[Updated] A Trump Meme Says All The Quiet Parts Out Loud
A meme that is as muddled and authoritarian as the President who posted it
![[LLM image generated by President Trump's staff or a supporter and shared by President on Truth Social reading "Apocalypse Now" and President Trump in the role of antagonist Bill Kilgore]](https://outsidethebeltway.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Screenshot-2025-09-06-132151.avif)
As James has covered in two posts, and Steven has also commented on, this week, President Trump renamed the “Department of Defense” to the “Department of War.” Part of his rationale was to return us to the days when the military did what it took to win foreign wars.
“So we won the First World War. We won the Second World War. We won everything before that and in between and then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to Department of Defense. So we’re going Department of War. … I think it’s a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now.
We should have won every war we could have won every war. But we really chose to be a very politically correct, or wokie, and we just fight forever. And then we’d, you know, win or lose — we wouldn’t lose, really. We just fight to sort of tie. We never wanted to win — wars that every one of them we would have won easily with just a couple of little changes or a couple of little edicts.”
[source: Official Transcript]
[Update 3/7]
I just discovered that during that session our Secretary of Defense also made this ominous statement about our military:
Pete Hegseth: Mr. President, the War Department is going to fight decisively, not endless conflicts. It’s going to fight to win, not, not to lose. We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense, maximum lethality, not tepid legality; violent effect, not politically correct. We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders.
[source: Official Transcript]
[/update]
Separately this week, Trump indicated that he and his team are in the planning process of deploying the National Guard to three cities: Baltimore, Chicago, and New Orleans. The impactice, according to official comments, was over the issue of crime:
With US troops patrolling Washington, DC, after a similar National Guard deployment in June to Los Angeles, President Donald Trump is ramping up his rhetoric against predominantly Democratic cities, with a direct target on the nation’s third-most populous.
“Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far,” Trump said with typical hyperbole Tuesday morning on Truth Social. “(Gov. JB) Pritzker needs help badly, he just doesn’t know it yet. I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC.”
“We’re going,” the president hours later told a reporter about sending in the National Guard. “I didn’t say when. We’re going in.” […]
But the Trump administration hasn’t committed to any specifics on the date. Vice President JD Vance told reporters Wednesday there are “no immediate plans” to deploy to Chicago, while Trump said Tuesday the administration was “going in” without specifying a timetable, muddying the waters on if and when a potential deployment would occur.
Beyond what’s said directly to the press, we know that President Trump also utilizes social media to make statements. And this morning, on his personal social media platform, Truth Social, the President dropped the following meme:
Sure, the goal here is first and foremost to “own” the libs (and make news). It’s going to be successful at that as it’s already getting a lot of coverage (something I’m contributing to). In fact, I’m sure our “anti-anti-Trump” readers are shaking their heads at this post and thinking you’re just giving him the attention he wants.
However, it’s now a fact that the President and his administration are increasingly communicating through memes. For example, the White House and top Government agencies regularly post “own the libs” memes on X/itter and other platforms. So, like it or not, we need to take what they are communicating seriously. Their intentional and unintentional elements provide insight into how the President and others in his administration are thinking about policy.
This “Chipocalypse Now” one is an excellent example of how the Administration’s “official” rhetoric and rationales can be reinforced and contradicted by “unofficially official” meme messaging. Here are some of the things I see:
- Chipocalypse Now is a reference to the classic Vietnam War movie Apocalypse Now (an adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness).* Vietnam is, of course, one of those wars that Trump thinks we lost because we chose to be “politically correct” (we’ll get back to that). Celebrating a movie about a war we ultimately “lost” is an example of a “muddled” message.
- Some might think referencing Apocalypse Now is a self-own because many consider it an anti-war movie. The film’s creator, Francis Ford Coppola, definitely doesn’t see his movie that way: “No one wants to make a pro-war film; everyone wants to make an anti-war film. But an anti-war film, I always thought, should be like [Kon Ichikawa’s 1956 post-Second World War drama] The Burmese Harp – something filled with love and peace and tranquillity and happiness. It shouldn’t have sequences of violence that inspire a lust for violence. Apocalypse Now has stirring scenes of helicopters attacking innocent people. That’s not anti-war. […] An anti-war film cannot glorify war, and Apocalypse Now arguably does. Certain sequences have been used to rev up people to be warlike.” It’s safe to say that if the President has seen Apocalypse Now, his interpretation probably falls into that second camp.
- The iconography of President Trump as Lieutenant Colonel “Bill” Kilgore suggests a lot about Trump’s perspective on the “political correctness” that lost Vietnam. Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall, is the character who famously announces, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” It’s part of a raid sequence in which Kilgore orders “a napalm sortie on the local cadres. He and his men then proceed to mercilessly kill, shoot, and blow up numerous innocent civilians, showing a complete and utter disregard for civilian and human life.” (source) By placing himself in this particular role (arguably the most bloodthirsty character in the film), Trump is signalling complete alignment with Kilgore’s ideas and actions. Apparently, the opposite of political correctness in War is indiscriminate use of weapons like Napalm and the slaughter of clear non-combatants.
