What to Expect From the Trump National Security Team

Gloom-and-doom defense officials chatter about thwarting Trump’s non-traditional choices. 

By Dave Patterson | Nov 13, 2024 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags: Articles, Military Affairs, Opinion

 

When former President Donald Trump won an impressive re-election, national security wonks went wild with speculation on how Trump 47 would treat the Pentagon. The liberals portrayed the worst possible national security future, casting Trump as a tyrant who would use the active-duty military to impose his will on US citizens. Most of the gloom-and-doomers are “never-Trumpers” and have views of little relevance.

Trump Rapidly Forms National Security Staff

As the Trump Defense Department transition team starts to form its slate of Pentagon and other national security staff, what amounts to a fifth column is forming inside the five-sided building. Media reports show that Trump did not calculate how divisive what he called “the enemy within” really was. There seems to be a cadre of unnamed defense officials holding clandestine gatherings to devise ways to thwart their commander-in-chief. These people need to remember that 75 million voters repudiated their flawed point of view.

News of this despicable behavior was made public in a CNN report:

“Pentagon officials are holding informal discussions about how the Department of Defense would respond if Donald Trump issues orders to deploy active-duty troops domestically and fire large swaths of apolitical staffers, defense officials told CNN … Trump’s election has also raised questions inside the Pentagon about what would happen if the president issued an unlawful order, particularly if his political appointees inside the department don’t push back.”

These reports could be chalked up to chatter among those in the suggestion-making class, always a noisy minority in any administration. These comments are troubling because these voices gain prominence through the mindless echo chamber of the conventional media. To set the record straight about what presidents can do and have done, take the phrase “how the Department of Defense would respond if Donald Trump issues orders to deploy active-duty troops domestically.” This notion is a forecast for the darkest and most malevolent intentions, unprecedented in American history.

However, putting that phrase in historical context, Military.com explained past commanders-in-chief have used soldiers domestically six times. Which leads one to ask those worried about President Trump: 

 

“Do you mean like President Abraham Lincoln using federal troops to quell the New York City draft riots? Perhaps you are talking about President Herbert Hoover when he used the US Army, led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, to remove veterans who set up an encampment on Capitol Hill, or in 1967 when President Lyndon Johnson called in the 82nd and 101st Airborne units to put down ‘Detroit’s 12th Street Riot,’ or maybe you mean the use of 13,600 armed soldiers that restored order when riots erupted nationwide following the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Maybe you are referring to the Los Angeles riots when several hundred Marines restored order in 1992.” 

 

Should anyone forget, President Dwight Eisenhower deployed active-duty soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division in 1957 to escort nine black students to a newly integrated Central High School in Little Rock, AR.

In each of these instances, federal military forces were used domestically because it was necessary to preserve the lives and property of US citizens. That reasoning was precisely how President-elect Trump phrased his intentions about when federal troops would be needed. However, on a more practical level, Trump administration appointees will be swimming upstream, particularly in the Pentagon, to achieve the Trump agenda. For Secretary of State, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) steps up to take the position. Current Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) will be Trump’s National Security Advisor. Fox News personality and veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars Pete Hegseth will be Secretary of Defense.

A Non-traditional Choice

Hegseth, Rubio, and Waltz will constitute the principal national security team; the most non-traditional choice is Hegseth to lead the Pentagon. However, he will have a mandate to turn the Defense Department from a den of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activists into a fighting force capable of again deterring aggressors and, if deterrence fails, to defeat any adversary soundly. Many recent assessments of the US Armed Forces have questioned whether that is possible now.

Give Cable TV the Boot – Check This Out!

Trump sees Hegseth as a no-nonsense, thoughtful leader who will bring back structure, order, and discipline to the Pentagon. Quoting Trump, The New York Times wrote, “Pete is tough, smart, and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — our military will be great again, and America will never back down.”

As the new administration nominees are announced, each has been selected to achieve the Trump agenda. Turning the massive ship of state from the path 60% of voters said is going in the wrong direction will be an immense undertaking and may be painful. However, America will be better for the effort.

The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliate.

~

Liberty Nation does not endorse candidates, campaigns, or legislation, and this presentation is no endorsement.

Read More From Dave Patterson

Fossil fuels still dominate security and defense needs

That’s why climate policies can seriously harm our defense, economic and security needs

Don Ritter

President Joe Biden says climate change is the greatest threat faced by our country, and the world. It’s a greater threat than nuclear war,  he insists.

Ironically, the proposed “solution” of eliminating essential fossil fuels to mitigate climate change actually increases greenhouse gas emissions and toxic air and water pollution – by requiring that we mine and process up to fourteen times more raw materials per megawatt for wind turbines and electric vehicle or backup batteries than would be required for natural gas-based electricity generation.

Worse, most of that mining, processing and manufacturing would be done overseas – almost all of it using fossil fuels – in countries that have few or no laws for pollution control, wildlife habitat and endangered species protection, land reclamation, child and slave labor, fair wages or other values we hold dear.

