The Heritage Foundation among others have just allegedly signaled an intention to purge America of democracy.

In mid-September, as tech billionaire Elon Musk intensified his efforts to elect Donald Trump as president, a wave of letters arrived at the Department of Transportation, asking the agency to turn over any emails and text messages that federal workers sent about the world’s wealthiest man and his sprawling technology empire. …Mike Howell, executive director of the Heritage Foundation Oversight Project, is responsible for a substantial share of the requests. “We’ve been planning for some time what to do if there’s turnover in the administration.” …submitted around 65,000 requests to federal agencies under the Freedom of Information Act, a law that governs public access to records produced by the government. […] America First Policy Institute, a group with close ties to Trump’s transition team, has also requested agencies turn over training materials about diversity programs and any records that outline all senior level positions.

Let’s look at how history helps explain this news. The foundations of American governance were shaped by systematic mechanisms to control political participation. As documented in Gerald Horne’s “The Counter-Revolution of 1776,” the revolutionary period’s Committees of Safety operated as early data-gathering and enforcement bodies, methodically identifying and removing officials who might resist an emerging system centered on preserving slavery against British judicial constraints like the 1772 Somerset decision.

The Constitutional framework formalized these control mechanisms. While state constitutions of the 1780s began to expand democratic participation (notably Pennsylvania in 1776), the federal Constitution of 1787-88 crushed them with more restrictive frameworks. As historian Robert J. Steinfeld shows in “Property and Suffrage in the Early American Republic,” this included property requirements and indirect selection processes that concentrated national power among elitist pro-slavery politicians.

The Federalist administration demonstrated how these mechanisms could be weaponized through the 1798 Sedition Act. As Richard E. Ellis details in “The Jeffersonian Crisis,” this established a pattern of using ostensibly neutral legal tools to grab and hold political control — a pattern that would be repeatedly deployed to preserve and expand the American race-based caste model (unjust system of white male dominated hierarchy) for the decades to come.

It was President Jackson (Trump’s stated favorite) who in 1829 truly systematized political purges by using personnel records to remove officials who opposed slavery let alone his plans for racist genocide (Indian Removal). Woodrow Wilson then further perfected such practices by 1913, systematically cataloging federal employees’ race to enable mass firings and segregation. By his second term he invoked tactics to spread mob violence and deploy federal troops for oppression of political opponents (e.g. 1919 Elaine, Arkansas massacre) leading into the “Red Summer” of widespread lynchings as well as mass graves (e.g. victims of the 1921 firebombing of Tulsa).

To be clear, I’m uncovering no stones here.

These tragic chapters of American history are no secret to historians. In fact it’s the opposite, as the tragedy of America has been pored over by those looking to emulate the racist violence with similar ambitions. A century of innovations in data-driven political purges very clearly caught the attention of a particular German in 1933, who thought he could get away with it just like so many Americans had. You may recognize the name of the student of American history who promised to take the virulent hate espoused by Henry Ford and put it into practice abroad: Adolf Hitler.

In just one simple example, the 1934 Nazi Commission for Criminal Law Reform directly cited President Wilson’s American racial classification laws as models. Many have written about this aspect of the knowledge transfer into Hitler’s hands, let alone the role of Americans fueling Nazism. Deeper into the historical analysis, however, it seems few Americans seem to realize that plans for the genocidal Auschwitz death camps were based directly on earlier American detention centers erected on the border with Mexico. Wilson’s concept of mass population control meant people were systematically doused with a pesticide, which was adapted by the Nazis and rebranded with the German name now associated with genocide: Zyklon-B.

The Heritage Foundation’s mass collection of federal employee data today, along with a wave of heated “detention and deportation” rhetoric, represents the latest chapter in the American story of political sabotage by white nationalism.

Requesting 65,000 sets of communications and personnel records, while specifically targeting diversity programs and senior positions, comes out of an old and familiar playbook of American white male tyranny. Just as Nazi officials methodically gathered information on civil servants’ political leanings and racial backgrounds before their 1933 takeover — directly copying early American methods — this current effort appears designed to take the credit back and identify political targets for removal and intimidation… if not execution.

