The Team House - Trump's Speech to the Generals was a Sh*tshow | EYES ON GEOPOLITICS

Episode Date: October 3, 2025

In this episode of Eyes on Geopolitics, Dee, Jack Murphy, and Mark Polymeropoulos discuss the recent speech given by Donald Trump to a gathering of military generals. They analyze the contrasting messages delivered by Trump and Pete Hegseth, the implications of military standards and cultural wars, and the potential for domestic military deployment. The conversation also touches on the role of the media in holding the government accountable and the current political climate surrounding national security issues.Support the show here:https://www.patreon.com/TheTeamHouseFind Marc here:https://www.youtube.com/@UChnNNkH64St26P3guwvwKCA Jack here:https://thehighside.substack.com/00:00 Trump's Speech to the Generals: An Overview03:11 The Spectacle of Military Politics05:54 Aesthetic vs. Substance in Military Leadership09:09 Cultural Warfare and Military Standards12:09 The Implications of Military in Domestic Affairs14:51 Concerns Over Military Orders and Civil Rights18:14 The Future of Military Engagement in America20:52 The Normalization of Outrage in Politics23:51 The Potential for Civil Conflict26:51 The Role of Law Enforcement in Political Climate30:05 Concluding Thoughts on Military and Governance35:17 Military Response to Civil Disturbances39:48 Concerns Over National Security and Domestic Policy43:00 Political Exploitation of Tragedy45:16 Media Accountability and National Security49:48 Travel Adventures and Personal Reflections#trump #speech #generalsBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-team-house--5960890/support.

But like right before we did this show, I had a, I was watching a podcast where a Delta Force veteran, somebody actually that I know, was saying, look, 3% of Americans were the ones that took up arms and fought during the American Revolution and gave us this freedom. That's what's going to have to happen today. Three to five percent of Americans are going to have to take up arms and being in the foxholes because we got to resolve the problems within. We got to resolve the enemy within before we look outside. What are we talking about there? Are we talking about like Syrian civil war? I'm like hooking my neighbor's balls up to a car battery. Like, what the fuck are we talking about here?

Because it freaks me out to see some of these guys salivating over the idea of fighting an American civil war. I don't think people really understand what the fuck that entails. And not when it happens, you're not going to be getting your Amazon Prime. You're not going to be getting your Netflix. You know, all that's going to go away. Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Aizond Geopolitics. I'm here with a special guest today. Jack Murphy and Mark Polymeropolis.

Mark, of course, this might be your like 15th time on a team house program. Jack's always here. Can't seem to get rid of them. A lot happening as usual. We're going to really hammer down and focus on the, I'm going to editorialize the insane speech that Trump gave to the generals yesterday. It was crazy. It was in Quantico, Virginia, the Marine Corps base.

800 plus generals, I think it was. Pete Hecksett was the opening act, and then Trump came in and closed the show. Where are you guys at with this? We'll start with you, Mark. What are your initial thoughts of it? So I think the best way to do is break up the two speeches. Yeah. And, you know, because I think there were definitely different messages.

I think actually, and, you know, perhaps I'm incorrect, but, you know, originally Trump was not supposed to show up. Yeah, that was a late addition. He did afterwards, he didn't like probably the idea that Hegsseth would have. I mean, literally six layers of the top leadership of the U.S. military there between generals, admirals, and all their staff. Probably costs 10 to 15 to 20 million. I don't know. God knows how much it costs to get everyone back.

But, you know, I watched both speeches very carefully. I think that it was the first, the Hegsses speech, you know, it was like he was a JV coach, you know, a Ra Ra, PEP rally. The problem was as someone who reached the highest rank of major in the Minnesota National Guard, he's talking to individuals who fought and commanded forces over a 20-year period, multiple arenas who have vastly more experience. It was a little strange. He seemed like a kid lecturing his staff. I would say that the military officers there were appropriately very calm, didn't respond to anything. But the things he said, I think, are important because some of it was outrageous.

But I think a key point of discussion today is how irrelevant it is. And so, you know, he doesn't like fat generals. Okay. I mean, Mark Millie was criticized for being a little overweight. Mark Millie doesn't have to have proper grooming standards, but fine. And, you know, and so the notion, I mean, I could see people probably in the audience looking around each other, who's here put on a couple more pounds. All I know is the Zambic usage is going to jump up for the GEOs.

But the other part of it, which doesn't, you know, which is, which is wrong, I'll say is the idea of, you know, relaxing rules of engagement. I mean, you know, he's advocating, what, war crimeing. Again, the kind of the common trope you see in right wing circles is that we lost in Vietnam and we lost in Afghanistan and we lost in Iraq because of rules of engagement. And sometimes the rules of engagement were too strict. It's not the reason why those conflicts turned out the way they did. And so that, I mean, what are we, what are we hoping to pull a Gaza? Do we want to kill 65,000 Palestinians in the next conflict? You know, I mean, just what are they talking about? Should we have killed, you know, tens of thousands more Iraqis and Afghans? That just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And then the final piece is kind of beating, well, there's a couple more, you know, beating on your troops and basic.