Eliminating fossil fuels also reduces our ability to protect our homeland, prevent nuclear war and project Peace Through Strength worldwide. Further, it profoundly weakens America, by creating an imminent crisis for our economy and our military, the two main pillars of a nation’s power.

Fossil fuels are the lifeblood of American military power and serve numerous purposes.

Every iota of military equipment needs fossil fuels to manufacture it, and to run it: from fossil fuel-derived petrochemicals to make thousands of plastic components for infinite uses; to mining and processing minerals into thousands of steel and aluminum alloys for trucks, tanks, guns, aircraft and artillery; to copper and non-ferrous metals for wiring and shell casings; to processing minerals and chemicals into gunpowder and other explosives –

to creating and powering the semiconductor chips for increasingly energy-hungry electronic equipment that is part and parcel of all modern weaponry; to producing and shipping food for members of our Armed Services all over the world; to manufacturing pharmaceuticals and medical equipment to save lives and bring wounded warriors back to health.

Fossil fuels are essential for just about everything the military needs, from nuclear weapons to toilet paper!

This war on fossil fuels is happening at the same time the Biden Administration and Democrat supporters in Congress are spending hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on deficit-increasing, investment-directing, market-skewing solar, wind, battery-storage, biofuel and other Green Energy schemes.

Given the overwhelming dependence of our military on fossil fuels, this diversion of investments away from fossil fuels will wreak havoc on America’s readiness and defense industrial base.

Where does the lion’s share of raw materials for wind turbines, solar panels, batteries – and the high-tech equipment to produce these and military items – come from? China, and China-invested or China-run African, Asian and Latin American mines that are notorious for child labor, horrendous working conditions, and virtually no concern for the environment or human lives.

America has bounteous oil, gas and coal at home. It lacks the critical materials that go into wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and weapons only because we have made most American mineralized and mining areas off limits – and the administration has rejected almost every proposed mining project it’s seen.

While the push for renewables may be popular in politics, it is problematic in practice. Reliance on our adversaries is highly detrimental to our national security, economy and very existence.

America will be forced to import vital materials from insecure, adversarial nations, such as China, making us dangerously and unnecessarily dependent on foreign sources. China has the technologies (often stolen from the West) and the materials for dominating both “renewables” – solar, wind and battery industries – and defense needs. The harsh reality is that China is totally dominant in renewable energy industries right now. By “going green,” our dependence on China will only increase

Moreover, their electric grid is powered largely by fossil fuels, and thus is set up to back up wind and solar when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. Meanwhile, ours grid is becoming less reliable as we retire fossil fuel plants. Just think of the freezing of windmills in Texas in the dead of winter, and California’s ultra-green government asking EV owners not to charge their vehicles because doing so could cause widespread blackouts! 

Add Russia as China’s oil and gas station, plus raw materials supplier, and China makes a dramatic leap in both military and economic capabilities. Sino-Russian collaboration could well become the globally dominant force over a fossil fuel-disarming America and West.

Indeed, Russia acting alone is able to invade a large, sovereign European nation – even though Russia’s economy is smaller than Italy’s, a mere 3% of the USA plus Europe. How is that possible?

Because Russia has, produces, uses and sells oil, gas and coal, giving it energy dominance now and into the future. Russia’s war on Ukraine is being paid for by its fossil fuel revenues. And, while energy-weakened Europe reopens a headline-grabbing 27 mothballed coal plants to make up for the lost natural gas from Russia, it still bans fracking for oil and gas, and prays for warm winters.

In the meantime, China is building at least 27 new coal plants every year.

Common sense dictates that America reverse its climate-obsessed anti-fossil-fuel policies, and pursue a future that is “all-of-the-above” energy to ensure economic, technological and national security reality – where all-of-the-above means energy that doesn’t require massive federal and state government subsidies; energy that isn’t weather dependent; energy that is abundant, reliable and affordable every hour of every day, year after year.

Anything less betrays not only our men and women defenders in our Armed Forces, but all of us.

Don Ritter holds a Science Doctorate from MIT and served fourteen years on the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce and Science and Technology Committees. After leaving Congress he created and led the National Environmental Policy Institute.

He was a National Academy of Sciences Fellow in the USSR, speaks fluent Russian, and was Ranking Member on the Congressional Helsinki Commission and founding Co-Chair of the Baltic States-Ukraine Caucus. He is a Trustee of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and Museum, and Co-chairs its Capital Campaign.

 

He Called America Racist, Now He's in Charge of Our Nukes

Daniel Greenfield June 23, 2022 

 It was the summer of 2020. Black Lives Matter riots were terrorizing, destroying, and burning American cities. And the first black deputy commander of Air Force Global Strike Command told everyone in the Air Force that he was terrified that white people could kill him at any moment.

“Here I am as a lieutenant general in the United States Air Force," then Lt. Gen Anthony Cotton whined to Air Force Magazine. “When I see what happened to Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks—and the list goes on and on."

"That could be me," he claimed.

Since Cotton was, unlike Breonna Taylor, probably not harboring an armed drug dealer who opened fire on police or, unlike George Floyd, overdosing on fentanyl during a struggle with police as the climax to a long criminal career, that was a disingenuous smear from a top officer.