- It’s also worth calling out that all of Kilgore’s actions (and the other military actions in Apocalypse Now), beyond killing anyone he saw as an enemy, were also focused on destroying villages and often civil infrastructure. That’s part of the famous quote: “You know, one time, we had a hill bombed for twelve hours. When it was all clear, I walked up. We didn’t find one of them, not one stinking dink body. But the smell, you know, that gasoline smell. The whole hill… it smelled like… victory.” Here we have the President implying that he’s bringing that wanton destruction to an American City.
- Trump has changed the famous quote to “I love the smell of deportations in the morning…” Again, anti-anti-Trump readers may think: “See, this isn’t about napalming Chicago, it’s about immigration enforcement.” However, as noted above, the pretext for these deployments of the national guard has always been publicly about crime, not immigration. Again, Trump himself said: “Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the World, by far […] I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in DC.“
- While some people might argue that arresting undocumented folks is how you reduce crime, we know from the Administration’s own data that the majority of the people they have arrested have either no criminal record or have been arrested for minor criminal violations.
- We also see the meme explicitly reinforce Trump’s radical idea that internal immigration enforcement (a policing matter for the majority of this nation’s history) is an important function of the US Department of War. This blurring of the lines between police and military is a well-accepted sign of authoritarianism.
- [Update 3/7] This blurring of the lines between military and police is especially scary when the Secretary of Defense is stating that we don’t want our military bound by the law. Again: “Pete Hegseth: We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense, maximum lethality, not tepid legality; violent effect, not politically correct. We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders.”
Again, I’m sure that some readers are eye-rolling at this and almost feel motivated to register to tell me how wrong I am. FWIW, I’m interested in that feedback, so long as it’s focused on the points I raised and arguments I made.
I just hope that the majority of readers share my concern that in dropping this “hot” meme, the President is signalling that he endorses having the Department of War invade an American City, not get caught up in “politically correct” things like rule of law and policing procedure, all to advance his real agenda of arresting anyone suspected to be in the United States illegally (most of whom, once charged, will most likely be denied their due process as well).
By his own proclamation, the goal of the Department of War is to wage war on our enemies.
If these deployments happen, that means one of the Department of War’s first major engagements will be waging war within the United States on members of our own populace, with the Commander-in-Chief signalling a Kilgore-esque approach.
I realize that there’s also a type of reader who will react to this and think that while I have some points, I’m engaging in hyperbole. Likewise, they might say that the recent deployments haven’t involved any “Apocalypse Now”-level military violence. In other words, stop catastrophizing and being the “Boy Who Cried Wolf!**”
All I can respond with is that before January 25th, 2025, many people thought those who said “Once in office, President Trump will invent rationales to deploy American Troops to cities” were catastrophizing. After all, that didn’t happen in his first term. And I’ll also point out that those of us making those predictions were doing so because of the clear signals that the President and his transition committee were making. We ignore the current signals they are sending at our own peril.
* – Matt true life story: In Jr High, we went on a school trip where we stayed overnight in a motel. I didn’t have cable at home and had not (to my knowledge) ever seen an R-rated movie. The three other boys and I in the room were really excited about seeing an “adult movie” on HBO. In a case of life imitating the Simpsons, the R-rated movie that night was Apocalypse Now. I’m not sure if we chanted the title while waiting for it to start, but given our excitement, it wouldn’t surprise me if we did.
** – I have a post brewing about why the “don’t be the boy who cried wolf” criticism doesn’t work for our present moment (or rather misses a critical point of the fable).
And somehow Trump thinks use of this war imagery is consistent with him openly campaigning for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Someone must have told him that all great presidents had a war. Washington, Lincoln, FDR. I wonder if he knows that when ‘we won’ WW1 (by profiteering then finally showing up for the ninth inning), the president was a pointy-headed academic, a university president no less. I don’t suppose anyone pointed out that LBJ and Nixon and both Bushes also had wars, and no one is naming them to the Top Ten.
Man, there’s a whole lot of time left to Trump’s term, and from what we’ve seen in these first 8 months, one can be justified in making their prognostications. We simply do not know where bottom is, ’cause it sure as hell isn’t in the backstop of MAGA SCOTUS.
Remember, Trump has already floated his covetousness of Canada, Greenland, and the Panama Canal. He’s got conquest on his mind.
Okay, so what happens if a blue-state governor calls up their National Guard? Sharks V Jets?
WTAF
So Wokeness started as far back as post WW2? Lmao. I am sure his supporters would agree as well, which is really sad. All the time not realizing the ridiculousness of their President, who avoided Vietnam via any opportunity presented to him, and is now all of the sudden Rambo. What a joke. Should have been a meme of Col Kurtz, cuz dude is out of his skull bonkers.
