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In this week’s Elie v. US, The Nation’s justice correspondent explores the authoritarian threat beneath Trump’s bonuses for military families. Plus, a case for getting rid of the Second Amendment.
Elie Mystal
Most notably, to me at least, Trump promised 1,450,000 military service members a “warrior dividend” of $1,776 (to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776), by Christmas. He said the checks were already in the mail.
They might be. Their $2.6 billion cost is just a fraction of the military budget already approved by Congress. I’m not necessarily opposed to military families’ getting a little extra cash this holiday season. They were hit hard by the government shutdown, and while my sensibilities tend toward giving people living on the margins the extra money, I don’t believe in zero-sum politics. Giving military families extra money doesn’t preclude Trump from giving working families extra money; instead, being a jackboot unsympathetic ---- precludes Trump from giving working families extra money.
However, paying the military in this way, or framing the payments in this way, is one of the most dangerous things I’ve ever heard Trump say. Yes, ever. History is literally full of dictators or would-be dictators who rose to power on the strength of private military forces who were paid by their strongman general, not the state. That made the troops loyal to their general, not the state. Indeed, having military payments controlled by the Congress or parliament, as opposed to the executive or king, is the key liberal reform that is meant to stop would-be dictators from amassing the military strength needed to overthrow republics.
Even though this money was already authorized by the state (once again, great job caving on the shutdown, Democrats), it is incredibly bad to have Trump framing the payments as the result of his largesse (no doubt his big, stupid, auto-pen signature will be on those checks as well). It purposely creates the false sense that Trump, and not the American government, is responsible for these families’ financial well-being. And Trump knows this. He’s a man who has never engendered any heartfelt loyalty, only transactional loyalty. He doesn’t earn respect; he buys it.
We have an election coming up before next Christmas. Trump just told the most powerful military on earth that if they want bonus money next season, he needs to stay in his position of unassailable power.
Of all the things that Trump has done, $1,776 checks to the military is the one that could most directly lead to an authoritarian takeover of the United States of America. The irony that it’s being framed around the Declaration of Independence will not be missed by future historians.
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/newsletter-warrior-dividend-school-shootings/#
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Trump’s ‘Warrior Dividend’ Might Be His Scariest Idea Yet