The spectacle of successful black men like Obama, Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, or Gen. Anthony Cotton falsely claiming that America is so racist that any of them could suffer the fate of career criminals simply because of an accident of skin color is pathetic and disgusting. The Merck CEO or the Air Force general are as likely to suffer the fate of George Floyd as their white counterparts are to end up like a dead white meth addict shot in a raid in Georgia.

But Cotton knew what he was doing. What he was doing was dishonorable and self-serving.

And it worked.

Two years after complaining about police lights flashing in his rearview mirror and someone challenging his parking spot, Cotton has been nominated by Biden to head U.S. Strategic Command.

It’s been a rapid ascent for Gen. Anthony Cotton who had been appointed to head Air Force Global Strike Command last year, after being Deputy Commander of the same in 2019, up from the head of Air University in 2018. Air University, like a lot of Air Force and Navy educational institutions, had gone painfully woke. And Cotton earned his political stripes in the process.

Gen. Anthony Cotton, a four-star general, racked up some “firsts” attached to his name in the Black Lives Matter era, but that never seems to lessen the accusations of racism.

Charles Q. Brown, Jr. is the Air Force's first black chief of staff, and has been tipped to replace Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Milley. That hadn’t stopped Brown from crying racism and smearing the country he claims to serve.

In a speech in which Brown “seemed to barely contain his rage”, he ranted “that the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution ‘that I’ve sworn my adult life to support and defend’ have not always delivered ‘liberty and equality’ to all.”

"I am a Black man who happens to be the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force," Kaleth O. Wright, the second black man to serve as the highest ranking noncommissioned officer, tweeted. "I am George Floyd…I am Philando Castile, I am Michael Brown."

Cotton is following a familiar identity politics career model that’s bad for America, but good for unprincipled men who are willing to smear their country and play the victim.

Is America any less racist with the first black Air Force Chief of Staff, Chief Master Sergeant, head of Air Force Global Strike Command and now likely head of Strategic Command?

Somehow it’s only more racist.

Last year, Cotton claimed that "diversity, inclusion are tools for national defense" and that diversity is a "warfighting imperative". Perhaps actually winning wars would be imperative.

Has the Air Force become any more lethal on the battlefield ever?

“This team is exactly what we are looking for,” Cotton said of the Diversity and Inclusion Council at Malmstrom Air Force Base. “It is a diverse and unified team that is having crucial conversations about diversity and inclusion.”

The Montana Air Force base near Great Falls now has a Pride Month and will be spreading "unconscious bias training" which claims that all white people are racist.

Malmstrom has had a number of issues. Its nuclear missile unit has failed safety and security inspections, and bungled a response to a "simulated hostile takeover of a silo housing a nuclear missile". There was also a cheating scandal involving 34 missile launch officers during a nuclear proficiency test and many more who knew about the cheating, but didn’t report it.

This was part of a string of problems going back over a decade. Cotton had been in charge of ICBMs at Malmstrom from 2009 to 2011. And he’s gone on climbing the ladder ever since.

Malmstrom's nuclear arsenal is there to deter a nuclear war or end it quickly if it begins.

Having “crucial conversations about diversity” is not its mission, maintaining security procedures and being ready to kill one hundred million people in China, if necessary, is.

Are woke missileers who have conversations about how racist America is better at their jobs?

As head of U.S. Strategic Command, Gen. Cotton will have a leading responsibility in defending or going on the offensive against America’s enemies. But does he view America as the enemy?

Now that its leadership is “diverse” in the sense of being concentrated among members of a single race who agree that the country they claim to serve is a racist place that randomly kills black people on account of their race, is the Air Force any better for it?

FrontPage Magazine’s latest pamphlet, How Obama and Biden Destroyed the Greatest Military the World Has Ever Seen, documents how readiness rates for F-22 stealth fighters are at the halfway mark, CV-22 Ospreys are at 50%, F-35As are at 68%, F-15E's are at 66%, and the B-1 Lancer is at 40%. The B-1s are under Air Force Global Strike Command.

Instead of cleaning house, the Biden administration is rewarding failure and doubling down on wokeness. The Air Force isn’t ready for a major war, but its diverse leaders are eager to fight one against other Americans.

In an interview with Air Force Magazine, Cotton was described as saying that he "hopes the U.S. can reach a point where he doesn’t have to talk to his adult children about how to stay safe every week" from what is apparently the lurking menace of evil white people everywhere.

Given the opportunity, you have to wonder whether Cotton would nuke Beijing or Texas.

“It’s time for our nation to really dive into this and get after it—once and for all. And hopefully, you know, I don’t have to have those conversations with my kids," he complained.

Perhaps it’s time for the Air Force to stop having conversations about racism mandated by racists and for our nation to stop handing over our national defense to those who hate her.  

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.

Click here to subscribe to my articles. 

Thank you for reading.

Tags: military, Race, Racism, recent

Share This:

Facebook Twitter Google+ Pinterest Linkedin

About Daniel Greenfield
Daniel Greenfield is a journalist investigating Islamic terrorism and the Left. He is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center