The focus on diversity programs and senior leadership positions particularly echoes how authoritarian movements historically identified “unreliable” elements for removal. These patterns of systematic information gathering before purges trace directly to American precedents (pun not intended):

• Wilson’s administration collected records on federal employees’ race to enable resegregation
• Nazi bureaucrats used personnel files to identify Jewish civil servants and political opponents
• McCarthy’s investigations gathered detailed records on government employees’ associations and beliefs

The Heritage Foundation’s relationship to the “America First Policy Institute” is no coincidence — it directly invokes Wilson’s white nationalist platform. Just as Wilson invoked the “America First” platform of the KKK to justify institutional purges and racial terror, today’s movement explicitly builds on his blueprint for dismantling democratic safeguards. Their systematic targeting of diversity programs and senior positions shows how precisely they’re following established American patterns of institutional capture:

The modern twist is using FOIA — a law designed for government transparency — as a tool for creating target lists while maintaining plausible deniability. This mirrors how historical movements often weaponized existing legal mechanisms for authoritarian ends.

From Andrew Jackson to Woodrow Wilson to Adolf Hitler to Donald Trump, a disturbing pattern emerges in how white nationalist movements attack democratic institutions through manufactured victimhood narratives. While the specific contexts and recorded numbers of mass harm differ dramatically, understanding these recurring tactics can help us recognize dangerous political patterns before they fully develop into widespread violence.

Jackson’s tactics went beyond mere rhetoric — he systematically dismantled institutional checks by combining populist appeals with targeted removal of career officials. By positioning the professional civil service as an “elite” obstacle to “the people’s will,” he created the template for how to paralyze institutional resistance while maintaining democratic pretense. His famous defiance of Worcester v. Georgia — “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!” — demonstrated how to render constitutional protections meaningless through strategic institutional sabotage.

Wilson’s presidency marked an out-loud point of white supremacist power in American governance, despite many to this day still claiming they don’t see it. His administration resegregated federal offices, screened the “Birth of a Nation” in the White House, and promoted Lost Cause mythology to paint whites as the true victims of Civil War to end slavery of Blacks. This institutionalization of white grievance politics — KKK propaganda of “America First” meant to emphasize the white race as superior to African/Asian/Hispanic Americans — provided the template that Hitler studied and admired.

Hitler explicitly praised America’s racial laws and institutions in “Mein Kampf”, along with the antisemitism of Henry Ford. He saw in both Jackson’s Indian Removal policy and Wilson’s America a model where democratic institutions were used to enforce racial hierarchy while maintaining a veneer of legality, even striving to go further than Jackson’s legacy of genocide and Wilson’s industrialized segregation. The Nazi regime’s early racial laws openly said they drew direct inspiration from both American Indian Removal policies and Jim Crow, while also notably saying the Germans wouldn’t be so barbaric as America.

Just as Hitler built upon earlier examples while operating in a different context, we see concerning echoes in modern politics of Trump. These tactics remain remarkably consistent:

1. Manufacturing False Crises
   • Jackson: “Savage” threat to frontier settlers
   • Wilson: “Black domination” during Reconstruction
   • Hitler: “Jewish conspiracy” and Reichstag fire
   • Trump: Fabricated immigration emergencies and election fraud claims
2. Corrupting Legal Institutions
   • Jackson: Defying Supreme Court on Indian rights
   • Wilson: Using federal power to enforce segregation
   • Hitler: Transforming courts into tools of Nazi ideology
   • Trump: Attempting to weaponize DOJ and courts for political ends
3. Claiming Victimhood While Pursuing Dominance
   • Jackson: Settlers as “victims” of Native Americans
   • Wilson: “Lost Cause” mythology
   • Hitler: “Stabbed in the back” myth
   • Trump: “Great Replacement” theory

The Supreme Court’s dismantling of Reconstruction-era protections offers a particularly relevant warning. The Court ruled that the federal government couldn’t protect citizens from private violence through the Enforcement Acts — a decision that enabled decades of racial terror. This same legal logic could be weaponized today in reverse: not to limit federal power to protect minorities, but to expand federal power to target them under the guise of “emergency” or “security.”

An insidious modern tactic involves appointing leaders specifically chosen to destroy the very institutions they head — a form of institutional sabotage that would have been familiar to Hitler’s strategists.

Consider these parallels:

• Placing officials hostile to civil rights in charge of civil rights enforcement — echoing how Reconstruction’s protective mechanisms were turned into tools of oppression
• Installing partisan loyalists in intelligence agencies — reminiscent of how Hitler transformed professional intelligence services into instruments of party control
• Appointing department heads explicitly committed to dismantling their agencies’ core missions — similar to how Nazi officials hollowed out German civil service
• Using loyalty tests to purge career officials while installing partisan actors — matching how professional bureaucracies were transformed into party instruments

The strategy of institutional destruction through targeted appointments shows sophisticated evolution from historical patterns.

