Trump's dictatorship starts its main military purge

Multiple sources are reporting about defense secretary Pete Hegseth ordering about 800 senior-level military officers for a meeting next week. Regardless of how MAGA demagoguery spins this, the meeting can be seen as the beginning of a purge of military leaders. Trump and MAGA elites want to get rid of military leaders who are disloyal to Trump or loyal to the constitution over Trump. Some observers see this as a purge in support of Trump's and MAGA's ongoing coup to replace democracy and the rule of law with a corrupt Trump dictatorship and the rule of his egotistical whim. 

Last February, Hegseth and Trump conducted an unprecedented purge of senior military leadership, firing Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles CQ Brown Jr., Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti (the first woman to serve as a service chief), and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife. This was the first time that two members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had been dismissed from their senior military roles. Hegseth has systematically removed military leaders without public explanation, including the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse in August, whose preliminary assessment of U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities had reportedly angered Trump.

History shows that authoritarian leaders like Trump use both conventional and unconventional purge methods depending on circumstances. Trump's consistent pattern of norm-breaking suggests the Quantico meeting will use innovative intimidation techniques instead of traditional outright mass firings. After the meeting, those deemed to be disloyal will be quietly picked off one by one.

Evidence to date indicate that Trump's Quantico meeting will be a sophisticated form of military control that transcends traditional purges. This unprecedented military gathering serves Trump's broader campaign of military institutional capture, just like Trump and MAGA elites have now fully captured federal agencies. The Quantico meeting will very likely constitute:

1. A loyalty test by way of observing behaviors of the generals and admirals in attendance.

2. An intimidation display to demonstrate Trump's absolute authority and power. That is fully aligned with the USSC's open support for a dictator euphemistically called a unitary executive

3. A message to create compliance and loyalty to Trump by fear and intimidation.

4. A vehicle to reinforce Trump's and MAGA's authoritarian power and control demagoguery.

The inclusion of enlisted personnel is consistent with Trump's pattern of using witnesses, spectacle, and psychological pressure to achieve political control objectives that traditional methods do not effectively accomplish. By now it is clear that Trump's authoritarian approach often operates outside conventional frameworks and tactics. That requires analysis that accounts for unprecedented tactics designed to achieve MAGA's authoritarian goals by new means.