which Trump also wants to designate as “terrorist” organizations.
That leads me back to the conversation with Barbara. She doesn’t think the gag orders on Pentagon reporters are some kind of coincidence. It is evident that the administration is gearing up to use the U.S. military in bigger, unprecedented ways — and doesn’t want people to know in advance.
“What’s the next step on this road of military force that they may be thinking about?” she asked. “What’s coming next that they may have in their back pocket that they want to pull out and do?”
Watch the full conversation above. And ask yourself what Barbara asked:
What are they hiding?
P.S. WHAT’S HAPPENING ON TREASON
Here’s what’s coming up:
Weds, Oct 8 (12noon ET) - Subscribers Only - Weekly Wednesday Coffee - There is a lot to talk about this week. We’ll pick back up with our weekly coffees — bring questions for a chance to win a signed book. You can join here.
Weds, Oct 8 (4:30p ET) - Congressman Robert Garcia on shutdowns & censorship - Rep. Garcia is the leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, the ones holding the Trump administration’s feet to the fire. Join us for a wide-ranging discussion about the current government shutdown and the administration’s unprecedented Censorship War. You can join here.
Thurs, Oct 9 - Support James Comey - This is the day former FBI Director James Comey will be arraigned in federal court. It’s also the day I expect Donald Trump will “leak” Comey’s mugshot. I hope you’ve picked up a copy of one of Comey’s books and are prepared to respond by posting photos of it.
Fri, Oct 10 (5:15p ET) - Stacey Abrams tells us what a real resistance looks like - She’s been on a roll. Georgia politician, lawyer, and Democratic leader Stacey Abrams has given a lot of thought about what needs to happen next. Come find out what that is. You can join here.
