Trump and Hegseth unveil a plan to make the military an authoritarian institution and adapt the notion of the battlefield and the enemy for domestic use.
The Trump administration was presenting a holistic plan to shift the culture and conduct of the United States military to accommodate the lawless character of this nascent regime. Not only is this a plan to make the military an authoritarian institution on and off the battlefield, but to adapt the very notion of the battlefield, and the enemy, for domestic use.
The assembly of military luminaries and the livestream were necessary because all of these audiences needed to see in real time the commander in chief letting those luminaries know that he considers them to be expendable and also see them being given their new mission statement: to fulfill the commander in chief’s desires to use the American military against American civilians who stand up for democratic freedoms.