US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (ABC)

EA on WION: Mr Trump, The UN Still Matters

I joined India’s WION on Saturday to analyze why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned more than 800 US generals and admirals from around the world to an “emergency” meeting in Virginia next Tuesday.

I explain Hegseth’s “political stunt” with his “warrior ethos” speech, a tough guy posture both for Donald Trump and for a Defense Secretary who never saw combat and never had a command or operational position in the military.

And I consider the more dangerous significance. Hegseth is demanding a personal pledge of loyalty to himself and Trump from America’s commanders, as the Administration purges US defense forces in the guise of taking on a “woke” military.

The military’s loyalty is to the nation. It’s not to Donald Trump or Hegseth in an Administration which is verging on the authoritarian.

Asked if this is similar to the Third Reich’s summoning of generals in 1935 to demand a personal oath to Adolf Hitler, I reply:

Donald Trump isn’t the Führer. Pete Hegseth isn’t Hermann Göring, at least not yet.

Germany did purge the military in the 1930s. So did the Soviet Union. But in strictly American terms, Trump and Hegseth see this as “you have to pledge your loyalty to us”.

Watch from 2:56: