What Now Wednesday – Government Shuts Down as Trump Declares War on America

“Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!” —Flounder, Animal House (1978)

Sometimes the only rational response to the complete breakdown of American democracy is the shocked profanity of a college freshman watching his world collapse. Because that’s exactly what happened Tuesday when Trump assembled 800+ generals and admirals at Quantico Marine Base and formally recruited the U.S. military into his war against the American people themselves.

While Congress played budget theater and the government shut down over manufactured healthcare disputes, the real coup was happening 35 miles south of Washington in a room full of stone-faced military officers being told to treat American cities as “enemy training grounds.”

Laugh or cry, but don’t blink—America is crossing the point of no return while the media uncritically films the bloodbath.

The Scene at Quantico: Where Democracy Went to Die

Picture the scene, if your stomach can handle it: 800 of America’s most decorated military leaders—men and women who swore oaths to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic—sitting in absolute silence as their Commander-in-Chief delivered what national security expert Ben Rhodes called “a 10 out of 10 on the blinking red light“ for most unsettling presidential speech ever delivered.

The room was “expressionless and restless,” according to pool reports. These weren’t Trump rally crowds cheering every lie and applauding every racist dog whistle. These were professional soldiers watching their oath of allegiance being systematically violated by the man they’re constitutionally required to obey. apnews

Imagine being a Black general in that room—someone like Lieutenant General Darryl A. Williams, the first African American superintendent of West Point, or Admiral Michelle Howard, the first Black woman to achieve four-star rank in the U.S. Navy—sitting at attention while Trump rambled about “N words” and jokes about using American cities as military training grounds. These officers joined the military specifically to defend democracy against exactly this kind of authoritarianism, and now they’re being ordered to implement it. nypost

Trump’s speech was full of lies, slurs, and threats—yet what stings most is the unspoken betrayal in the eyes of the genuine patriots in the room: the generals, the veterans, the Black officers—those who fought to ensure this kind of nightmare never takes hold again. Imagine the quiet despair of seasoned warriors hearing their own commander-in-chief joke about  the “N Word,” knowing full well that in their blood runs the indelible ink of service against this very kind of hatred, not to be spat on by a con man whose own family legacy is built on theft and corruption.

This is a turning point—either America wakes the hell up or it forever becomes the fascist fantasy of a greedy cabal whose only goal is to destroy what remaining shreds of democracy we have left.

The silence in that room wasn’t respect—it was horror.

The Lies That Recruit Armies

Trump didn’t just deliver his usual catalog of bullshit to these military leaders—he weaponized lies specifically designed to turn the military against civilians. CNN’s Daniel Dale methodically documented the systematic deception:cnn

Trump claimed Biden “never said” America has the strongest military—a lie so easily debunked it took Dale “about five seconds to find on Google“ multiple examples of Biden saying exactly that, including this 2023 quote: “Our U.S. Military—and this is not hyperbole—is the strongest military in the history of the world”. cnn

Why lie about something so easily disproven? Because Trump wasn’t trying to inform—he was conditioning military leaders to see the previous administration as anti-military, anti-American enemies.

He claimed countries “emptied their prisons” to send criminals to America as migrants—a completely fabricated conspiracy theory his own White House has never been able to substantiate. Why repeat easily debunked racist fantasies? Because he was priming military leaders to see immigrants as an “invading army” requiring military response. cnn

He claimed he “settled seven wars“ when his own examples prove he hasn’t settled any. Why inflate non-existent military victories? Because he was establishing his credentials as a “wartime president” worthy of commanding domestic military operations.cnn

Every lie was tactical. Every fabrication was designed to recruit soldiers for his war against America itself.

The “Training Grounds” Declaration

But the lies were just the warm-up act. The real horror came when Trump looked at 800 military leaders and said: “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military… We’re under invasion from within… That’s a war too. It’s a war from within”. axios+2

Let that sink in for a moment. The President of the United States told the most powerful military force in human history that American cities are enemy territory and that American civilians are the enemy.

He named targets: Chicago, Portland, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles—all to be “straightened out one by one“. axios+1

This isn’t theoretical anymore. Trump has already deployed National Guard troops to Washington DC (ongoing occupation), Los Angeles (against California’s wishes), Portland (against Oregon’s wishes), Memphis (deploying this week), with Chicago named as the next target. militarytimes+2

Trump is shamelessly playing the tough guy while hiding behind the mask his insecure buffoonery. His claims about “settling wars” he never fought or “debt being a sign of strength” (from a man with 6 bankruptcies under his ample belt) are lies so blatant they make Pinocchio look like George Washington.

The president’s monumental lies about Biden, Ukraine, and the Congo are nothing but distraction, designed to mask the death of due process and the rise of his “Hate State“—where the military is his crowbar, and the truth is just another target.

