US President Donald Trump in Oval Office. Photo: rawpixel.com.
By M Santos – Oct 13, 2025
After decades of financing wars, regime changes and assassinations, the US imperialist political establishment is now trying to appear as a peacemaker. It is invoking “peace” in the massive suffering caused by the very conflicts it has funded and perpetuated.
US President Donald Trump is not merely the unhinged madman that some might think, with his lies, half-truths and contradictory ranting and raving. There is method in his madness–that of an egotistic, dangerous, fascistic dictator. A man who plans to not only rule the US and its military with an iron fist, but who also seeks global dominance in a uni-polar world and is prepared to do whatever it takes.
“Together, we’re reawakening the warrior spirit, and this is a spirit that won and built this nation,” said Commander-in-Chief Trump.
Trump and Hegseth were addressing 800-plus US generals, admirals, and senior enlisted advisers assembled from around the world at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on 30 September.
Amidst Trump’s egotistical rants there runs a clear agenda: the US is on an aggressive and offensive path to eliminate any economic or military competition. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are in US imperialism’s sights as well as the ever-expanding BRICS group of countries and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
“And we want war because we want to have no wars, but you have to be there and sometimes you have to do it,” said Trump while claiming to have settled eight wars in his pursuit of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump boasted about the superiority of the US’s nuclear weapons and its “undetectable” submarines claiming that they were 25 years ahead of China’s and Russia’s.
Might rules
In a repeat, but a more dangerous form of the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) doctrine, Trump argued that making the US the most powerful nuclear force will act as a deterrent. “We’re investing tens of billions of dollars in modernising our nuclear deterrence capabilities like never before,” said Trump. For “deterrence” read “offensive.”
“We must be so strong that no nation will dare challenge us, so powerful that no enemy will dare threaten us, and so capable that no adversary can even think about beating us,” Trump declared.
What enemies? US imperialism faces no military threats, only a decline in its economic power. It has around 900 foreign bases, including those encircling China and Russia.
By bullying and imposing massive tariffs on other countries, including subservient allies such as Australia, the UK, and the European nations, Trump is attempting to shore up the US economy.
“We’ve taken in trillions of dollars, we’re rich. Rich again, and there’ll never be, when we finish this out, there’ll never be any wealth like what we have,” he said referring to investments pouring into the US to avoid tariffs.
But economic means alone are insufficient. The US is looking to military means of global domination in the face of more and more nations of the Global South asserting their independence, and the economic challenge China poses.
Pick of the litter
“Over the past eight months, new enlistments, I’m so proud of this, have surged to record highs, the highest we’ve ever had. And we used to have recruiting shortages,” Trump told the gathered brass.
That’s hardly surprising when 750,000 government workers have been sacked by Elon Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency). The massive withdrawal of funding for services in Democrat states also contributes to rising unemployment. And at the time of writing the blocking of government funding was set to result in more job losses.
“A year ago they were talking about making the military smaller because they can’t get the people to join … it’s nice to be able to cut people because of merit that aren’t really qualified for any reason, a physical reason, a mental reason,” he said echoing Hegseth’s report. “You don’t have to take them anymore because you have the pick of the litter and they all want to be with you.”
Urban warfare
“After spending trillions of dollars defending the borders of foreign countries, with your help we’re defending the borders of our country from now on. We’re not going to let this happen,” continued Trump. “Biden let people come in from prisons, mental institutions, drug dealers, murderers. We had 11,488 murderers allowed into our country by this guy who had no clue.”
“But together with many of you in the room, we’ve brought back the fundamental principle that defending the homeland is the military’s first and most important priority. That’s what it is.”
“Last month I signed an executive order to provide training for quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. This is going to be a big thing for the people in this room because it’s the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control. It won’t get out of control once you’re involved at all,” Trump said.
“In our inner cities … it’s a big part of war now, it’s a big part of war,” Trump said.
Trump bragged that bringing the military into Washington, DC had made DC “just about our safest city.”
He added that cities “that are run by the radical left Democrats, what they’ve done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they’re 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.” For Trump, the people are the enemy.
“We’re under invasion from within. No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms. At least when they’re wearing a uniform, you can take them out.”
Trump mused about using “these dangerous cities” as training grounds for the US military.”
A post on Trump’s Truth Social paraphrases quotes from the movie Apocalypse Now: “I love the smell of deportations in the morning. Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR.” The post is accompanied by an AI-generated image of Trump kneeling in front of a burning skyline, with military helicopters flying overhead.
“We were dead. This country was going to hell. We were dead in everywhere from immigration to military. We didn’t have the weapons. We were giving everything to Ukraine. We had nothing.”
“Now we are discovering American muscle, reasserting American might and beginning the next story chapter in American military legends and lore.”
The imposition of massive tariffs on companies that do not invest in the US is not madness. Trump is attempting to build self-sufficiency in readiness for war against China. Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba are among others on his hit list for regime change.
His support for Israel’s genocide and Greater Israel incorporating parts or all of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and possibly other Arab states serves to build US imperialism’s control over the Middle East.
Trump shared on his social media an AI-generated video that shows Gaza being transformed into “Trump Gaza,” a luxurious Gulf resort. The video includes scenes of a child holding a golden Trump balloon, a gift shop selling Trump statues, and Elon Musk dancing on the beach with dollar bills raining down from above. It is accompanied by an AI-generated song with lyrics that include “Trump Gaza shining bright. Golden future, a brand-new light.”
The trillions in planned expenditure on war preparations further militarises the already heavily indebted US economy, and is being funded in part by DOGE sackings, cuts to health, to states, and most likely even more cuts to government.
Trump is paying scant heed to the constitution and any semblance of democracy, executing presidential war powers – the war he cites is domestic. It is against immigrants, against ‘woke,’ against Democrat states, and states that voted for Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Trump is step by step changing state structures, replacing democratic processes with himself as an authoritarian, fascist dictator – and not just over the US, but globally.
The agenda that Trump is following was scripted by the ultra-right-wing Heritage Foundation. It is called Project 2025.
His speech was met with silence from the military brass–no applause.