I mean, you know, what are we doing here? There's a thousand pieces of evidence that says kind of, you know, sexual harassment, physical harassment, doesn't do anything for a proper cohesive unit. And so, I mean, we had that, I mean, the agency, we stopped doing any kind of stuff like that. They cut all that stuff out because it just doesn't work and everyone's going to get sued. So just really kind of silly, nonsensical stuff along the way, he was almost advocating for his book. I mean, it was embarrassing. At the end of the day, what it was not was a demand for an oath of loyalty to the president. I think you would have people walk out then or subsequently.

but maybe we should break it up between commenting on the Hegsett speech, and I'll throw it over to Jack now, see what he thinks. Yeah, I would just, I think this part is pointing out the obvious in a lot of ways, but I think it's maybe worth saying or repeating because I haven't really seen it in the press so often, is that Pete Hegseth is a former Fox News personality. Donald Trump is a former game show host. This was a spectacle. It was designed to be a,

spectacle. The real point of it was not to lecture the generals. The real point of it was to generate social media content. It was for us. It was for the public. Right. And yeah, and it worked. Absolutely. I mean, look, you know, say what you will. I mean, President Trump has pretty good instincts on the campaign trail for what works with his audience and what doesn't. And he understands how to get that done. And that's how, you know, like you said, initially it was supposed to be just Pete Hegseth giving this speech. But once Trump saw that it was going to be a nice spectacle, of course he had to get in on that. He had to get in on that.

Come on, man. So that's the first thing I would point out is just when you talk about the irrelevancy, Mark. And I think you're right as far as the content, but even the context is quite irrelevant. That this is like pandering for an aesthetic, a tough guy aesthetic in the public sphere, more than it has anything to do with military policies. Um, there's very little about policy when you get down to it other than menial things like PT standards and grooming and we can't have beards and et cetera. And these are kind of like trivial things. Um, the epitome of, you know, this meeting could have been an email, right. Let me, I mean, I want to ask you something because I know you focus on this. Um, sorry, Dee, I'm jumping in and acting like producer too. Do it. Dee's going to fire me after this. So, so, you know, as you, as you, as you look at Ukraine,

and I know you guys do. And you look at the criticality of drone warfare and artificial intelligence. Who gives a shit that women have to be up to male standards or someone can do 150 push-ups? I mean, China is laughing at us. Like the future of warfare is not. And physical fitness is important. I get it. But there's a lot more to how we win future wars that he didn't even touch on.

Right. Again, it's a search for an aesthetic. They, you know, they want guys that look like the recruitment. poster for the Waffen SS. And that goes all the way back, you know, even like the tape test that you do in the Army. You know, the Army, frankly, it likes people who have the sort of like physique that I have, like someone who's like six feet, 185 pounds or so. But the tape test that measures, you know, your neck, your thighs, and especially somebody

works out in the gym a lot, is going to have a thick neck. And they might be in awesome shape. But the Army has decided to give this test because it's searching for an aesthetic. But if the guy passes the PT test, who cares? Well, what does that make sense? But to the larger point that you're making there, yeah, in Ukraine, you have these people, you know, these soldiers who frankly look, some of them anyway, look like the fat guy at the comic book store. But they're holding off the Russian army.

I mean, it's incredible. So I think that part of it, I mean, we're seeing a couple things. I think this speech in some of the things that Hegset spoke about, some of that comes out of an authentic frustration and anger over 20 years of failed wars. It partly comes out of that, and I acknowledge that, that it's a real thing and that we really do need course corrections in the Department of Defense and in the U.S. government. But part of it also comes from this sort of like aesthetic, you know, movement or trying to attain. this sort of like Uber mentioned superhuman man. And I think some of that comes also from Pete really not knowing how to lead at an executive level. If he wants to go out and do PT with the troops, that's cool.

I'm totally fine with that. I think it's, you know, it's even a good thing. You know, why not? Get the Secretary of Defense out there in front of the boys. Sure. But our Secretary of Defense needs to do more than just pushups and pull ups and and two mile runs. And so I think there's a lot of truth to this idea that, you know, Pete is defaulting to the rank that he left the military at, that he talks like a captain.

He doesn't really, he doesn't sound like the secretary of, of the Department of Defense or Department of War now. And, you know, and these guys, and so previous Secretary of Defense, I'm sure, saw this in abject horror, because you know what they think about right now? The National Defense Strategy, which is still in draft. And so, and some controversy. with it when some of this has been leaked and it said that, you know, the Western Hemisphere is going to be our primary focus, not China. That's a huge change from the Biden administration and from Trump one. Those are things that matter, resources, personnel. China is, has the world's biggest Navy now. I mean, there's so many things to talk about at his level, at his C-suite level, and he's

literally talking about no beards. One other thing that I wanted to raise, though, is that as this kind of this war on wokeism, and it's gotten so freaking out of control. because it does sometimes start sounding like, you know, wow, I miss the old days of the 1950s where it was all white and all male. Yeah. And, you know, what are we doing here? If you're a female midship or a female cadet at West Point or a midshipman in Annapolis or just a female enlisted soldier or airman or sailor, what are you thinking right now when you hear all this stuff? Because he has this weird, bizarre focus on it. It's strange to me.

And like the war on beards, I'm sorry. The fact on that is that a lot of African Americans have trouble shaving because of a skin condition. There's a ton of being written on this. His whole kind of anti-D-I-D-I stuff, you mean, he got rid of the former chairman who was black. And so there's a weird kind of white nationalist fervor to this that I just don't get. I mean, you can say, hey, wokeism is wrong. And they should have stopped this, you know, five months ago. But his obsession over it is a little strange.

And to me, that risks alienating a huge number in the U.S. military of people who do want to serve. I don't know. I mean, I've had friends whose kids are thinking of college. And they said, you know, I'm not, I'm not, you know, it's a female student. I'm not going down that road. Not in this environment. I do not want to go to West Pointearnapolis right now. It just doesn't seem like the right environment for me.

And I think that's because of this rhetoric. And he's certainly not helping. I think that's a part of it for sure. You know, a lot of his speech was culture war stuff. It's red meat for their base. Yeah, he's a culture warrior. And if it sounds like when he speaks, if it sounds like you're reading Anon's on Twitter bickering back and forth, there's a reason for that. I mean, that's what they're trying to play to here.

