Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at his confirmation hearing refused to rule out opening fire on protesters if Trump ordered it.
As Donald Trump ramps up his use of the military to quell domestic dissent, he has on his side a Pentagon chief apparently ready to carry out any order Trump gives him, possibly including a potentially illegal one to shoot American citizens.
Pete Hegseth, specifically asked during his January confirmation hearing whether he would have obeyed a 2020 Trump demand to shoot protesters — as Trump had wanted then-Secretary Mark Esper to do in his first term — would not answer and instead dodged the question.
On Monday, even as California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued Trump and Hegseth to rescind the deployment because he had not requested it, as he said the law requires, Trump escalated the situation by adding 700 Marines, a full battalion, to the mix.
It is unclear what, precisely, they can accomplish. Federal law prohibits them from arresting people unless Trump were to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act. While he has referred to the protesters as “insurrectionists” multiple times, he has not used his authority to declare the riot an “insurrection” against the United States, which would suggest that the participants are trying to overthrow the national government.
Trump won’t have to look far to find people willing to shoot at protesters.
For years, our government and law enforcement has been crammed with low-IQ people (they intentionally avoid recruiting people who are too smart) who love to over-armor and over-weapon themselves for even the simplest of duties and gleefully fire their weapon at any non-white object that happens to flinch in their presence. People, dogs, heck they threw a grenade into the crib of a baby once.
Anyone who thinks that the military will suddenly have a change of conscience and not fire on civilians is fooling themselves. There are plenty of people out there chomping at the bit to get their hands on a semi-automatic rifle and fire on the first brown person they see with so much as a can of spray paint in their hands (And they may not even have to have spray paint). Heck, one of them raised their gun and openly fired on an Australian reporter as she was broadcasting live just so he could show how big his pee-pee is and scare her off.
Do not think that the military will be the ones who will finally hold the line against Trump’s tyranny. These people have been waiting their whole lives for the opportunity to be able to armor up and start indiscriminately shooting people with impunity. Evidence of that has been all over the news for decades. They won’t stand up to Trump. They’ll thank him for the opportunity and make MAGA hats part of the official uniform.