What the armed forces in DC are doing is mostly picking up trash. So, the deployment could be called “dick wagging for the camera”. Which is a Trump thing.
However, ambiguity is part of the game. It’s a big part of the game. I wish the best to Pritzker and Co.
Crowds with cameras and questions seem to be doing pretty well as a counter to these things. Questions like, “What are you doing here?” and “How does this help us against China?” and “Why aren’t you in New Orleans?” are good. There are lots more.
@Michael Reynolds:
I still think Bush 1 is unfairly downrated.
He managed the transition from Cold War to an open international order reasonably well.
He can hardly be blamed for Russia and China subsequently reneging on the deal out of resentment and ambition.
More generally, its hard to think of any previous US president, or any other serious leader of a modern democratic state, being so incredibly silly.
Incidentally, the US “won the First World War” line is highly arguable.
Also, President Eisenhower was “woke”?
Whoever would have guessed?
It’s just yet more kayfabe.
What’s concerning is, how far does Trump believe his own bullshit?
@Moosebreath:
Several Nobel Peace Prize recipients are people or organizations that provide humanitarian relief or aid, or who advocate for improved huma rights.
El Taco should have thought of that before dismantling USAID, burning aid supplies, and cracking down on the rights of his own people.
Trump seems to me to be obsessed with what he claims is his right to do anything he wants. He’s like H.G. Wells’ ‘The Man Who Could Work Miracles’, playing with his superpower. Even the slightest resistance triggers his fury, motivates him to look for ways to punish defiance. Thus we have absurdities ranging from 50% tariffs on Brazil because they are prosecuting one of Trump’s buddies through Venezuela being threatened by a naval task force to a restaurant chain changing its logo because Trump didn’t like its new one.
Tragically for America and the world, it’s impossible to know how much of Trump’s mind engages with reality and how much is lost in a fantasy world. Consequently his allusion to Kilgore’s murderous raid might foreshadow a deplorable military intervention in Chicago, or it might simply be Trump day-dreaming for the entertainment of his cultist followers. There’s simply no way of knowing which it is.
One of the “meme’s that I remember from Vietnam is:
KILL EM ALL, let God sort out the good from the bad
Seems like that’s the ICE/Trump approach today,
Arrest and deport em all let God sort out the violent criminals.
@Bobert:
Or, just sink every boat in the Caribbean, and let God sort out the drug-runners from the fishermen.
If the Chipocolypse does not involve chocolate chip cookies, then words no longer have meanings. I hate this world.
@Gustopher:
Or chips?
Umm. Chips.
Yum.
The movie analogy seems appropriate to me. So many Trump fans seem to believe that the movies and TV shows like 24 are actually documentaries. (Just to expand on Eisenhower, who was definitely not woke, refused to go to war in Vietnam noting that we would need a huge amount of troops and hope that China stayed out of it. Note that we came close to getting our butts kicked in Korea once China entered the Korean War. Of course Eisenhower actually managed a war. Trump just claims he is smarter than any general and his cult automatically believes him.)
Steve
@steve222:
Considering UN forces were near the border of North Korea and China in October 1950, and the Chinese captured Seoul in March 1951, I’d say it was a bit closer than close. The war raged on for over two years after that, and it ended pretty much as status quo antebellum.
@Bobert: Actually, the quote, “Kill them all, let God sort them out,” comes from the Albigensian Crusade, the Church’s declaration of war against the Cathar heretics within Europe. That does gibe well with people like Hegseth, who view themselves on crusade against enemies within American society.
Most people, when they think of Crusades, think of the invasion and occupation of the Holy Land. It’s important to remember the other Crusades, against the Cathars in the West (primarily France), and in the east, led by the Teutonic Knights. Again, not against Muslims, but against heretics and pagans.
@Kingdaddy:
Only speaking from my personal experience, I wasn’t around during the Albigensian Crusades!
Regardless, it clearly speaks to the cruelty and callous disregard of life,
An update and a note:
I just saw this scary comment made by the Secretary of Defense and have added it to the analysis:
Everyone should be concerned about blurring the lines between the police and the military, especially when the Secretary of Defense is saying our military should not be bound by “legality.”
Second, @Bobert & @Kingdaddy, in regards to:
Let’s be clear that the “let God sort out…” in this case is even worse. We know that it’s not just about the violent criminals. Through its unravelling of due process, the Administration is expecting that God will also sort out which of those deported people were *in the country legally* and *actually US citizens.*
And, for the people who were in the country legally, it’s becoming clear that it doesn’t mean they will be let back into the country after being unlawfully deported.
@Matt Bernius:
Good Lord.
@Matt Bernius:
“Warriors” indeed.
Why not just say “stormtroopers” and be done with it?
Most of the Allied military of WW1 and WW2 did not regard themselves as “warriors”.
Just as soldiers, or sailors, or airmen, doing what had to be done.
And in both cases the “warriors” came off second best.
This sort of idotic kayfabe rhetoric really annoys me.