Meanwhile, the generals—those who swore to protect freedom and fight fascism—are now trapped, caught between a rock and a fascist fist, forced to watch their own institutions turned into tools of suppression. Even the senior officers’ silent looks as Trump talks about “using violence to quell unrest” are worth a thousand words—they know this is not just a speech, it’s a declaration of civil war. The Generals know full well that some of their own might become the next targets. They fought to stop fascists, and now they’re being asked to become them under Trump.

Mike Johnson’s Faustian Bargain

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson sits in his office, probably staring at his Bible and wondering how the fuck he became the parliamentary facilitator for American fascism.

Johnson knows exactly what’s happening. He’s been in Congress long enough to understand that no Speaker in American history has ever shut down the government (for the first time since Trump’s last term in office, when the artist also failed to make a deal) while simultaneously allowing the President to deploy military force against domestic targets. cnbc+1

But Johnson also knows his political survival depends entirely on Trump’s favor. So he plays along with the healthcare theater—claiming Democrats want to give “free healthcare to illegal aliens“ (they don’t) while Trump turns American cities into military training exercises.cnbc

Picture Johnson’s internal monologue: “I went to divinity school to serve God and country, and now I’m watching a crypto-addled real estate con man recruit generals to wage war against American citizens. But if I oppose him, my own caucus will destroy me, and President DeSantis will be even worse. Jesus Christ, what have we become?”

That’s the tragedy of institutional collapse—good people making progressively worse choices until they become complicit in their own democracy’s destruction.

The Democrats’ Impossible Position

Senate Democrats are trapped in an equally impossible position. They’re being blamed for a government shutdown because they won’t agree to eliminate healthcare access for legal immigrants—people who already had that access until Trump revoked it in July. whitehouse+1

But while they’re forced to defend basic human decency on healthcare, Trump is systematically converting the U.S. military into his personal police force. How do you filibuster a coup that’s happening in real-time while you’re stuck debating ACA subsidies?

Imagine being Chuck Schumer right now: You know Trump is recruiting military leaders for domestic warfare, but every time you try to raise the alarm, Republicans accuse you of “playing politics” while simultaneously deploying troops to American cities.

The Democrats—clinging to the last vestiges of constitutional legitimacy—are trying to awaken a sleepwalking nation, but their calls for “norms” and “rules” ring hollow in the face of the Trumpian chaos machine. Meanwhile, the GOP—split between the desperately loyal and the increasingly horrified—are internalizing the double bind: support the chaos to stay in power, or stand for the republic and risk being swept away in the flood.

Mike Johnson’s internal conflict? Probably a debate between his Brietbart-backed base — who loves the dictator in the making—and the seasoned officers in his own ranks, who see the storm coming and realize they’re being asked to gaslight a nation into fascism.

The Democrats are fighting a budget battle while Trump wages war on the Constitution itself. It’s like trying to negotiate parking tickets while someone sets fire to the courthouse.

The Historical Precedent: When Generals Choose Sides

This exact scenario has played out before, and it never ends well for democracy.

• In Chile, 1973, President Salvador Allende thought he could count on military loyalty while his opponents systematically recruited officers for a coup. General Augusto Pinochet sat in meetings, nodded respectfully, and then led the military coup that destroyed Chilean democracy for 17 years. protectdemocracy
• In Turkey, 2016, President Erdoğan survived a military coup, then systematically purged and replaced military leadership with personal loyalists. Today, Turkish generals serve Erdoğan’s political agenda rather than Turkish democracy. mideastdc+1
• In Hungary, Viktor Orbán never faced a military coup—he didn’t need to. He simply replaced career military professionals with political loyalists and now uses Hungarian forces for domestic political control. ap+1
• Going back to the Weimar descent into Nazis, or the collapse of democracy in Italy under Berlusconi—these aren’t isolated incidents. 

In Hungary and Turkey, media and judicial independence are gutted, opposition leaders jailed or exiled, and the military is weaponized—or, in Turkey’s case, turned into a tool of repression. The current spectacle echoes these dark chapters: a president deploying troops against citizens, lying with impunity, and setting the stage for full-blown dictatorship.

And what characters do we see? The generals who served with honor—probably the last honest men and women left—forced to sit through a clown’s monologue about “invasion from within,” knowing full well they swore to defend the Constitution, not him. Or the battered, aging soldiers who see their democracy being reengineered into a military dictatorship on steroids—they just want the fight to be over, knowing they won the real battle once—and now they watch it unravel.

