The fake news. Ladies and gentlemen, look at them. Look at them all. What? I have to put up with fake news. This is a record crowd, you know, you never. You never had a crowd this big. That's an honor. You think this crowd would have showed up for Biden? [00:00:16] I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so. Maybe I'm wrong. In Los Angeles, the governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles. [00:00:32] Their incompetent. President Donald Trump is continuing to obliterate long standing norms that separate our military from politics. And you just heard that with the Uber Partizan speech [00:00:48] that he gave yesterday at Fort Bragg. Now, unfortunately, some soldiers can be heard in that video that we showed you cheering and jeering at Democratic politicians. But now we're learning that his team hand-picked the service members [00:01:03] who stood behind him during this speech. So, according to an investigation by Military.com, internal 82nd Airborne Division communications reveal a tightly orchestrated effort to curate the optics of Trump's recent visit, [00:01:21] including handpicking soldiers for the audience based on political leanings and physical appearance. The troops ultimately selected to be behind Trump and visible to the cameras were almost exclusively male. [00:01:36] And then get a load of this is my favorite part. This is my favorite part, given the shape of our president. One unit level message bluntly said, no fat soldiers. [00:01:52] Okay, man. Everything's a reality show for this guy. Norms don't matter. Rules don't matter. Acting like an adult and avoiding pettiness doesn't matter. And then everyone needs to look like they're out of central casting in his cabinet. [00:02:10] I mean, are we really impressed by Kristi Noem? Okay, the cosplayer in the administration, it's just so embarrassing. But nonetheless, another note to the troops said, if soldiers have political views that are in opposition to the current administration and they don't want to be in the audience, [00:02:28] then they need to speak with their leadership and get swapped out. Now look, some see that as, oh, well, the Trump administration is trying to control who's in the crowd. So everyone agrees with him. Everyone's loyal to him. But I'm sure there are people in the military who do not support some of [00:02:44] what Trump is doing and don't want to be seen in the camera shot behind Trump. So maybe that's what that was about. But we also know that Trump insists insists on loyalty. So Trump campaign merchandise was even, even being sold at the base. [00:03:03] Very likely violating some pretty significant Defense Department rules. This guy, man, like he might be the top grifter, not just in the country, but in the world. There's I don't know if there's been a single opportunity that he didn't use [00:03:19] to sell merch, but these are the details. So a pop up shop operated by 365 campaign, a Tulsa, Oklahoma based retailer that sells pro Trump and other conservative coded memorabilia, was set up on site with campaign merchandise on Army property. [00:03:36] Soldiers were seen purchasing clothing and tchotchkes, including Make America Great Again chain necklaces to fo. Guys to fo. Credit cards labeled white privilege cards trumps everything. [00:03:56] Cool, cool. Total clown show. To be clear, it is a violation of Pentagon policies to engage in political activity while in uniform. And I think that's a good rule. That's an important rule because the military is not supposed to be a political body, [00:04:13] but it didn't really seem to stop the soldiers at the speech or during Trump's speech from basically booing former presidents, and of course, cheering for current President Donald Trump in addition to the Fort Bragg speech, this weekend, Trump will celebrate his birthday, [00:04:29] of course, with a giant military parade. And that's basically theoretically meant to honor the Army. It's their 250th anniversary. I'm skeptical that that's the real reason why Trump wants to have a military parade. If you can remember, he wanted a military parade in his first term, [00:04:47] but that got shot down anyway. Gram Parsons, who's a former professor at West Point, and Atlantic writer Tom Nichols explain why Trump's effort to politicize the military is such a big deal. What does all of this say to you about the long standing line between [00:05:04] the military and Partizan politics? Oh, it's in grave danger. I really can't overstate how disgusting that event was by politicizing the military. You're giving them you're sending the message to the troops and to the American public that the military is an ally of this narrow [00:05:24] political faction that Trump embodies. He loves the idea that the military is also his personal muscle, that it's his personal security force to be used at will, which is really what's going on in Los Angeles. What he what he's doing in Los Angeles isn't really about Los Angeles. [00:05:40] It's about setting up the idea and getting people used to the idea that Donald Trump can bypass your local community, your state, your county governments, and just put troops in your streets anytime he feels like it because he's the president. [00:05:56] And these people in uniform are his personal security force. I think that's spot on. Right. And so I actually can't stand when people make Trump out to be an idiot, because I don't think he's an idiot. [00:06:12] I actually think he's very strategic in his thinking. And I think what we're seeing on our streets right now is a perfect example of that. When you underestimate someone's strategic thinking or intelligence, you're the one who suffers from it. [00:06:28] Okay, so let me explain what I mean. What? You just heard the last individual you just heard speak in that video is totally spot on. What Trump did is he utilized the one area in which he still enjoyed quite a bit of favorability among the American people, and that's on immigration. [00:06:46] And so by deploying 700 Marines to Los Angeles, which was totally unnecessary, he is normalizing the deployment of US soldiers on US soil. [00:07:01] And that is terrifying, especially when you couple it with this story where he's basically demanding the military's loyalty to him and his ideology. So luckily, there are some in the military who are speaking out against this. [00:07:17] Military leadership is getting slammed for their failure to uphold ethics standards. Risa Brooks, an expert of civil military relations at Marquette University, says this. What I think is so remarkable about Bragg is that it's really a breakdown [00:07:34] on the military side. It shows it's possible that the military's professional ethics could fail. Well, Risa. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Risa, this isn't like, honestly, this isn't the first time. It's just that these violations happened in other countries. [00:07:52] Now they're happening here, which, we've been warning about. But okay. But people within the military are concerned too. One commander at Fort Bragg said this. Fort Bragg said this, this has been a bad week for the Army. [00:08:07] For anyone who cares about us being a neutral, a neutral institution. This was shameful. I don't expect anything to come out of it, but I hope maybe we can learn from it long term. Well, to this commander, I am pretty much done [00:08:26] with hoping for anything good to come from the federal government at this point. Certainly under the leadership of Donald Trump. Considering how effortlessly he decided to deploy US military to Los Angeles when it was completely unnecessary to do so. [00:08:43] Scary times we're living in. But hey, you know, at least there were no fat soldiers behind Trump. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.