‘A war from within’

Recently: Want to lay criminal charges against a political enemy when a career prosecutor says there isn’t enough evidence? No problem.

Today: The U.S. military has flown in hundreds of officers from Europe, the Middle East, and Japan to hear Trump’s new plans: assembling “quick-reaction forces” for civil disturbances, using American cities as military training grounds, and treating domestic opponents as threats equivalent to foreign adversaries.

For members: Is free speech in America under “unprecedented” attack?

& New music from Múm ...

Developments

• The generals listen. U.S. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed hundreds of military leaders summoned globally to Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on Tuesday, with the president telling the officers they would be called upon to help “straighten out” Democratic-run cities “one by one” in what he called “a war from within.” Hegseth lectured the audience about “fat generals” and “woke garbage,” announced fitness tests for the “highest male standard,” and said those who disagreed with his agenda should resign.
• Midnight deadline. The U.S. federal government, meanwhile, faces a shutdown at midnight Eastern on Tuesday after President Trump and congressional leaders failed on Monday to reach a spending agreement—as Democrats are demanding health-care subsidies and Republicans, insisting on a “clean” extension through November. Trump posted a deepfake video mocking Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer hours after meeting them, with Jeffries responding by posting a photo of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein captioned, “This is real.”
• Afghanistan goes dark. The Taliban imposed a total internet blackout across Afghanistan starting Monday, cutting fiber-optic and mobile connections for 43 million people in what they called a crackdown on “immoral activities.” The UN warned the shutdown severs banking, hospital services, and contact with the outside world, while Afghans abroad reported losing all communication with family members. It’s the first nationwide blackout since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
• Moldova defies Moscow. Moldova’s pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity won more than 50 percent in Sunday’s parliamentary election, securing a majority despite extensive evidence of what President Maia Sandu described as massive Russian interference—including vote-buying schemes, cyberattacks, and bomb threats at polling stations. The victory—confirmed Monday after diaspora votes were counted—allows Sandu’s government to continue pushing for EU membership by 2028. The pro-Russian opposition leader, Igor Dodon, has claimed fraud—though he’s declined to cite any factual basis for the claim, calling instead for protests.
• Space maneuvering. France and the United States are planning a second joint satellite operation as China expands its military footprint in space. The coordinated missions—following the Pentagon’s first-ever joint maneuver with France late last year and another with the U.K. earlier this month—involve allied surveillance satellites maneuvering close to rivals’ spacecraft—practicing the kind of proximity operations that could inspect, track, or potentially interfere with an adversary’s military assets orbiting thousands of miles above Earth.

‘A war from within’

Hegseth had summoned the officers in attendance on short notice last week without explaining why, requiring officers to fly from Japan, Europe, and the Middle East—at a cost of millions in transport and lodging. And the gathering had raised acute security concerns: Assembling the entire senior military leadership in one location during a potential government shutdown created a single point of failure if something were to have gone very wrong.

The central purpose of the forum, in the end, appears to have been for Trump to issue operational guidance: He’s creating “quick-reaction forces” for civil disturbances, proposing to use American cities as military training grounds, and directing the assembled officers to help “straighten out” urban areas run by “radical-left Democrats.” He seems to have changed engagement policy, too, telling them troops previously required to restrain themselves when civilians spat at them would now respond with force: “They spit, we hit.”

The Posse Comitatus Act—an 1878 law restricting use of the U.S. military for domestic law enforcement—hasn’t stopped Trump from deploying troops to Los Angeles, Washington, and Portland. Tuesday’s guidance suggests those deployments were proof of concept. He told the commanders what he expects next: using cities he considers dangerous as venues for military operations and treating domestic political opponents as threats equivalent to foreign adversaries. 

Hegseth, for his part, made reference to the dozen-plus senior officers he’d already fired and warned more changes were coming for anyone who disagreed. The threat was that explicit. The commanders sat mostly silent, maintaining the military’s nonpartisan tradition even as Trump attacked his predecessors and called journalists “sleazebags.”

That restraint matters, but so, we have to expect, will this: They now have their orders.

For members

License to operate

On Wednesday, September 17, Brendan Carr, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, appeared on a podcast friendly to the Trump administration to talk about the late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel’s recent comments on the murder of the American political activist Charlie Kirk. Kimmel had said President Donald Trump’s allies and supporters were “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered … Kirk as anything other than one of them.” Kirk was a prominent Trump ally.

“This is the sickest conduct possible,” Carr said. Then came the threat: “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

Within hours, major television station owners announced they would drop Kimmel’s show. That evening, Disney, which owns the American Broadcasting Company, suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! indefinitely. A program that had aired for more than 20 years vanished from American television within a single news cycle. Very unusual.

Trump’s critics call this evidence that free speech was now facing an “unprecedented” attack in America. (Those who pay close attention to American affairs will feel a rush of familiarity reading the word.) Former President Barack Obama posted that “the current administration has taken cancel culture to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.” The American Civil Liberties Union was back, too, describing the sequence as “a grave threat to our First Amendment freedoms”—in reference to the U.S. Constitution’s free-speech provisions.

Is it?

New music

‘Only Songbirds Have a Sweet Tooth’

The Icelandic indietronica six-piece Múm returns with their bent style of electronic chamber pop on History of Silence. It’s their first album since 2018, with a title you can imagine introverts everywhere rejoicing at. The first single, out earlier this summer, was titled “Mild at Heart.” If you can imagine what that would sound like, you might anticipate what this one does.