The pattern is always the same: First, political leaders recruit military loyalty through lies and manufactured crises. Then, they deploy military force against domestic “enemies.” Finally, they eliminate the democratic institutions that could remove them from power. They follow a familiar blueprint: control the military, distort truth, fabricate chaos, and then use that chaos to crush dissent.

The Silence of the Generals

But here’s what should terrify every American: According to pool reports, the military leaders at Quantico sat in “stony silence” throughout Trump’s recruitment speech. youtubecnn

That silence could mean two things, and both are fucking horrifying:

Option 1: The generals recognize Trump’s speech as unconstitutional and are planning to resist his illegal orders. But if that’s true, why aren’t they speaking out publicly? Why aren’t they resigning in protest?

Option 2: The generals are already bought in to Trump’s vision of domestic military control. They’re silent because they’re calculating how to implement his orders without triggering mass civilian resistance.

There’s no Option 3 where this ends well for democracy. Either we have military leaders who are complicit in authoritarianism, or we have military leaders who are planning resistance they can’t discuss publicly. Both scenarios indicate democratic collapse.

This isn’t hyperbole. It’s the slow-motion collapse of a democracy that once claimed to be “exceptional.” History’s lessons tell us what follows: institutions shattered, truth made illegal, dissidents jailed, and the military used to crush every vestige of dissent. If the generals, the Democrats, and the sane Republicans don’t rally now—if the citizenry doesn’t see the catastrophe shaping before their eyes—they will wake up one morning in a digital Führer bunker, watching their rights burn like the fires in Portland, or their cities turned into training grounds for a madman’s army.

The Crypto Connection: Follow the Money

And through all of this chaos, Trump’s crypto holdings keep pumping. Every government crisis, every military deployment, every constitutional violation seems to correlate with another surge in Bitcoin and Trump-branded tokens. forbes+1

Think about that: While Trump tells generals to wage war on American cities, his personal wealth increases through crypto speculation. He’s literally profiting from the chaos he’s creating.

This isn’t just authoritarianism—it’s entrepreneurial fascism. He’s not just destroying democracy; he’s monetizing its destruction.

The International Response: Preparing for American Collapse

Meanwhile, our allies are quietly preparing for American democratic collapse. European leaders are privately discussing “post-American NATO“. Canadian officials are war-gaming mass refugee flows from the United States. Democratic governments worldwide are treating America as a rogue state in waiting. foreignpolicy+1

They’re not wrong. When a nuclear-armed nation deploys military force against its own cities while the government shuts down over manufactured crises, that nation is no longer a reliable democratic ally.

What Comes Next: The Training Begins

The government shutdown will end—probably within days, with Democrats capitulating to avoid being blamed for chaos. But the military recruitment will continue. The “training exercises” in American cities will expand. The lies will get bigger and more brazen.

And every day we normalize this insanity, every day we treat domestic military deployment as just another political story, we get closer to the moment when resistance becomes impossible.

Ben Rhodes was right: This is a “10 out of 10 on the blinking red light.” We are watching the systematic recruitment of American military forces for war against American democracy, and most people are treating it like just another budget dispute.

The Gonzo Bottom Line

Holy shit, indeed. We’ve reached the point where a Reality TV President can assemble 800 military leaders, lie to them systematically, recruit them for domestic warfare, and have the whole thing covered as “Trump gives unusual speech to military leaders“ instead of “President recruits army for war against American cities.“

The bus with the bomb is accelerating toward the cliff, we’re running out of oxygen, and the driver is telling his passengers that American cities are enemy territory that needs to be “straightened out.”

We are living through the systematic destruction of American democracy by a crypto-addled wannabe dictator who has successfully recruited the world’s most powerful military for war against its own citizens. And the truly savage irony is that most Americans don’t even realize it’s happening.

The revolution won’t be televised—it’ll be livestreamed on crypto-funded platforms while military “training exercises” secure the broadcast centers.

Welcome to the new American reality: Government shutdowns as democracy dies, military recruitment as constitutional collapse, and cryptocurrency profits as the Republic burns.

Buy the ticket, take the ride. But remember—in Trump’s America, the ticket cost is our democracy itself and the ride ends in either successful resistance or permanent authoritarian rule.

So here’s the message—loud enough to force a “Holy shit” even in a MAGA crowd: The clock is ticking. The fascist engine is idling, fueled by lies, greed, and fear. Do we allow it to run us off the cliff? Or do we fight like hell? Because the only thing worse than this nightmare is waking up in it, realizing the day democracy was stolen, and we did nothing.

The choice, as always, is ours. But the window for choosing is closing fast.

— Hunter

Sources: CNN, Reuters, AP, Washington Post, Raw Story, Ben Rhodes analysis, Daniel Dale fact-checks, pool reports from Quantico, and the screaming ghosts of every democracy that died while its citizens were distracted by budget theater.