But I would also point out the focus on like wokeism and D.E.I. And the sort of search for imagined enemies and boogeymen is also. emblematic of a lack of competency. Some of these big, big topics you're talking about, Mark, they know that they're not competent enough to resolve those issues. So for instance, we're seeing, we have problems with China, Russia, Iran, but instead we've chosen in this administration to go and mess with Canada, Greenland. You know, it's sort of a de facto admission that these big problems we have like Gaza, like we do not have the, the, um, wisdom or maybe capability to actually resolve those problems. So instead we're going to focus on, you know, black guys having

shaving profiles. Like it's a very, to me, it's a very obvious deflection. And, and, and I guess the question I'd have for you is, um, uh, you know, my experience working with kind of the senior levels in the U.S. military, um, was that that, that, that, that, that, it was very much. what I saw, which was a, you know, they were just stoic. They were silent. There was no cheering. I mean, you know, and so. Well, that's a law, right?

Like if it's a partisan event, you can't cheer. I don't think it's a, I don't think it's a law. I think it's more of a norm. I think it's a military code that you can't clap. If it's a partisan event, you cannot clap. You need to stay silent. The Fort Bragg speech that Trump did, we'll talk about that later. Okay.

That kind of devolved totally. But, but in this case, you know, I would, I can't imagine. I mean, the other thing, though, is that there's a bunch of really smart people there. There's no way they weren't saying behind the scenes, like, I can't believe we have to listen to this clown. But we will, and he's our Secretary of Defense. One, I've got to be careful when I say this. Someone I know in the uniform military kind of sent a message saying, hey, look at all of our generals and admirals. They're in a hostage video because in essence they were held hostage there.

And the last part, of course, it's preposterous that we took. 800 people offline for this. As you said, it could have been an email. I mean, just the idea of, thank God, nothing happened. I mean, this is the greatest decapitation strike in the history of would have been. It makes, you know, these Israelis would be jealous and all the stuff that they've done overseas. You had the president, secretary of defense, and the entire six layers of the U.S. military there in Quantico. I mean, just ludicrous.

Away from post, all dissent. Do you think, Jack, here's a question, or D, don't you think of foreign intelligence services were camped out all over Quantico with their little kind of, you know, sigant grabbers or whatever the hell they had. They're worth anything. Yeah. Intelligence collection bonanza there. Yeah.

Now, I mean, I'm sure it was. There's a number of reasons why I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense. But again, it's a social media presidency. There's also a little more so there. I mean, most of the P. Tag says speech was kind of bullshit. But the one bit was talking about like the, they're going to strip some of the IG stuff and like oversight, which, you know, Jack, you've written about sexual assault in the military extensively.

Yeah, I mean, the IG is already kind of a broken system, in my opinion. And that's a whole other subject, but getting into like how IG investigations are run and how they wait two years to investigate witnesses so that everyone's left the military by the, you know, there's all kinds of little games they play. But, you know, the thing with, you're right about, you know, stripping some of the protections that sounds like not a good idea. But back to the thing about Hegsef and that I wanted to acknowledge that there are some very, like, real concerns and real, and I think these speeches you see come out of a lot of anxiety that Americans are feeling about a lot of different things.

And in some cases, those are imagined fictive enemies. They're boogeymen that are conjured up in the imagination. But in other cases, as I said earlier, there's this very real frustration over, you know, losing war. for 20 years. Like, what the hell is wrong with our Pentagon? And so I think when Hengsteth gets into talking about doing away with a zero defect environment that, like, we're willing to, like, forgive an officer that makes an earnest mistake.

I mean, I don't think all change is bad change. And I'm not going to dunk on every single, like when the DOD does something good, I'll say it, you know. I don't have Trump derangement syndrome or something like, whatever they want to call it. I mean, another thing that, I don't know if we're going to go in depth on this show. but something that Pete Hegseth, I think, has done well is he's taking the AHA Havana syndrome thing much more seriously than people have previously. So, I mean, he is doing some good.

And I don't want to cast that aside. And I don't want to cast aside the concerns that people have about the military. And I guess one more thing real quick is about some of like anecdotally, some of the reactions that I saw to the speech. and it was very interesting to see some of the, they're starting to become old timers. I mean, the retirees on Facebook, you know, the old retired military officers.

And it was interesting to see how many of them, well, first off, they were ecstatic about the speech. Secondly, they were absolutely salvating over it because they saw this as a return to the glory years, the golden years of the 1990s military. which I was kind of shocked to hear these guys talking about because I've spent my entire life listening to these guys complain about how Bill Clinton destroyed the military and they had no money to train during the 1990s and all they got was these bullshit UN peacekeeping missions. And now they were the golden years of the military. It's sort of like high school, I think.

Like the longer you're retired, the more you kind of look back at that era with fondness, you know, and nostalgia. Let me just remind you the tailhook scandal occurred in the 1990s, which almost destroyed the U.S. Navy. In the 1980s, post-Vietnam, the army was a mess, man. And if you talk to some of those like general officers, like have a candid conversation with them about how we would have fared if we went to war with the Soviet Union, I mean, it was dicey. The U.S. Army in Germany was like Lord of the Flies. There was crazy shit going on there that the American public doesn't understand. understand. So I think, you know, in the end, this is someone who was, was, should have been an email and was given a speech as a captain or a major. And the idea that he's at this, you know, at the senior executive level talking about this stuff is, is nuts. Where there are real issues. I don't know if the U.S. Navy can respond if China tries to blockade, you know, Taiwan, you know, fundamentally. And so there, you know, we've expended a lot of ordinance providing, and I think it's, it's the right thing to do, providing weapons to, you know, to ammunition, everything to the Ukrainians, but is the U.S. industrial base capable of regenerating

this? Like, these are the issues he's got to be thinking about, not your beer. Now, but I think, you know, you're fair to say some of these, you know, these are things that you hear all the time, but people complain about, but that's left to the captains and the majors to probably deal with and not someone like that. But, but, Dee, here's the important point is that the Hexat thing was not really the story. Because what happened after was about a, uh, what, a 70-minute speech, which was just weird. You know, the Trump speech was, first of all, I thought he was going to fall asleep. It was rambling.

