A photo illustration shows toy soldiers in front of Trump on a screen in the background.Cezary Kowalski/SOPA/Sipa/AP
On Sunday, former President Donald Trump posted on X a video he had debuted a few days earlier at a rally: A montage decrying the “woke” military, showing clips of Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket—a film, famously, about the dark cost to the human soul of creating a war machine—as an example of the halcyon days of a battle-hardened Army to which we must return.
WE WILL NOT HAVE A WOKE MILITARY! pic.twitter.com/zpWZhSKcEs
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2024
“WE WILL NOT HAVE A WOKE MILITARY!” Trump wrote. His post was accompanied by a 94-second edited video alternating clips of a screaming general from the film Full Metal Jacket with shots of Assistant Secretary for Health for the Department of Health and Human Services Rachel Levine—the first openly transgender Senate-confirmed federal official—and TikTok videos of people changing from military garb into drag queen ensembles.
The clips from Full Metal Jacket are labeled “President Trump,” while those featuring LGBTQ people are labeled “Comrade Kamala.” The video ends with a Trumpian exhortation: “LET’S MAKE OUR MILITARY GREAT AGAIN.”
“Absolutely,” Elon Musk, right-wing owner of X, replied to Trump’s post. “The military’s job is to defend America, not engage in social activism.”
The clip is not just absurd. Beneath it is a real aim. The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that created Project 2025 has decried “the rise of wokeness in the military.” And as my colleague Noah Lanard wrote back in 2022, the former president has made clear to his inner circle that going after “woke” generals would be a priority if he’s reelected.
What, exactly, would this look like? I’m not sure if Trump knows. But Project 2025 offers some clues, stating that “those with gender dysphoria should be expelled from military service” and “physical fitness requirements should be based on the occupational field without consideration of gender, race, ethnicity, or orientation.” The Heritage Foundation, in its critiques on “wokeness in the military” attacks the familiar suspects: DEI initiatives, critical race theory, LGBTQ people.
With Trump and Harris now tied in a dead heat just three weeks out from the election, according to a new NBC News national poll, it’s also worth remembering Trump has reportedly flirted with a return to mandatory military service.
