r/politics • u/T_Shurt • 19h ago

Possible Paywall Hegseth Announces Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich Will Help Lead Military

https://newrepublic.com/post/216045/pete-hegseth-elon-musk-newt-gingrich-help-lead-military
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u/Murais 19h ago

Given that he just purged a bunch of generals and is now appointing partisan private citizens to command,

Why is nobody talking about this as the bedrock of a coup?

Because that's 100% what this reads like to me.

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u/Burial 17h ago

This isn't the first purge of military leadership since Hegseth was appointed, it's not the second or third either. A lot of people have been pointing out this is how you setup a coup since the first.

Not sure why nothing is being done about it at an institutional level. For awhile I thought something might be happening behind the scenes. At a certain point you just stop pointing at the asteroid.

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u/nnomae 7h ago

To all the people asking "what can they do?" they could have impeached Hegseth at any time over the politically motivated sackings of military leadership.

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u/9mackenzie Georgia 6h ago

Yes, if Republicans backed that impeachment (well, besides Massey who is currently trying to do it) he would already be gone.

Which is why everyone should remember this is the entire Republican Party, not just Trump and cabinet.

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u/PyroIsSpai 5h ago

What stops Hegseth 2 Acting doing the same? SecDef Stephen Miller?

Conservatives can never be allowed to rule again.

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u/9mackenzie Georgia 5h ago

Exactly. Everyone acts like Trump dying or being ousted will somehow solve the problem…….he was just the symptom of the disease that is the Republican Party (ie fascism/christian dominionism). Did he speed up their long term goals by a huge margin due to his cult of personality ? Absolutely. But what is happening was always the end game, and that plan has been in the works for DECADES.

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u/wirefox1 1h ago

I wish we could bring back 'exiles". Send them all to North Korea or Siberia. Take their psycho trump with 'em.

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u/Extension-Bit-7792 47m ago

Its important than everyone remembers: trump voters are trump collaborators.

Punishments must run top to bottom.

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u/Dangerous-Billy 2h ago

Republicans are either frightened or in on the grift.

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u/Prize-Bumblebee-2192 2h ago

Mike no johnson needs to go. Stat

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u/DildoeShwagginz 2h ago

Ah yes, the republicans are all at fault. No blame on the democrats who wont speak up about the war. Just the republicans. As for the republicans who are speaking out against the war, well its their fault too because they're republicans. Democrats don't need to speak out against the war because Trump is a republican. Therefore its a republican issue that they need to figure out themselves.

Such a stupid mindset to have. They wont impeach him because they're all making money from this war. Republican, democrat, whichever party they "align with", they're all making money off of it. Its a uniparty designed to make you hate your neighbors. They disagree with each other on domestic principals that keep us at each others necks but when it comes to Israel, war, and commitment to donors, they're all on the same page. One side screams "they're fascist!" the other side screams "they're communist!".... call it what it truly is, Totalitarianism. Theyll keep us seperated on the small shit that doesnt matter in the grand scheme until weve given away all our personal liberties. Its not facism, its not communism, its totalitarianism.

Why are we still falling for this crap?

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u/masterots 1h ago

Right now it's people calling out the Republicans because Mike Johnson ended the session early and sent everyone home to avoid having a vote.

Yes, the Democratic party also sucks. Hit us with the whataboutism when the vote is held and both parties vote against impeachment.

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u/DildoeShwagginz 1h ago

No whataboutism here. Im not defending republicans. Just think theres a lesson to be learned thats going over everyones heads.

Republicans put ALL their faith into their party. Vote red no matter what! Look where it got republicans. Lowest approval rating of all time. Nothing can get passed in congress. Democrats are now doing the exact same crap. Vote blue no matter who! Weve all seen what identity politics turn into now. When you cast a vote soley for party, a president like Trump is what you end up with. Dont make the exact same mistake. Hold these people accountable.

"No im not voting for you, you did NOTHING to hold Trump accountable for his actions" and that should go for both Dems and all the republicans who have woken up to who Trump truly is.

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u/LookIPickedAUsername 6h ago

Yes, the people who want this to happen could clearly stop this at any point if only they didn't want it to happen.

Unfortunately, they do want it to happen.

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u/scubascratch 5h ago edited 4h ago

Impeachment articles have been filed already against Hegseth. But Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson dismissed the House until after the election, so no vote can happen. So what’s your next move?

At some point you will have to admit that republicans have figured out how to lock out virtually all opposition and that this is not in fact democrats fault.

Edit: loser above me posted some
“Both sides are the same” bullshit and then got butt hurt and deleted his bullshit when I blocked him. Doesn’t even bother to vote and complains anyway. What a loser.

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u/Kerblaaahhh Colorado 4h ago

Unfortunately it's basically impossible for an impeachment of anyone to lead to removal from office since it requires 2/3rds of the Senate. I expect the Dems to take the Senate these midterms but 2/3 is out of the question and there are no reasonable Republican senators.