It was odd. And it was a blatant political speech, which, of course, in the biggest news of it, that it interjected the idea of using the U.S. military in U.S. city. So I think, you know, the outrage on this was not the ridiculous Hegsef, where he said some things, which are certainly up for debate. but it's really that the commander-in-chief didn't look well. And I'm sure the generals and admirals are sitting there saying maybe they knew it was coming. But, you know, my God, he was slurring. It looked like he was falling asleep, rambling on about stuff, blatantly political all over the place, saying absolutely nothing. Occasionally jumping in, using his teleprompter.

That, I think, gave a lot of people, myself, a lot of people in national security kind of world, like, thinking like, oh, my God. This is like, you know, when Biden's decline was very, very visible, this was, to me, was like that a little bit. Like, holy cow, this is our guy. It's been like that for a little bit, Mark. I mean, if you recall his speech at the UN recently, he's become increasingly incoherent. And I don't necessarily mean that to be agist or insulting or whatever. It's just father time comes for us all. And I think it may be coming for our president right now because when he speaks, what he says just doesn't make sense.

half of the time. It's verbal diarrhea. I mean, it's, you know, it used to call that the weave. He called that the weave on the campaign trip. This is not that, though. This was kind, this is a little alarming, you know. If you go back and watch footage of him, his first administration versus today, there's a lot difference. Oh, huge. I agree. Yeah. I'll tell you a great, a really, a really bizarre, not bizarre story, but, you know, there's always you have anecdotes of life. And I was in 2016 during the campaign, I was, my son was a high school baseball player.

We're down in Florida and Kissimmee, Florida, outside of Orlando. And home, I think there was, there's minor league ballparks there. They were playing a game. We left. But as we're leaving, loads of pickup trucks are coming in. American flags everywhere. I'm like, what the hell is going on? It was the first time I saw it.

It was a Trump MAGA rally. And I think back to that time because that energy was unbelievable. I mean, that was people rolling in there were coming to see, you know, Jesus Christ, their savior. And that's when Trump on the campaign trail really was able to not, you know, so he was, he was on at that time. And obviously, he appealed to a lot of people and he won, but a different kind of energy and individual, because you're right, he's gotten, he's gotten older. But let's switch to that, the topic, which I think was what everyone took away from that when he's talking about U.S. military in cities. and and there's you know there has to be discussion amongst the generals and admirals after that saying like okay what do we do now you know and there are things there are lawful orders that will come down but there but there's always the possibility that there's not but jack do you think that there was discomfort as he kept saying like you know i mean hey you know this is this is your next arena is essentially what he was telling them yes yeah i mean i can only speculate i have to imagine that it made a lot of people feel uncomfortable Um, because yeah, he, yeah, he made it perfectly clear in there like, we have to deal with the enemy within.

That's the real battle. That's, that's what we have to do. And incrementally, he's putting more and more troops and more cities to see how much he can get away with. Um, I think that between him and Stephen Miller, you know, they're pushing the norms. They're pushing the boundaries to see how far they can go before someone stops them. Um, and, you know, they'll get to a certain point. And, and, you know, they'll get to a certain point. And, and, you know, you know, they'll get to a certain point. And, And then, you know, when you say, hey, this looks like martial law and everyone will shrug and be like, oh, well, it's already been going on for 12 months and, you know, whatever. Or worse, you know, they precipitate a crisis of some sorts and literally declare martial law. Yeah, it's concerning. I mean, you know, I mean, can you imagine, do you remember years ago there was in right wing circles, there was always this worry of the kind of the black helicopters that somehow, you know, Obama was going to do this. They're going to take away our guns. But it was always the idea of, you know, U.S. troops would be used against, and that in the case before is against the right.

But now everyone, and that side seems quite comfortable with this. Or maybe they don't. I mean, the one thing that I'm not surprised because this has turned into a bit of a cult. But the Republican Party in the past should be, a conservative party should be horrified of this notion of U.S. military operating in the cities. That is against everything we hear about, you know, Republican. orthodoxy for generations. But the Republican senators and the House members were very quiet on this.

And I think that big time, big time libertarian Rand Paul is all about it. He supports it. So are you lying to me then or are you lying to me now? Which is it? Right. And so, so, you know, the, I guess one of the things I would wonder is does each something, does, you know, and I, how can I say this? People I know at senior levels, for example,

in the intelligence community who are worried about Trump, honestly, and the idea of kind of illegal orders. And they would tell me, yeah, you know, we have a resignation letter typed up, just in case, just in case we're asked to do some kind of like blatantly Tom Clancy-like, illegal covert action, maybe like blowing up narco traffickers in the high seas in the Caribbean. I've already heard that, you know, certain officers are going and seeking legal counsel on their own. Yeah. Because guess who's going to get in trouble? They are.

The president's immune from this stuff. And he's going to pardon everyone around him, but not some general. So wouldn't you have that concern? I mean, there has to be obviously clarifications on any kind of use of U.S. military. Now, right now, I guess it is the National Guard. But, you know, he deployed the National Guard here in D.C. They picked up a hell of a lot of trash and put some mulch down. It was nice.

