Donald Trump spoke earlier this week at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and the speech has already been controversial for multiple reasons, including Trump announcing that he plans to reverse the changes made to the names of military bases that were named for Confederate generals. He also made an incendiary political speech in front of the active-duty military, which might have been a no-no not too long ago.
The event also featured a pop-up store selling Trump political merchandise.
A new report on Military.com shared some surprising details about the event’s planning.
“No fat soldiers.”@Militarydotcom digs into how the crowd was built for President Trump’s appearance yesterday at Fort Bragg and finds that soldiers were checked for their allegiance, and their appearance. https://t.co/QPcGWf80Cn
— Matt Viser (@mviser) June 11, 2025
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“What unfolded Tuesday at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, bore little resemblance to the customary visit from a president and defense secretary, the report said. “There, President Donald Trump unleashed a speech laced with partisan invective, goading jeers from a crowd of soldiers positioned behind his podium — blurring the long-standing and sacrosanct line between the military and partisan politics.”
The soldiers present cheered on Trump’s trashing of political rivals, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former President Joseph Biden.
Military.com’s review of internal communications included “a tightly orchestrated effort to curate the optics of Trump’s recent visit, including handpicking soldiers for the audience based on political leanings and physical appearance.” This included a request for “no fat soldiers,’ as well as the disqualification of soldiers whose political views don’t match the president’s.
NEW: Aside from the naked partisanship on display at yesterday’s speech at Ft. Bragg, we’ve learned that troops were screened for loyalty and appearance.
The Army also allowed the sale of MAGA merch directly to troops.@StevenBeynon and I report: https://t.co/cx2JbtGxga
— Konstantin Toropin (@KToropin) June 11, 2025
“If soldiers have political views that are in opposition to the current administration and they don’t want to be in the audience, then they need to speak with their leadership and get swapped out,” a note during the planning said.
One commander at Fort Bragg had some sharp words to say about what happened this week.
“This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution,” the commander said in the Military.com story. “This was shameful. I don’t expect anything to come out of it, but I hope maybe we can learn from it long term.”
“I bet none of those soldiers booing even know the mayor’s name or could identify them in a lineup; they’re nonexistent in the chain of command,” an 82nd Airborne noncommissioned officer told Military.com. “So, any opinion they could possibly have can only be attributed to expressing a political view while in uniform.”
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
