This page is part of a resource collection on far right extremism.
Related Resources from Cross Cultural Solidarity
- Trump’s Weaponization of the National Guard.
- Military & Defense Industry Opposition to Trump.
- Far Right Extremism, Veterans, & the U.S. Military.
News: 2025
January 27. NPR: Hegseth has signaled he may halt efforts to fight extremism in the military.
February 9. Ellen Nakashima & Warren P. Strobel: U.S. intelligence, law enforcement candidates face Trump loyalty test: Candidates for top intelligence and law enforcement jobs were asked to give “yes” or “no” responses to questions such as: Was Jan. 6 “an inside job?”
February 22. Greg Jaffe: In Pursuit of a ‘Warrior Ethos,’ Hegseth Targets Military’s Top Lawyers: The defense secretary has repeatedly derided the military lawyers for war crime prosecutions and battlefield rules of engagement.
February 23. Ruth Ben-Ghiat: Preparing Trump’s Military Purge: What MAGA Did Not Want the U.S. Naval Academy to Hear.
March 1. Scott Neuman: Pentagon plans to begin removing trans service members from the military next month.
March 5. Matthew Kassel: Pentagon deputy press secretary Kingsley Wilson is a prolific purveyor of antisemitic conspiracy theories.
March 14. The Washington Post: Arlington Cemetery website scrubs links about Black and female veterans. Pentagon leaders have ordered that their websites and social media pages remove articles and images that “promote” DEI.
March 18. Drew F. Lawrence: Navajo Code Talker Videos, Photos, Stories Removed to Comply with Trump Diversity Purge.
March 19. Rhian Lubin: Pentagon defends removing webpage of MLB’s color-barrier breaker Jackie Robinson: ‘DEI is dead at the Defense Department.’
March 20. David Neiwert: Pentagon’s reliance on ‘cultural Marxism’ trope to defend erasure of nonwhite soldiers is a dead giveaway:When a spokesman uses a white-nationalist conspiracy theory to defend erasure of web pages dedicated to the valor of soldiers of color, it’s clear that the problem isn’t DEI.
April 5. David E. Sanger & Nick Corasaniti: Trump Weakens U.S. Cyberdefenses at a Moment of Rising Danger: The firing of the head of the National Security Agency was only the latest move that has eroded the country’s fortifications against cyberattacks, especially those targeting elections.
April 5. David Ignatius: A deeply ominous week for the spy agencies: Injecting politics into professional intelligence gathering won’t keep Americans safe.
April 14. Steve Vladeck: Five Questions About Domestic Use of the Military.
May 2. New York Times: C.I.A. Fires Top Doctor Targeted by Far-Right Activist
May 5. Dan Lamothe: Hegseth orders cuts to Pentagon’s stable of generals and admirals.
May 8. Graham Parsons: West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate.
May 24. Kristin Wright: Defense Secretary Hegseth puts new limits on press access at the Pentagon.
June 2. NPR: What’s the message behind Trump’s military parade?
June 3. Steve Inskeep: Trump fires historians who put together unbiased accounts of U.S. foreign policy.
June 3. Andrew Schneider: Former Afghan soldier arrested at Houston-area home by ICE, stripped of asylum protections. The soldier is one of at least 20,000 Afghans seeking asylum nationwide, having fled Afghanistan after aiding the U.S. military during the two-decades-long war there.
June 6. Tom Bowman & Ximena Bustillo: DHS memo details how National Guard troops will be used for immigration enforcement.
June 8. Justin Jouvenal & Alex Horton: Trump charts new territory in bypassing Newsom to deploy National Guard: Legal experts questioned the president’s response to unrest in Los Angeles, saying he appears to be laying groundwork for more expansive use of the military to suppress dissent.
June 8. Charlie Savage: The Legal Issues Surrounding Trump’s Use of Troops to Suppress Protests: President Trump has long mused about sending the military to crush protests in blue-state cities. He is now using troops in Los Angeles.
June 8. Ruth Ben-Ghiat: What Trump and Hegseth Really Fear: Shows of Public Solidarity with the Vulnerable Must Be Extinguished by the State.
June 8. Matthew Sheffield: Donald Trump’s ‘state of exception’ cracks down on California: Nazi legal theorist Carl Schmitt provided the gameplan that Trump and Vance are following.
June 9. Tom Bowman: Trump mobilizes Marines and more National Guard troops for duty in LA.
June 9. A Martínez: Why Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to LA is unprecedented, according to a general.
June 9. Leila Fadel: Trump using National Guard in LA is an ‘abuse of power,’ says national security expert.
June 9. Kat Lonsdorf: What Trump’s national emergencies could mean for American democracy.