Things seemed to look a little nicer. They were bored. I mean, it turned out, you know, but he's allowed to do that because of the unique status of D.C., but in terms of other places, Chicago, Portland. L.A. I think it's going to be a much different case there. Again, I think it was the Portland National Guard. I don't know his rank.

But there was something, a memo leaked where he was very uncomfortable with what he's going to be asked to do. So, Jack, you understand this. He's going to say, I need to know exactly what I can do in situations like this. I mean, I'm not quite as optimistic maybe as you are, Mark. And again, this is also because of my own sort of bias created by the bubble that I live in and work in, right? But like right before we did this show, I had a, I was watching a podcast where a Delta Force veteran, somebody actually that I know was saying, look, 3% of Americans were the ones that took up arms and fought during the American Revolution and gave us. this freedom. That's what's going to have to happen today. Three to five percent of Americans are going to have to take up arms and being in the foxholes because we got to resolve the problems

within. We got to resolve the enemy within before we look outside. What are we talking about there? Are we talking about like Syrian civil war? Like I'm like hooking my neighbor's balls up to a car battery. Like like what the fuck are we talking about here? Because it freaks me out to see some of these guys salvating over the idea of fighting an American civil war. I don't think people really understand what the fuck that entails and not when it happens, you're not going to be getting your Amazon Prime. You're not going to be getting your Netflix. All that's going to go away. Yeah. So I hear you on that. I mean, I do wonder if there's a, there's a difference between a retired, you know, three or star or four star or retired, you know, someone who's in enlisted ranks.

Or maybe not. But, but, you know, that of course is, um, That's a, that's a, that's a huge concern. And the part of that, I think that is worrisome is that there is absolutely very, well, there's very little federal law enforcement or, you know, resources now designed to look at that because under Cash Patel's FBI, you know, they have kind of gutted any type of, you know, investigative, investigatory work on kind of right-wing extremism. I mean, they just have. And so, yeah, I mean, that's a whole other subject, you know, could a civil war erupt,

the United States. That's horrifying to think about. Yeah, but I mean, there are some people out there who seem very concerned to make that happen. Well, I would argue that with some of these deployments, you know, these National Guard deployments, you're almost itching for a fight. You know, so I don't, I don't think the, you know, the regular GOP congressmen or senators like this, but I, but the Stephen Miller's of the world really do concern me. You know, when is, is, it was had a news conference yesterday, talking about, uh, ice agents, going into, I think into Chicago. And he's saying that, hey, you know, you guys are rolling in there with guns and badges.

You know, we watch it. And, you know, there's switching topics just a little bit on that. You know, I have very good friends in big city police departments at very senior levels. And one from a major East Coast city told me, and he's at this, he's there at their C-suite level. He said, you know, I worked in the worst areas of my city. I never masked up. I never, you know, hit any kind of name. game plate. And certainly I wasn't kind of tackling, you know, you know, 60s and 70 year old

men and women. Like, you know, the tactics of ICE, I think, are something to be concerned about as well. But I think it goes into this whole notion of the enemy from within. And that's, that's pretty disturbing. Yeah. I mean, when you see Stephen Miller ratcheting up the rhetoric, and he's basically telling them, you know, it's weapons free, guys, weapons hot. You can't say things like that when you're in charge of, you know, in this case, a paramilitary police force that's already kind of out of control. He's, he is, he is, and that's getting, and that's getting the most, uh, biggest budget of all agencies federal, like, uh, this is the deputy national security advisor who actually said

the Democratic Party is a domestic extremist organization. I mean, and that just kind of just flows. Again, you, that stuff can't be said in the context of, you know, they also, connected the last like two mass shooters to left wing groups without any evidence. I don't know what their political ideology was if they even have a coherent political ideology, but they weren't being funded by George Soros. I'm sorry, man. Well, this is a, this is encouraging. So, so the one thing that is given is that, D, we will find another outrage to, to discuss at some point in the near future because not unusual. I think that, you know, again, at the end of the,

end of the day. You know, we have an incredibly incredible U.S. military. Of course, there's, there are things that can be improved upon. Jack, you served honorably. I do really wonder if there's a lot of angst inside that building inside the Pentagon and senior levels. And by the way, if there's not, then we have a different problem. For sure. Just to wrap up a little bit. I mean, he started his speech with like, you guys, wow, it's the quietest room I've ever been in. You guys can laugh. It's a, don't laugh. Don't laugh. Don't laugh. if you guys can walk out if you like, but you're going to, you know, your career is going to be over. That's what the commander-in-chief said to 800 of the top generals and admirals in the United States military.

That's like, that's like kind of a joke, but like the minute he started talking about enemy from within and like you said about using the cities as training grounds. At what point are we getting to where it's like completely unconstitutional? Like, yeah, we hear this all the time from Trump. So, like, we kind of, like, are numb to it and desensitized to, like, the outrageous shit, he says. But it's like, at what point do we see the writing on the wall? Because the writing's on the wall. It's there. All this is normalized now.

I mean, so again, it's the craziness is normalized. And so you can't even keep up if you want to comment on it. I mean, we're doing this, this episode now. And, you know, if you, if you pop open the news, something else will have occurred. You know, obviously the government's been. down now. But, but, you know, the news cycle so fast that these outrages, which ordinarily would lead literally to the impeachment of someone. You can't. I mean, some of these, like, you know, even if Obama said, we're going to fight the enemy within and use American cities as a

training ground for the military. Every right winger I know would lose their fucking mind. Yeah. And rightly so. Right. Right. Yes. You say that. Yeah. So, you know, there, again, there's the, I think, but the, but the problem is the outrage is real. One, one final. thing. It's funny because when I talk to my wife all the time about this, and she is, you know, both of us work in the intelligence community. So, you know, the glass is always, you know, half empty sometimes. We can, we've, we've been jaded with all of our time in the Middle East. And so sometimes you kind of go doom scrolling through life on what's happening. But, you know, every once in a while, she'll give a scenario like, hey, what if this happens, Jack? What, you know,

what if there's a civil war? And I would tell her, stop, you know, come on. It's not going to happen. I don't say that anymore. I don't think that that can't happen. That phrase right there, you can't say that anymore because all of these things actually are happening. And so to me, that's pretty ominous for the future. Yet, you know, again, I've been on this podcast in the Team House and I's only so many times. And, you know, sometimes there's hate mail.

