First They Cut the Generals: The Quiet March Toward Authoritarianism

It didn’t start with tanks in the streets. It started with a press release about “efficiency.”

On May 5, 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a sweeping 20% cut to the U.S. military’s four-star generals — a move framed as bureaucratic streamlining. But look closer and you’ll see something else: a dangerous pattern of consolidation, control, and political loyalty over competence.

There are only 44 active-duty four-star officers across all branches of the U.S. military. This isn’t a bloated class of elites — this is the experienced leadership at the top of our national defense. Cutting 8 or 10 of them is not trimming fat; it’s severing a spine.

This echoes a chilling historical parallel. In 1938, Hitler viewed the Prussian military aristocracy — Germany’s traditional general staff — as a threat to his ambitions. He purged them. He installed loyalists. He reshaped the military not for defense, but for obedience.

And here we are.

Trump’s second term has already brought mass pardons for January 6th rioters, moves to undermine civil service protections, and now, the removal of military leaders who might not fall in line. This isn’t about efficiency. It’s about control.

When tyrants consolidate power, they don’t begin with obvious brutality. They start with justifications that sound reasonable. They make incremental moves that seem forgettable on their own. But together, those steps form a staircase — and we are climbing it fast.

If you’re reading this and thinking, “Sure, but what can I do?” — you are not powerless. Here are five things you can do today:

1. Lock Down Your Phone
   Your phone is a surveillance device that also happens to make calls. Use Signal. Turn off location tracking. Ditch biometric logins. Protect your data like your freedom depends on it — because it might.
2. Find Your Three
   Authoritarianism isolates. Identify three people you trust with your safety plan. Check in regularly. These are your lifelines if things go sideways.
3. Make a Safe Plan
   If you had to leave your home tomorrow, where would you go? Who would know? Write it down. Don’t assume you’ll have time when the moment comes.
4. Plug Into Local Resistance
   You don’t have to lead a movement. Just show up. Find mutual aid groups, abolitionists, election defenders. Isolation is how they win. Community is how we fight.
5. Back Up What Matters
   Save your documents. Screenshot your social posts. Archive your work in multiple places. They can’t erase history if we make copies.

This is not paranoia. This is pattern recognition.

The U.S. is not yet lost. But we are on a knife’s edge. And what we do now — how awake we stay, how connected we remain, how brave we choose to be — will shape the world our children inherit.

We’ve been told for decades that fascism could never happen here. But history doesn’t ask for our permission. It only asks if we’re paying attention.

We still have time. But not forever.

Stay loud. Stay vigilant. Stay human.

Click here for my Master List: Authoritarian and Anti-Constitutional Actions by Donald Trump (2025)