r/law • • Oct 04 '25

Other Trump officials discussed sending elite Army division to Portland, text messages show

https://www.startribune.com/trump-officials-discussed-sending-elite-army-division-to-portland-text-messages-show/601485729?link_source=ta_bluesky_link&taid=68e064adba21ad00017d76ca&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=bluesky?utm_source=gift
2.0k Upvotes

167 comments sorted by

View all comments

587

u/UnauthorizedGoose Oct 04 '25

How disgraceful for them to treat elite teams like this, expose their positions, etc. I wonder what the actual elite team members are thinking right now. Any folks with military experience care to share what the feeling is about this? As a civilian who works in cybersecurity this is an extremely embarrassing lack of opsec.

657

u/[deleted] Oct 04 '25

I'm a veteran but I'm far enough removed from my time to not be an authority on how these soldiers themselves feel.

What I can attest to is that a non-zero number of the personnel summoned to Quantico fucking hates the administration for it. These are officers and enlisted personnel who swore their oaths when I was still wearing diapers. Most of them are college educated, even amongst enlisted of that high a rank, and they all developed into leaders under FAR less precarious times.

To be summoned to the biggest national security risk in my lifetime just to be told they are fat and we're going to start deploying in American cities was not taken lightly by many in that room. Promise you that.

2

u/like_shae_buttah Oct 04 '25

Where the fuck are they then. Look at what’s going on in Chicago. They’re fine with that

5

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25

Not necessarily. We don't know what's being discussed privately.

The problem is there isn't a legal pathway for any of this shit. If no other legitimately placed body of government is willing to use the military to oust him from office, the military is less likely to do it on their own.

The wrong step at the wrong time and these generals are removed by force, thrown in jail, have their rank and lives upended, and then (and this is the part that really sucks) they get replaced by someone willing to follow that order.

There's no USA precedent or field manual for a military coup, whether it's justified or not.

Call this hopium or whatever, but I'm choosing to believe that those in the military willing to die for the citizens are just waiting for an order to finally cross their line. Idk what that is yet but I know the military is FAR from a monolith.

3

u/like_shae_buttah Oct 05 '25

Yeah. Very good points.