Sometimes probably see people agree with me. But at the end of the day, I think all of our warnings that we've had over. over the time period where I've been talking to you guys, everything has come true. I mean, it's, so, you know, after, after the inauguration, I had a conversation with my daughter's mom, her mother, that I never, ever thought I would have because my daughter has, is a dual passport holder. And I told her mother, I was like, look, if he puts troops in the streets of this city, just get on an airplane and go. And I'll catch up with you sometime down the line. I never thought I'd have that conversation. I think that's, there's no, there's reason to have that conversation.

And that's the, that's the pretty scary part right now. But, you know, I think it just takes people who are courageous to speak up. And that to me is one of the saddest things. You know, we live in this world, Jack, where so many people we know are former national security officials. And some bravely speak up. Some do not. I just wish more would.

And particularly at the very senior levels. You know, I know, I know General Matt, has kind of poked his head up every once in a while. General Kelly certainly did as well. But those who understand what's happening, I really wish, I understand that you're retired and you're supposed to have this kind of code of silence, except in a time where things are so kind of out of control. And I would think that this is one of those times. When you're talking about U.S. forces deployed in the United States against fellow Americans, that's the time where you say, hey, you've got to call that bullshit. Yeah, I think the question I would have for my many friends who

reside somewhere on the right is I'd want to know from them, where's the bottom? How far is too far for you? Like, explain that to me what it is when you're going to draw the line and say, no, enough is enough. Because right now it seems like there is no bottom. Cruelty is the point. Right. If you get off on what ICE is doing in the United States, cruelty is the point. This is out of control. We don't need kind of, you know, this kind of Gestapo Commando Rays. I'm sorry. That's what that's happening. Literally what that is, dude. It's and it's and for, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I'm as pro law enforcement. I just wrote a check to the, you know, our state police here. I give money to everybody. Every law enforcement, you know, entity that comes calling one of the,

their, you know, retirement associations or whatever, but good Lord. My retirement association could use a check too, Mark, by the way, if you can facilitate. Mine too. Mine too. It's just to my name. There was a one little bit to where he mentioned in the speech trumped, uh, reference the executive. order that he signed a year ago, not a year a month ago, to create a military quick reaction force to quell civil disturbances. Is that not National Guard? That's like actual like active duty. I mean, National Guard active duty, but it's like non-national Guard QRF ready to come in.

I don't know what the intent is there. I'd have to do some research on that one. But you can deploy the U.S. military. domestically. I mean, posse commentatus doesn't preclude the deployment of American troops in a continental United States. But there are a couple of different ways that can be done. One is there's an office. It's like a civil request for military support. And that would not be for like armed troops. That would be like hurricane relief kind of stuff. Now, if the president were to declare, use the insurrection act and declare that we are in a state of insurrection, then the guardrails just

come off and you can deploy the 82nd airborne with bayonets fixed into Chicago or D.C. or New York or wherever you want. One funny point about that? Not funny at all, but he actually is saying on the, he's not the campaign trail, but he's saying almost every day since the National Guard, they didn't leave D.C. yet, but since this kind of, this is kind of calmed down. He says there's no crime in D.C. There's murders in D.C. every day.

Now, D.C. crime is down. It's still serious. But he literally has declared D.C. a crime-free zone, which is funny because, you know, you read the police blotters. No, there's people who were stabbed last night. A couple people were murdered over this last week. And so, you know, that there's always that notion of, you know, where's the truth on these things.

Yeah, he's fucking delusional, Mark. We could say it. I'll say it. Yeah. Yeah, it's just, but it's also just, you know, not telling the truth, lying, just blatantly about things. There are some, like, and this is getting a little bit far into like conspiracy theories, but it makes you wonder what's going on, where Trump is posting these like AI generated videos, including like that. Did you see that med bed thing? Yeah, the med bed one.

He posted some video like advertising a fucking medbed. There was an AI video, quickly deleted it probably like an hour later or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, and then didn't he also accidentally post on his social media a text he wanted to send to the Attorney General? So people, yeah, people thought it was a DM to Pam Bondi, yeah. Yeah, so I mean, there's like when you say delusional, I mean, which the DM clearly says, oh, I want to go after my political enemies. Like literally, plain as fucking day. Direct order from the president to the attorney general.

Yeah. So, I mean, there is some evidence here that this guy is not of sound mind. And I think that speech, I mean, he looked like he was following. I was texting my, you know, other friends in the media. And he said, you know, is he okay? And by the way, you know, him being not okay is not good. I'm not a fan of Trump. That's no secret to anyone here.