June 10. Helene Cooper: Military Parade Marches Into Political Maelstrom as Troops Deploy to L.A.: President Trump’s decision to send troops into an American city comes just days before a rare military display in the nation’s capital.
June 10. Erica L. Green & Maggie Haberman: Trump Threatens Any Protesters at Military Parade With ‘Very Big Force’.
June 10. Malcolm Ferguson: Stephen Miller Behind Draconian Orders That Set Off L.A. Protests: Miller reportedly engineered the raids that sparked the protests that have engulfed the city in recent days—likely because he wanted a pretext to send in federal troops.
June 10. Chris Cameron: Trump Says Army Bases Will Revert to Confederate Names: The move would reverse a yearslong effort to remove names and symbols honoring the Confederacy from the military.
June 11. The Washington Post: Trump White House opens door to historic military deployment on U.S. soil: The administration’s message coincides with a rise in bellicose language from President Trump.
June 11. Konstantin Toropin & Steve Beynon: Bragg Soldiers Who Cheered Trump’s Political Attacks While in Uniform Were Checked for Allegiance, Appearance.
June 11. Drew F. Lawrence & Konstantin Toropin: Marines Authorized to Temporarily Detain Protesters in LA, Raising Legal Concerns.
June 11. Joseph Nunn: The Posse Comitatus Act Explained. The law generally prevents the president from using the military as a domestic police force.
June 12. Andrew Gumbel: Troops and marines deeply troubled by LA deployment: ‘Morale is not great.’ Several service members told advocacy groups they felt like pawns in a political game and assignment was unnecessary.
June 12. Ishaan Tharoor: What Orwell thought of military parades: President Donald Trump’s army parade will rumble through Washington on Saturday, an unusual moment in America, which doesn’t usually use parades as a show of force.
June 14. Editorial Board: It wasn’t just the parade: This week, Trump politicized the military. The president is all too willing to use Americans in uniform as political props.
June 15. Ruth Ben-Ghiat:Trump Wants You to Get Used to This.
June 27. Christine Hauser: Pentagon Strips Harvey Milk’s Name From Navy Vessel.
July 22. Tom Nichols: The Administration Wants Military Women to Know Their Place: Pete Hegseth seems to be on a mission to erase women from the top ranks of the U.S. armed forces.
July 29. Greg Jaffe & Maggie Haberman: Top Generals Nominated for New Positions Must Now Meet with Trump: The move is a departure from past practice and has raised worries that it could lead to the politicization of the military’s top ranks.
August 5. LA Times: Trump names himself chair of L.A. Olympics task force, sees role for military during Games.
August 5. Les Carpenter: Trump suggests he could use the military to keep the L.A. Olympics ‘safe’: The president said he could use the military for security purposes but did not explain how.
August 8. The New York Times: Trump Directs Military to Target Foreign Drug Cartels: The president has ordered the Pentagon to use the armed forces to carry out what in the past was considered law enforcement.
August 14. Ben Makuch: How Pete Hegseth’s zeal to bring religiosity to the Pentagon is dividing the military.
August 21. The Economist: Donald Trump has purged one of the CIA’s most senior Russia analysts: The move will have a chilling effect inside American spy agencies.
August 22. Minho Kim: Homeland Security Tells Watchdog It Hasn’t Kept Text Message Data Since April. The agency’s response to public records requests indicated potential violations of federal records laws, experts said.
August 27. The Washington Post: Hegseth fires head of Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse.The firing follows a June preliminary assessment from the DIA — the Pentagon’s main intelligence wing — of the Iran military strikes, which prompted vicious backlash from the Trump administration.
September 19. David Ignatius: The chilling reason the military is silent now: This is what happens when you purge the JAGs.
2024
July 2. Kate Sullivan: Trump amplifies posts calling for televised military tribunal for Liz Cheney.
October 12. Ruby Cramer: Trump is ‘fascist to the core,’ Milley says in Woodward book. The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says Trump is “the most dangerous person to this country,” echoing dire warnings of others in national security circles.
November 14. Odette Yousef: Peter Hegseth’s tattoos are raising some eyebrows.
November 14. Democracy Now! Trump’s Pick to Lead U.S. Military Has Tattoos Linked to White Supremacists and Nazis.
November 15. NPR: What’s behind defense secretary pick Hegseth’s war on ‘woke’.
Nov 15. Robert Mendick: Mapping Pete Hegseth’s tattoos: the Christian ink that got him kicked off Biden’s National Guard team.
November 28. Jason Wilson: Trump Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth’s books foreground anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Earlier Articles
Ruth Ben-Ghiat: When the Right Turns the Military into an Authoritarian Tool: To protect democracy, curb extremism in the armed forces.