EDITORIAL: US President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, in their addresses to a conclave of American generals and admirals on September 29, gave clear demonstrations of their authoritarian impulses and disdain for a worldview built on diversity, free expression and democratic pluralism.
Secretary Hegseth had summoned senior US military officers from around the world to Quantico, Virginia, without giving any clarity beforehand about the purpose of such a high-level gathering, something that inevitably stirred much uncertainty and unease.
What transpired was both men outlining a vision of the American military recast in the mould of President Trump’s worldview: no longer even paying lip service to the rhetoric of defending democracy abroad, but instead turning its gaze inwards, i.e., towards policing dissent at home and consolidating political power.
Both leaders displayed an alarming willingness to undermine civic freedoms and a disturbing eagerness to harness the military in pursuit of establishing centralised, unchecked authority.
As has become customary with President Trump, his address quickly slipped into the cadence of a campaign rally, with the extraordinary proposition that the military be deployed against Democratic-run cities and their residents, effectively turning them into “training grounds” for the armed forces.
Terming these cities as “dangerous” and warning of a “war from within”, he also urged violent retaliation by the military against those protesting his administration’s draconian immigration policies and the aggressive, legally dubious practices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Such an overtly political call for military action at home marks an unprecedented break in a nation where the armed forces have historically stayed aloof from domestic politics — something regarded as a core constitutional principle.
What is unfolding in the US today represents a profound sea change in the mindset of its power brokers. It is a fact that its rise to unparalleled wealth and power rests on the blood, sweat, ingenuity and vision of immigrants who built the country with their labour and sacrifice. For a time, it seemed that the nativist and white-supremacist currents of the past had been pushed to the margins by decades of progress towards a more pluralistic society.
Their resurgence, however, has now culminated in an America under President Trump where immigrants live in constant fear of detention and deportation, even when legally entitled to stay. These regressive impulses have also hardened into a broader hostility towards all marginalised communities, with people of colour and women disproportionately targeted by policies that seek to diminish their place in American society.
That same drive to marginalise has been replicated within American military. At the Pentagon, Secretary Hegseth has removed women and African American officers from senior positions, disregarding their service and contributions, while pushing policies that dismantle hard-won efforts to foster inclusivity.
Framed as a return to ‘merit’, the Trump Administration has portrayed diversity, equity and inclusion as incompatible with true meritocracy – a theme central to Secretary Hegseth’s speech at Quantico. He openly declared that diversity had no place in the military, claiming that “for too long, we’ve promoted too many uniform leaders for the wrong reasons – based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts”.
This campaign against inclusivity has extended beyond the military. Across other arms of government, similar purges and rollbacks are under way, while even private organisations have been pressured to fall in line with the same regressive agenda. Whether this assault on the rights of minorities, marginalised groups and immigrants can endure remains uncertain as the electorate will have its say on this policy framework, come election time.
Until then, however, the danger persists that these impulses and policies will become further entrenched, and all the more difficult to reverse.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025