But you don't want him in that kind of state that he's in. You know, and not because, and I think that he's making terrible decisions on domestic policy. But I'm worried about that, you know, the 4 o'clock phone call in the middle of the night about some massive national security crisis. capable of dealing with that. That I don't know, particularly with the way he's acting. That speech at Quantico was alarming. I think the writing's really on the wall. And obviously, Trump is old and doughty and stuff when that's just what it is. When you're 79, 80 years old, it's fine. You know, you're right, it's totally concerning. Like, I was concerning with Biden. But the national military defense

strategy that's coming out, the new one that's been leaked to high heavens, focusing less on China and Russia and more on domestic and regional is one point. The second point is it's just, you know, probing with L.A., the National Guard, with D.C., with maybe Chicago, maybe Oregon happening, maybe New York, who knows. Also, in the wake of Charlie Kirk's murder, I feel like they have, at least Stephen Miller and those guys have taken it upon themselves to really turbocharge. this because they did do some other executive order, the MP, whatever. They're like, they're classifying, like, if you're anti-capitalist or anti-Christian

or anti-something, like you could be. Anti-American. I mean, it's basically so broad it could mean anyone. Right. And anything. Let me just throw one thing out there. The National Guard is never going in New York City in grand numbers like that. Now, they've called in the National Guard for the subways at times.

And that was done. I saw him in the subway today, Mark. Right. But that's been done under the Biden administration. but the idea of the National Guard coming into fight crime when the New York City Police Department is 40,000 members. I'm not so sure. They're going to be a little more.

Now, where this changes is with your next mayoral election. And New York becomes a different place if a certain candidate wins, and then Trump just goes to war. Well, I mean, Trump already tweeted it out about like if Zoran wins, he's going to cut funding to New York City. Like, I don't know how that's kind of legal. That gets me thinking because Trump was going to cut $35 million in counterterrorism funding until a judge shut that down and said you can't cut that funding.

And then there was some other funding for the city, federal funding that he was going to cut. I don't know if he did or not. And then there's the new tunnel they're building from New Jersey. He's threatened to do this now with the shutdown. So that's what he said that. So I wonder if, you know, you got me thinking, Mark. I mean, I wonder if he's trying to gut the law enforcement capability so that he has an excuse to send the National Guard. Interesting times.

Also, like, if he does send the National Guard, how do you know, like, how many police officers are okay with this? So, look, the D.C. police force is under under strain. And so the response is really interesting in D.C. because the response from the police unions and others is, you know, we welcome this deployment. it's not a long-term strategy. Frankly, what we need is more cops. They're down to 1,000 cops. And so, so, you know, so in areas where there is an acute shortage of police officers,

and I think there's total agreement that that's the way to solve a lot of the crime issues, you've got to put more cops on the street, at least what I hear in D.C., but New York doesn't have that problem, at least as far as I'm concerned, as far as I know. There's like almost 40,000 cops. 40,000. That's more, that's a, and it's also, I mean, it's, it's, it's, And you have state police here too.

Yeah. But New York has an incredible, you know, emergency response. What is it called? It's not ERT. Was it ESU there? ESU there. Aviation, maritime. I mean, basically it's a mini army and incredibly respected globally.

And so I think it is a little bit different there. There's no need for the National Guard other than the issue of the subway. Was there a need for the National Guard to go to L.A.? no absolutely not i don't think they care about me even la doesn't want it so again but but this is or the governor and same thing now in in illinois and we're going to see that in oregon um uh and and the worry on all this is that there's some catastrophic event in which is a lot of life on either side if there's a big protest and you know people start shooting or something goes down but that's what they want my contention would be uh that's they're going to capital they're going to capital politically capitalize on

another tragedy like they're trying to do with Kirk. And it's disgusting, frankly. Yeah. I mean, Charlie Kirk and, you know, the murderer, the guy that killed him and the motive, all of these things are completely irrelevant. Everyone just sees, you know, how can we cash in on this? How can we politicize this thing for our own self-benefit? And in that case, you know, the victim becomes, you know, shortchanged.

You know, it's like they don't matter. And even Kirk's widow, right? She came out and she's like, I forgive the shooter and stuff and we need to be more forgiving, right? Like, maybe we should listen to the woman who, like, lost everything. Maybe. I don't know. She's the only one kind of talking sense besides, like, everyone else is gearing up for whatever they think is going to happen next. I mean, I appreciate the Christian sentiment in her.

I mean, I think the killer should be prosecuted. Absolutely. But that's kind of where it ends. We don't use it as an excuse to crack down on political opponents. Yeah. That's my whole point. I don't think the guy should walk free. Like, and they're all good.

No, he's got to go. No, that was a horrific crime. It was awful. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I, you know, unfortunately, my tendency is to look at social media and you actually, if there's graphic footage of that, it was horrendous. It brought me back to Iraq and Afghanistan time, seeing stuff like that. It was horrible. Yeah, so we'll see what goes from here.

I'm sure there'll be never-ending cycle of news that keeps coming and coming. But you guys are still here. For now. For now, yeah, we're not going here. I have my team house bling. I haven't put the kibosh on us yet. No. They have.

So, Jack, I saw the tweet you had, too, especially when I think was it, it was J-Sach or someone put something out about what CSMs were saying, don't talk to the media for the former former members of the units don't do this and don't do that and you kind of objected to that well they've been leaning people have been leaning on other podcasts to take off delta force uh oh yeah yeah that's what i'm talking about interviews and stuff like that and a couple pussy podcasts have done that um not pussy a couple of them we'd like but can i ask you a question and we can you can you can run this or not um what is the controversy over bangazi that i hear has kind of been jinned up um over delta versus the GRS guys.

I honestly don't understand what's going on. It's really weird to hear it jinned up after all these years to become like this sort of like controversy. I think the reason why is because, and I haven't been tracking this closely, but I believe the reason why is because the two Delta operators who responded to Benghazi are potentially having their Navy Cross and Distinguished Service Cross upgraded to a medal of honor. I think they're looking at that. And the GRS guys are complaining because.

the Delta guys rolled Glenn Doherty and Ty Woods remains off the roof of the building to get them down in an expedient manner. Whether that was tactically, you know, appropriate or not, I wasn't there. I don't know. But that's where the controversy kind of erupts from. Gotcha, because I saw in another podcast that were reading out one of the statements. It was kind of, again, you never, I don't know what the recent outrage was with, you know, in this kind of weird world. but it seems like people were fired up about that. And I did see that you had on,

was it Matt Cole recently about there, that botched Steel Team 6 Raid in North Korea. David Phillips, too. Yeah, which I thought that was, again, another fascinating story. And, you know, it's that, that is, of course, going to be much more problematic with the incredible crackdown on press from the Pentagon.