Now consider these mechanisms:

• Election Administration:
  • Installing officials who reject election results they dislike
  • Placing partisan actors in neutral oversight positions
  • Removing professional election officials who defend integrity
• Environmental Protection:
  • Appointing industry lobbyists to regulatory positions
  • Dismantling scientific advisory boards
  • Replacing career scientists with political loyalists
• Intelligence Agencies:
  • Installing leaders who dismiss foreign interference evidence
  • Removing officials who raise national security concerns
  • Politicizing intelligence assessments
• Justice Department:
  • Appointing officials who view prosecution as a political tool
  • Targeting career prosecutors who maintain independence
  • Converting law enforcement into a mechanism for political retribution
• Education:
  • Placing opponents of public education in leadership
  • Dismantling civil rights enforcement mechanisms
  • Using educational institutions to promote partisan ideology

This systematic approach to agency capture goes beyond mere political appointments. It represents a sophisticated strategy to:

• Identify key positions that can be used to paralyze agency functions
• Install loyalists who will ignore legislative mandates
• Remove career expertise that could resist politicization
• Transform agencies into instruments of partisan control
• Use institutional powers to target political opponents

Key patterns to watch:

• Manufacturing crises to justify emergency powers
• Demanding personal loyalty over institutional duty
• Using courts to selectively apply constitutional principles
• Inverting protective mechanisms into tools of oppression
• Claiming victimhood while advocating violence
• Appointing institutional saboteurs to key positions
• Transforming professional agencies into partisan weapons

History teaches us that would-be authoritarians don’t just attack democratic institutions directly — they corrupt them from within by inverting their purpose. Those who know the past are condemned to recognize when it repeats.

Jackson turned “popular sovereignty” against tribal rights. Wilson transformed federal power from protecting Black citizens to enforcing their subjugation. Hitler studied these American examples to learn how democratic systems could be turned against democracy itself.

Today, we see similar inversions under “America First” that have been its meaning since it developed out of nativist anti-immigrant violence of the late 1800s: Claims of “election integrity” used to restrict voting rights. “Law and order” rhetoric deployed to justify lawlessness. “States’ rights” selectively invoked or ignored based on whether they serve white nationalist ends. The Department of Justice and courts — institutions created to protect rights — at risk of becoming tools for their destruction.

The challenge isn’t just protecting specific laws or institutions, but recognizing how those very protections can be weaponized. Democracy dies not only through outright revolution, but through intentional manipulation of its own mechanisms.

When we see these historical patterns beginning to repeat, the window for preserving democratic governance is already closing.

For military and intelligence leaders, this history carries special weight. Your oath to the Constitution requires understanding that these aren’t foreign tactics being imported — they’re American innovations being deployed again. When you swear to defend against all enemies “foreign and domestic,” you’re committing to resist patterns of institutional subversion that were born here, perfected here, and must be stopped here.

The echoes of Jackson, Wilson, McCarthy and Hitler in modern politics aren’t just historical curiosities — they’re urgent warnings that demand immediate action to protect democratic foundations before they’re corrupted again beyond norms of political repair. Your constitutional duty requires recognizing these tactics for what they are: not legitimate political discourse, but the calculated dismantling of democratic systems using democracy’s own tools.

The nomination of Pete Hegseth for defense secretary reveals multiple layers of extremist signaling — from overt actions and affiliations to coded language and historical echoes. Let’s examine the clear hate group evidence, loudly signaling a national security threat, starting with the most direct concerns.

Immediate concrete evidence of concern

CNN says the announcement about the infamously divisive and toxic Army National Guard veteran signals “support for troops… convicted of war crimes”.

Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary Pete Hegseth has railed against women in combat, voiced support for troops accused and in some instances, convicted of war crimes, and advocated for the firing of the military’s most senior officers accused of supporting so-called woke policies.

Hegseth has been flagged basically everywhere lately for having “white crusader” tattoos because he apparently is unapologetic about branding himself as someone who hates others (and wants to kill them) based on race and religion.

Hegseth’s tattoos, political views and religious affiliation and background are consistent with an extreme strain of Christian nationalism, according to Matthew Taylor, a scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, & Jewish Studies. Specifically, he appears to belong to a fringe denomination known as Reformed Reconstructionism, which believes in applying biblical Christian law to society, exclusively male leadership, and actively preparing the world for the prophesied return of Jesus. The denomination has an affinity for the Crusades, the military campaign waged during the Middle Ages by European Christians to rid Muslims from the Holy Land.

To put it plainly, extremist hate group memes by 2017 made it abundantly clear that a Jerusalem Cross and the phrase “Deus Vult” symbolized their brand of white nationalist violence.

