Trump Is Remaking National Security to Enforce His Agenda (w/ Tom Joscelyn)

In this episode of The Bulwark, Bill Kristol sits down with Tom Joscelyn to dissect the radical transformation of America's national security apparatus under President Trump's second term. The conversation opens with Trump's inflammatory tweet threatening military action against Iran, which Joscelyn characterizes as a blatant war crime and a sign of the erosion of legal and moral constraints on military power. The focus quickly shifts to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, whose aggressive purging of senior military leaders—particularly those who resisted his culture-war-driven agenda—signals a deep politicization of the Pentagon. Joscelyn emphasizes that these firings, including the removal of respected figures like General Randy George, were not based on performance but on loyalty, race, gender, and ideological conformity. He warns that this undermines military effectiveness, erodes institutional norms, and enables a dangerous fusion of Christian nationalism with state power. The episode underscores how Trump’s administration is dismantling the nonpartisan, rule-of-law-based foundation of U.S. national security in favor of a personalistic, ideologically driven war machine. Joscelyn argues that the current trajectory reflects a broader authoritarian pattern seen abroad, where institutions are not reformed through merit or strategic vision but through loyalty and ideological purity tests. The rescue of the U.S. airman, while celebrated by Trump, is ironically accomplished by military personnel trained in the very 'woke' system Hegseth denounces. This irony highlights the contradiction at the heart of the administration’s project: it relies on the very institutions it seeks to destroy. The episode concludes with a sobering warning: without institutional guardrails, the U.S. military risks becoming a tool of presidential whim and ideological extremism, with profound implications for global stability and American democracy.