Democrats may have lost the military. In his first term, the four stars kept Trump from being the actual commander-in-chief blocking him with Milley, Mattis and Marx leading the way. Trump learned. This time he has Pete Hegseth running the show. Recruiting is up. Morale too.
Hegseth is holding town hall meetings with troops, civilians and spouses. He had one in DC and one in Stuttgart. He is ditching DEI and focusing on readiness. His actions are showing why Democrats and RINOs forced JD Vance to cast the tiebreaking vote to get his nomination confirmed.
Hegseth used his visit this week to Stuttgart to send a message to the troops.
The messaging began during the flight.
DOD said, “While flying aboard a C-17 from Joint Base Andrews to Stuttgart on February 10, 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signed a memorandum renaming Fort Liberty in North Carolina to Fort Bragg. The new name pays tribute to Pfc. Roland L. Bragg, a World War II hero who earned the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge. This change underscores the installation's legacy of recognizing those who have demonstrated extraordinary service and sacrifice for the nation.”
We all know what he did. That is what makes it so enjoyable. PFC Bragg’s daughter couldn’t be happier. Her father trained at—dramatic pause—Fort Bragg.
But we also know what FJB and Lloyd Austin did in taking the name down. It was not about the original namesake being a Confederate general. The name change was designed to erase history and demote training for war to being second to DEI.
The name game matters.
Trump, too, signed a proclamation recognizing the world’s largest gulf as the Gulf of America while flying over the gulf on his way to the Super Bowl.
Oilfield Rando tweeted, “So the people who made us rename everything from military bases to football teams to pancake syrup are very upset about this Gulf of America thing aren’t they?”
Hamas-shielding AP has chosen dead-naming the Gulf of America as the hill it will die on. Everyone else realizes its Trump’s America now. Google and Apple have changed their maps.
Perhaps outraged that it just lost its USAID funding, AP is fighting this name change. OK. Its choice. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt pulled some of AP’s press privileges. Her choice. She said, “We reserve the right to decide who gets to go into the Oval Office.”
CNN ya-butted, “That’s true, but the AP is typically always in attendance for presidential events because it is a foundational part of the so-called press pool.”
Words matter. If they didn’t, AP would not be pulling this stunt. I don’t advise them to sue. Oh, they will get some district judge in DC to kiss their bottoms but I doubt AP will like what happens on the appeal. I doubt the mainstream news media will like the eventual Supreme Court decision if that happens.
But the real story is how Hegseth is taking over the military. His predecessor had four stars and about as many months off for his poor health. No one noticed he was gone.
That was the way DC liked it. The bureaucratic clergy ran the Pentagon. Pronouns mattered more than PT.
President Trump got the right man to change that.
Hegseth landed at Stuttgart at 2 AM. A few hours later he was working out and lifting weights in the gym with the troops. That’s what they call PT today. He was asked about it later at a press conference.
I did do PT with the troops this morning. Listen, it’s not that long ago that I was right there with them. I probably—no offense, General—I probably connect more with those guys than I do with four-star Generals. But now I get the chance of working with four stars and others who are committed to the troops.
But when I can get down, do push ups and deadlifts with the troops, and just hear from them, what’s working, what isn’t, how do you see your mission set, I love that. So there was never a doubt. even though we got in at 2:00 in the morning, that we were getting up a couple hours later to go do PT. It's a reminder that—you guys—the press in Washington might think I’m young, but in military terms, I’m old.
And that showed this morning with these young guys who ran circles around me in that parking lot.
The press made a big to-do about middle-schoolers at a dependent’s school protesting the banning of child porn in DOD schools, but his real purpose was to address NATO.
He lit the Eurocrats up like the sky on the Fourth of July. Axios summed up his speech:
NATO membership for Ukraine—a central source of tension with Russia promised by the alliance in 2008—is not a “realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said.
U.S. troops will not be deployed to Ukraine to enforce postwar security guarantees.
Any European peacekeepers sent to Ukraine should be deployed as part of a non-NATO mission, meaning Article 5—the alliance's bedrock principle of collective defense—should not protect them.
Three cheers for Hegseth.
USAID is not the only infestation of corruption in the federal budget. NATO should have ended when the Soviet Union did. Bush 41 kept it alive so that the NATO revenue stream from the U.S. Treasury would continue.
But even if we knew where the money was going, even if Hunter and other relatives of powerful politicians weren’t paid off, why would we send our troops to die for Ukraine? Zelensky canceled the election, banned the opposition and shut down Orthodox churches.
I don’t want our troops dying for the rest if Europe until they arrest and deport all those Muslim invaders.
Trump hired Hegseth to change the military back into a lean, mean, fighting machine. That is what true warriors want.
The president did not have the military behind him in his first term. This time he will succeed because he will have the military on his side instead of the future members of Boeing’s board of directors. Hegseth is the key to success in Trump’s second term as commander-in-chief because someone has to quell the riots.
Hegseth was in the Minnesota Guard. So was I. As a Guardsman you bring a totally different mindset to active duty. The four stars have grown up in a bubble and most don't understand their experiences. For one thing the younger soldiers are smarter and more capable than your average active duty soldier because of the Montgomery GI bill. I looked around one day in the 3 shop and realized that the majority of my junior enlisted were engineers, scientists and smart as hell. Hegseth knows this and I believe you're going to see greater use of our part time soldiers when and where appropriate under Hegseth.
Speaking about renaming things, history should change the name of the Biden Administration to the Biden Abortion.