Hegseth, only after hearing the prominent news about the rise of extremism, had it tattooed prominently on his chest and bicep. Notably, Hegseth claimed Norwegian descent while adorning his body around 2021 with domestic terror symbolism of the 2011 Norway tragedy.

The Independent says his nomination announcement signals a patronage system choosing the “least qualified nominee… most overtly political”.

Hegseths’s nomination is “the most hilariously predictably stupid thing” that Trump could do, according to former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger, a former lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard. Hegseth “is a highly effective and ferocious media, culture and political warrior for MAGA. And beyond loyal to and trusted by Trump,” according to Paul Rieckhoff, an Army veteran of the Iraq War and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. He is “undoubtedly the least qualified nominee for [defense secretary] in American history. And the most overtly political,” Rieckhoff said. “Brace yourself, America.” Hegseth graduated from Princeton University in 2003 and received his master’s degree in public policy at Harvard University.

This pattern of concerning behavior extends beyond ideology. Hegseth accidentally threw an axe that hit someone in West Point, and then hunched over and walked away as if to avoid responsibility for rash thoughtless acts.

Some officials expressed concern that Hegseth might come into the building with a hatchet aimed at axing programs without getting a lay of the land first.

I don’t know who would really mix up a hatchet and an axe, but generally it sounds like they’re on the right path about this guy’s lack of thoughtfulness.

Pete Hegseth denies existence of germs, saying: “I can’t see them, therefore they’re not real.”

Uncoordinated, selfish, and dangerous. His actions demonstrated a kind of attention-seeking person unaccountable and unreliable, who disgraces himself and those around him.

Military resignation context

Particularly telling is how Hegseth proudly says he decided to back down from the military because they allegedly called him on white supremacist affiliations. He literally quit after his “political and religious views” were flagged by the very reasonable standards prohibiting hate groups in the military.

The feeling was mutual – I didn’t want this Army anymore either.

That’s what he wrote in his book, as if to foreshadow a nomination to lead the thing he doesn’t want anymore. He wrote that he is a man who backed down.

I can’t emphasize this enough, that he says he is someone who backs down, and then he’s nominated to be someone exact opposite to who he really is. Quitter won’t quit? Dog-whistler.

The military resignation narrative is particularly telling — claiming to leave due to “political and religious views” being challenged, only to later seek top leadership. It suggests an attempt to frame enforcement of anti-extremism policies as persecution. This fits a common pattern where extremist groups attempt to portray basic standards against discrimination as attacks on their rights.

These modern signaling techniques didn’t emerge in isolation – they draw from a long history of military segregation and white supremacist infiltration of American institutions. The parallels between current rhetoric and historical patterns are particularly striking when examining military leadership’s role in enforcing racial hierarchies.

While his individual actions paint a damning picture, understanding their full significance requires examining the environment that shaped them. The regional context of Hegseth’s upbringing provides crucial insights into how such extremist viewpoints develop and persist.

To examine how these extremist views develop and persist in a family that immigrated to America, let’s scratch the surface of where Hegseth was raised – Forest Lake, Minnesota. This region has a deeply troubling history of institutional racism and white supremacy that continues to this day. The pattern of racial violence, discrimination, and attempts to dismantle protective institutions provides crucial context for understanding current signals and intentions:

• ‘I hate to say this, but I was bullied for my race‘
• Forest Lake school district apologizes for 2016 blackface incident
• In Lake Forest and America, lighter is still better
• North Lakes Academy in Forest Lake, hired a coach accused of statutory rape of a 16-year-old girl
• Forest Lake Republican council members campaigned to dissolve their entire 25-officer department claiming it would save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year
• …Police Chief Mike Tusken was an adult when he learned his family’s shameful connection to the most racist chapter in his city’s history. Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson and Isaac McGhie were lynched by a mob on June 15, 1920 without any police protection, because Irene Tusken lied about being raped.
• [Forest Lake news] articles repeat almost every anti-Semitic canard, from the allegation that Jews run Hollywood to the claim that Jews were behind communism.

This background of institutional racism and attempts to dismantle protective structures helps explain the coded language used in Hegseth’s nomination announcement. To those familiar with white supremacist messaging patterns, the carefully chosen words and phrases carry clear significance.

Encoded hate language deciphered

Against this backdrop, Trump’s announcement takes on even deeper significance, notably publicly dog-whistling Hegseth’s strong “America First” association:

“Pete is…a true believer in America First,” Trump said in a statement. “With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice – Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down.” […] Hegseth has said he left the military in 2021 after being sidelined for his political and religious views by an Army that didn’t want him anymore.