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u/[deleted] 5h ago edited 5h ago

[deleted]

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u/scubascratch 5h ago edited 4h ago

Oh you’re one of those “both sides are the same” people who probably didn’t even vote in any of the last several elections, or actually helped elect Trump by voting for some useless 3rd party candidate. YOU are responsible for this situation so thanks /s.

Edit: loser calling me pathetic removed his both sides nonsense proving he’s a bad faith loser and was properly blocked

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u/Virtual_Assistant_98 4h ago

Nah instead let’s just recess the house until after the midterms. What could go wrong?? /s

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u/yukeake 3h ago

...or the killings of those Venezuelan fishermen for that matter.

"That should have been enough to get him kicked out" is too common a phrase with this administration in power.

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u/kidcrumb 8h ago

The only things you could realistically do to stop this aren't legal. That's the catch 22.

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u/Number13Studios 4h ago

Kinda surprising a lot of the military guys who are getting ousted or played with aren’t speaking up or acting out

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u/kidcrumb 4h ago

Don't want to risk their pensions might be one reason. Another reason might boil down to the military mentality of "I don't need to agree with what I'm told to do."

It's not a knock on how they think, but for someone who's served probably 4+ Presidents who has had a lifetime in the military they probably disliked most of their "bosses."

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u/PrettyBoyDude 3h ago

If they look at Trump as just another "bad boss" and not the threat to this country and the world for that matter, they were nothing more than mindless tools for violence and war crimes. They were supposed to take an oath before joining the military to protect from enemies foreign and domestic, they did neither.

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u/MastrTMF 2h ago

What are you even suggesting they do? Give really catty exit interviews? Publish a substack? Say you can't fire me! I quit! Every time they get retired?

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u/PrettyBoyDude 1h ago

To not treat this like a joke like you do, "catty exit interviews and substacks" or how about calling this out on a bullhorn and understanding that this country is actually in danger? But I can see you probably have some more Israel defense to engage in, so no need to take this seriously, gotta defend the actual country that you care about! History will not look kindly upon you if we make it through this, so its understandable you want to treat this like a joke. Ghoul.

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u/MastrTMF 55m ago

Like it or not, and I'm really not asking you to like it, they got legally removed through legal means. If you are suggesting that they do something illegal to counteract that, I strongly suggest you reconsider otherwise while I may be treating you like a joke, you're treating this like a video game.

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u/NonNewtonianResponse 3h ago

Also, and just as importantly, imo, in this day and age -- the only things you could realistically do to stop this are against the terms of service of every social media platform to discuss

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u/kidcrumb 1h ago

I wasn't even going that far. Even generals ignoring Hegseth's orders or forcibly removing him is probably illegal.

What's needed are a few J. Edgar Hoover types who would blackmail members of congress and the President to stay in his position. Someone to keep it all in line.

Shouldn't be hard for a group within the FBI to blackmail their director. The dude looks like a weasel.

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u/the_king_of_sweden 1h ago

Neither is a coup

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u/Free_For__Me 17h ago

Who would do something at any institutional level?  He’s not technically doing anything illegal yet. That comes after the purges.  

I mean, he’s almost certainly breaking some level of the UMCJ, but that’s why they cleared out the JAG corps last year before they did anything else. No one left to blow whistles. 

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u/WilliamLermer 13h ago

Success in politics is not about doing the right thing for the people, it's about exploiting the system to your advantage and for others paying you to so exactly that

Corporations and private individuals messing around has always been a thing for centuries, it has always been the ruling elite making all kinds of decisions as they saw fit while people were dying for stupid reasons

None of this is new. What's new is the scale of influence and power consolidations due to insane amount of wealth and technology

People asking "why are they all hoarding money what's the point big number go up" still don't get it. This is exactly the reason since humans started to exploit and oppress each other, to race to the top to buy into the power structure and reshape the world to your liking no matter the cost

More money equals more political power, which means more favorable deals, more influence, more sway, more impact on the world

These guys all want the same thing and it's actually disgusting and instead of stopping them, we jus watch them burn down the entire world every so often

That astroid can't come fast enough but these people will probably have a higher chance of survival and still get their vision implemented after the dust settles.

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u/PxyFreakingStx 8h ago

Not sure why nothing is being done about it at an institutional level.

what can they do?

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u/EternalMediocrity 5h ago

And thats the catch of one side controlling all 3 branches of government. They have no incentive to keep their own side in check and it all essentially resides on the honor system that each branch of government will do their jobs.

I think this is the main reason we need universal ranked choice voting to break the binary of a 2 party political system. It also has the effect of allowing people to vote FOR someone instead of against someone.

But outside of a citizen uprising, theres no real way to force each branch of government to do their jobs to keep the others in check. Hopefully enough republicans are coming around that it wont come to that, but the next 2 elections truly will decide the future of America