Four days ago, Oaklandsocialist warned about the then upcoming meeting of all the top brass with Hegseth and Trump. Pay attention to Trump/Hegseth’s steps in the U.S. military! we wrote. We explained that this would be a move to ensure the complete loyalty of the top brass to Trump, rather than to the U.S. Constitution, meaning the traditional means of capitalist rule. We explained that this involved steps towards ensuring that the 2026 elections did not lead to Trump losing control over either house of congress. We also explained that this involved the “unitary executive” theory of the presidency. (See our article for further explanation and this article for a historical review of the idea and where it leads.)

The top brass gathered in Arlington today. Notice anything about the demographic?

It was so clear that that was what it was all about. Of course, it would be too much to expect a single labor leader or union to issue such a warning. Especially not when some unions actually support the very worst of MAGA – Vivek Ramaswamy – for Ohio governor, and without a single murmer of protest from any other corner of the labor movement. It would also be too much to expect that the socialist movement – such as it is – would pay any attention. After all, most of them in effect campaigned for Trump last year. They did so by focusing all of their fire on the Democrats during the election campaign, and without a word of warning of what Trump and MAGA had in store. Since then, they have learned not a thing. Hardly a word about tariffs. Hardly a word about the threat Trump poses to next year’s election. Hardly a word about Trump’s attacks on the mainstream news media or the large corporate law firms. Oh no! That would make them seem too much like supporters of the Democratic Party, which they view as the greater danger. Even a few Democrats are starting to worry about Trump’s actions regarding the upcoming elections – a little late and muted, but at least they are saying something.

Now, the military meeting has happened and it’s confirmed everything we wrote. At the military brass meeting today, Hegseth gave the warmup for Trump, telling the generals that if they weren’t completely on board with the Trump agenda they should resign. Trump followed it up. He said U.S. cities are: “very unsafe places, and we’re going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war, too. It’s a war from within. I told [Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth], we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military — [not just] National Guard, but our military, because we’re going

Trump looked like he was struggling to keep his eyes open during his long speech. He can’t have impressed the generals very much, but will they put their careers at risk to resist him?

into Chicago very soon.”

He said a lot more (which we will analyze in the coming week), but the main purpose of the meeting was to ensure that when Trump orders the military to violate the U.S. Constitution that he has absolute obedience up and down the line. The degree to which they will be able to achieve that will depend to a large measure to the degree to which the rank and file troops obey orders without hesitation. That will depend to a large measure on the degree that there is a widespread working class resistance. Judging by all performances, such resistance will have to develop semi-spontaneously and organically, because the leadership of the working class – the union leadership – will do nothing to organize it and the socialist left, much of which is really just the “left cover” for the “progressive” union leadership (when they are not parading their “revolutionary” credentials) won’t either… even if they had any roots in the working class, which they do not fortunately.

That leaves it up to working-class oriented socialists to start preparing now. An important step in preparing is to find the ones and twos of union members who are willing to find a way to start organizing rank and file groups within the unions that are willing and able to organize for a genuine transformation of our unions. No easy task, that, but it has never been more necessary.