As a long-time expert of information warfare and disinformation tactics, let me break down what’s going on with these capitalized phrases, which are setup to be recognized slogans within certain groups. Trump has combined militaristic themes with nationalist rhetoric, using “America” twice to emphasize nationalism. The phrasing “at the helm” evokes authoritarian leadership

• “America’s enemies are on notice” echoes “enemies within” rhetoric historically used against minorities. It creates a threatening stance and implies crimes like President “America First” Wilson’s use of federal troops to kill black workers in 1919 Arkansas. The “on notice” suggests similar imminent escalation into violent confrontation without hesitation or negotiation.
• “Military will be Great Again” is using the classic white nationalist phrase, where unusual capitalization of “Great” signals it as the known slogan. It links military power with ethnic/racial dominance, common in supremacist ideology.
• “Never Back Down” is capitalized as a known slogan because it shouts out race-based dominance with resistance against perceived threats from non-whites, common in militant white nationalist rhetoric.

The phrase “true believer” (often capitalized as a signal) has significant meaning in context of white supremacist groups:

• Historical usage: Implies exclusive membership in an “enlightened” in-group. Used to distinguish “real” members from “pretenders”. Suggests possession of special knowledge others don’t have (e.g. Invisible order and “Know nothings”)
• Messaging function: Creates artificial scarcity/exclusivity. Reinforces group identity and loyalty. Implies others are “fake” or “traitors”. Often paired with phrases like “patriots” or “real Americans”
• Operational purpose: Used to test loyalty/commitment. Creates pressure to prove one’s status as a “True Believer”. Helps identify fellow extremists while maintaining deniability. Often used in recruitment to make people feel special/chosen.

The “true believer” phrase thus is meant both as a recognition signal between members and a recruiting tool — it flatters potential recruits by suggesting they could be part of an elite, enlightened white nationalist group wearing costumes who “see truth” that others can’t.

Connecting to historical patterns

America is clearly going back in time, so this should be no surprise to anyone who studied Woodrow Wilson’s screening of “Birth of a Nation” in the Whitehouse followed by racist policies of removing all non-whites from government… leading to a “Red Summer” of deadly white-supremacist attacks across the country, and then the 1921 racist militant campaign to murder Blacks and burn Tusla to the ground.

Historical military context

The “crusader” iconography and Reformed Reconstructionism connection is especially concerning given American historical context. This ideology advocating biblical law and male-only white leadership while glorifying the Crusades has clear parallels to the racist Christian nationalism that Wilson promoted into widespread domestic terrorism campaigns through his “America First” campaign and propaganda.

Wilson’s hatred for non-whites, which drove his propaganda office of WWI and framed military service, used overt expressions of racist “Crusades” just like the tattoos that Hegseth selected in 2021 to decorate himself with.

We must prevent the rise of any pronounced degree of intimacy between French officers and black officers. We may be courteous and amiable with the last but we cannot deal with them on the same plane as white American officers without deeply wounding the latter. We must not eat with them, must not shake hands with them, seem to talk to them or to meet with them outside the requirements of military service. We must not commend too highly these troops particularly in front of white Americans. Make a point of keeping the native cantonment from spoiling the Negro. White Americans become very incensed at any particular expression of intimacy between white women and black men.

Notably, this came from the “America First” President who demanded strict segregation that would block Blacks from any office, authority, or prosperity.

In August 1917, Wilson pressured General John Pershing to issue a directive to the French military warning against decorating Black Soldiers to too great an extent for fear of “spoiling the Negroes.” The French largely ignored this directive, valuing Black Soldiers…

Wilson’s propaganda of the “Christian crusader” symbolism should serve as stark reminder of how racism was historically pushed upon American military leadership — particularly the explicit instructions to maintain racial hierarchies and prevent integration. The current signals about “taking back” the military and putting “enemies on notice” echo those same segregationist and supremacist goals.

From concrete evidence like war crimes support and white crusader tattoos, to the toxic environment of Forest Lake that shaped his views, to his carefully coded language echoing historical white supremacist movements – all signs point to an alarming pattern. This nomination isn’t just about one unqualified individual; it represents an attempt to restore the kind of institutional racism that General Pershing once openly enforced. The parallels between Wilson’s “America First” campaign and today’s signals are impossible to ignore – both used crusader imagery, both targeted military integration, and both wrapped white supremacy in patriotic language. Those who understand this history recognize exactly what’s being signaled about the future of military leadership and racial hierarchies in America.