Shortly after being sworn in, Pete Hegseth, the nation’s new secretary of Defense, put it in a very military way. Declared Hegseth in an X post, January 26:
The President’s guidance (lawful orders) is clear: No more DEI @DeptofDefense.
The Pentagon will comply immediately.
No exceptions, name-changes, or delays.
A photo of a note on DoD stationary was posted. Hegseth went all point blank:
Those who do not comply will no longer work here.
Boom! Mic drop. Pentagon desk jockey generals and stargazers (brass lusting for stars on their epaulets) can’t misconstrue that order. Fat, dumb, stupid, and rainbow-hued soldiers, sailors, and airmen (to hell with “persons”) need to be transitioned to gigs at Starbucks. Soldiers are warriors, not petri dish social experiments. Merit must rule.
Tough as nails PRC marines, cartel paramilitary thugs, and assorted terrorists aren’t going to be crushed by guys pumped up on estrogen and girls who can’t lug gear and maneuver obstacle courses like toxically masculine men can. “Of-color” doesn’t mean a damn thing when the bullets and bombs are flying. No more drag shows. Measure up or muster out.
Hegseth has backed off ushering Charles Q. Brown, Jr, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the door. Brown has indefatigably pushed DEI. His championship of that progressive glop is why Biden’s handlers boosted him up the Pentagon’s greasy pole. Booting Brown would send a big signal to DEI-infatuated brass wherever they’re stationed.
Yet, for all practical purposes, hasn’t Brown been crushed? If he pulls a Milley and goes rogue, we’d expect Hegseth to lower the boom. As Dan Bongino schools, let’s see the results. As long as Brown follows orders and delouses DEI from the military, we’ll take the win.
Hegseth’s martial spirit reflects his boss’ brass cojones and testosterone-fueled quest to Make America Great Again. Of course, we speak of Donald Trump. Four years in the wilderness was an odyssey of indictments, trials, and assassination attempts — and some links time. Did those trials make an already tough-shelled man tougher? If Trump’s hard shell was maxed already, then four years more of adversities deepened his faith in his mission.
Now in the second week of his second presidency, Trump’s unfolding game plan is to crush opponents, whoever and wherever they are. Hardball understates it. Trump’s lease on the White House expires in 48 months. There’s no renewal clause, despite Trump’s trolling about another term. Chumming the waters for Democrats and corporate media and watching the frenzy are justified, if sadistic, pleasures for 47.
Crushing it is what Trump and his team have been doing since 47’s swearing in. Ask the president of Columbia, Gustavo Petro, an evidently clueless lefty-globalist thug.
Señor Gustavo was cheeky enough to tell Trump that the U.S. must keep the Columbian reprobates that splashed across the Rio Grande. That’s thieves, murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and you name it — or those whom Democrats describe as downtrodden. Venezuela has also deliberately dispatched violent desperadoes norte to us.
Vietnam produces a robust bean, for instance. Cut flowers? Everything is coming up roses in Arizona, where 75% of the U.S.’s rose bushes are grown. Make America rosier. Senor Gustavo broke like a piñata after Trump’s whacking. Columbia riffraff are heading home.
Crushing it. Last week in L.A., Trump commanded a roomful of political hacks, grifters (I repeat myself), and nincompoops. Karen Bass, the lefty-globalist L.A. mayor, who had been on a Roots junket to Africa while the Palisades and other communities burned, tried climbing on her high horse when 47 leveled criticisms. The new Trump lowered Bass’ horse without bombast. Trump is attaching conditions to aiding L.A. fire victims. Why? How about California’s Bullet Train to Nowhere?
Reported R Street last December:
California’s bullet train defenders refuse to grapple with the reality. In May, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., sent a letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg explaining, “Voters were promised” the “project would cost the state $33 billion and be completed by 2020” but the state “has not completed a single segment of the system, the total estimated cost has ballooned to $128 billion and counting, and there is no expected completion date.”
With so little of California’s high-speed rail system constructed, it’s a head-scratcher where billions of dollars in expenditures have gone. Okay, they’ve gone to line Democrats’ and special interests’ pockets. This is what passes as results for the party that routinely fleeces taxpayers. Any wonder why Trump is adding conditions to federal funds? He’s sticking up for Palisades’ residents, who voted lopsidedly for Biden (71.7%), Bass, and Gavin Newsom, an empty head if there ever was one. Talk about making your own hell.
In large part, 47 is adding strings to make sure that more than pennies on the dollar reach wildfire victims. You’d think Californians, scorched by reality, appreciate Trump’s maneuver. We’ll see. Yet, Trump is crushing it.
Trump is crushing it on his nominees, Matt Gaetz being the outlier — or was he a sacrificial lamb? Pam Bondi has advanced to a Senate vote. She’ll be confirmed. RFK Jr. has begun Senate hearings. MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) supporters are thronging the Capitol. Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s ex-running mate, is pledging to spend from her fortune and enlisting other wealthy to defeat key senators who vote against his confirmation. Finance committee Democrats did nothing but harangue, slander, and played gotcha at Kennedy’s expense. They’re positioned as defenders of corporate capture of health and food agencies. Bad optics. Kennedy is being pilloried. Americans don’t like bullies.
Trump, Thune, and his legislative team need 50 GOP senate votes and J.D. Vance’s tiebreaker to push Kennedy over the line. Kennedy’s confirmation isn’t an option, and Trump knows it. RFK Jr. mattered to Trump’s election. He’s an ally who brings a lot to the table. Fifty Republican senators need to do their duties. No different for Tulsi Gabbard, whose hearings are this week, too.
Crushing it doesn’t always mean crushing it in a conventional sense. 47, deploying Elon Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) crew, has just offered buyouts to about three million federal employees. Years ago, if you walked the halls of any federal department, you’d wonder if slacking was part of the job description. Nowadays, the slackers stay at home — or did, until Trump signed an executive order making them show up at work. Bureaucrats are overpaid, overbenefitted, and turfy. They’ve turned hostile in that Democrat, lefty-globalist way.
In a weird parallel to Democrats’ standard climate alarmism, the L.A. Times warns of world-ending catastrophe if bureaucrats jump at Trump’s buyout offer. From its January 28 edition:
Even a fraction of the workforce accepting buyouts and leaving could send shock waves through the economy and trigger widespread disruptions throughout society as a whole, triggering wide-ranging — and as yet unknowable — implications for the delivery, timeliness and effectiveness of federal services across the nation.
The Times’ staff and Democrats are suffering from lagging perceptions. Americans aren’t buying the Chicken Little routine anymore. If the sky is falling, its falling on Democrats, the media, the establishment, and the Left. And not accidently, a guy named Donald Trump, who’s gone through hell and back, is crushing it.
J. Robert Smith can be found at X. His handle is @JRobertSmith1. At Gab, @JRobertSmith. He blogs occasionally at Flyover.
Image: AT via Magic Studio
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