There's like no press there. Well, I know. I talked to my friends who were there, and they said, you know, they're trying to make everybody to sign a statement saying that, you know, you can only, you know, you only can obtain unclassified stuff from folks, this and that. But I was told by someone from kind of a centrist publication that even Fox and even OAN are not signing this. And so, you know, we'll see. And of course, this notion, there's a front page story in the Washington Post, today or yesterday, that they're going to start polygraphing everybody at the Pentagon. I saw that. I saw that. Yeah. Now, for me, I got polygraphed a billion times. But it's kind of interesting that that that's a tone they're setting. I would suspect that actually what they're doing is going to lead to more leaks. The Department of Defense is so big. It's like close to a million people or something like that. I mean, you're not going to be able to shut them all down and shut everyone up. It's like like the CIA, for instance, is much smaller. It's much easier to keep things inside the building. With the Department of Defense, they don't have that luxury. So I would speculate that actually the leaks will increase as the pressure ratchets up on people in the Pentagon. And by the way, the leaks that Hegseth care about have nothing to do with military plans or operations has to do with him. Yeah, it makes them look bad.

That makes them look bad. That's what he's upset about. And here's one thing that I think, and I'm surprised I'm even saying it because it's my evolution. I mean, the fourth estate, the media, this is what keeps us whole. You know, it's really important to have journalism, you know, especially, you know, reporting on national security issues because I was in the CIA, Jack, you were in, you know, special units in the military. And ultimately, you were given extraordinary power. And there's always room for abuse. And so, you know, having a press holding people accountable, there's nothing wrong with that.

You don't want the leak of classified war plans before the fact. I get all that. But I've become much more of an advocate of the media, the press in terms of how they hold government account. and I think now is more important than ever. And unfortunately, some of these big publications are abdicating that responsibility. Jack, you literally read my fucking mind. The editorial board of the Washington Post is now kind of kooky. They're all kind of little weird and MAGA-e now.

Yeah. We're doomed, is what you're saying, guys. Great. I always feel better when these fucking shows happen. There's some good news. The Red Sox's going to beat the Yankees tonight. Fuck you, Mark. I knew you're going to say that.

I don't even care. I'm a hockey fan. I'm a Ranger fan. All right. Well, they start on Tuesday. Excited. Anything else? You guys want to hit on before we dip out?

No, I think that's good. One more quick thing. I want to advocate for a trip for people. I just got back from Alaska. Cool. That was the coolest trip, and I've lived everywhere, and I've traveled everywhere.

It's a very cool place. I had to give a talk out there, and my wife and I stayed on a couple days and talk about spectacular senior. I know, I know, Jack, you've, you went to Iceland last year or the year before, right? Oh, that's like three years ago now. When you see stuff like that, that is an incredible kind of, you know, what, and I'm going to sound silly now, but, you know, with nature, with these just, you know, vast glaciers or mountains. Yeah.

And places off the beaten path, man, I loved it there. It was very cool. I'd love to go to Alaska. I do have a trip planned for, it's actually a year from now, but in Alberta. There you go. Yep. Very similar. Canada's cool

and just keep on going up left a little bit go across the Yukon Yeah Yeah It's too cold for you there Yeah I can't fuck with that shit You kidding me I need concrete

I need concrete I need air conditioning I need climate control There's moose There was a moose walking down I wouldn't survive I wouldn't survive I wouldn't survive

I'm out of here I'll send you guys a video It's great So my wife we stopped the car We're watching this moose And it's behind a fence We're by the airport And so there are fences there

But then they have little Then they have breaks in the fences is the moose so they can walk around. So some tourist jumps up and is messing with this. Moose is massive. Yeah. And the moose gets pissed and goes after the tourist and charges across the road. And this is like, you remember the Blair Witch Project with like the screen going everywhere?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the video of my wife's taking of us. We are running into the car and try to escape. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. found footage of like a moose attack. That's it. That's the last time you'll ever see us. All right.

Mark, you have a podcast, the crisis room. with, oh my God, the home secretary. What's her name? Amber Rudd and Mark Urban. I'm having fun with that. Tell Mark Urban to come on the team house. I reached out to him like a year and a half ago. I had to check on my editor.

I'm like, can you stop and just come on the podcast? No, I told him the other day. And so I'll remind him. We're doing an emergency pod tomorrow with this terrorist attack in the UK. That just occurred today. And so, yeah, that's been fun. Jack Murphy, of course, the high side, his outlet with Sean Naylor. writing about some AHA, Havana syndrome stuff.

Yeah, something's coming out soon. Part 2 coming out soon. And a lot of stuff's breaking on that, so we've got to do a big episode. Yeah, so we definitely should get something with you and another person to, yeah, Adam. Adam, yeah. For sure. When the ship hits the fan. And yeah, patreon.com slash the team house, we crushing.

We're doing so many podcasts. It's not even a joke anymore. You get the team house, Anizon. completely ad free and early. And you can help support the show as well. Patreon.com slash the Teamhouse. Follow Mark, follow Jack. I'll put all there the links in the description.

Thanks, guys. This is great. Great seeing you guys. You too. Come on on. Hey, guys. I want to tell all of you today about a new newsletter that we're launching that encompasses both the Team House podcast, the Eyes on podcast, and the high side news

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