Donald Trump’s speech to US military generals on Wednesday, in which he addressed using military power to tackle “the enemy within," had a hidden message, according to Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman.
In an unusual address to hundreds of military leaders assembled from across the world, Trump described "civil disturbances" as the "enemy from within". He added that the situation "won't get out of control once you're involved".
Rep. Goldman, the US representative for New York's 10th congressional district, said he believed that Trump’s “enemy within” statement could serve as a pretext for calling off the 2028 election. Trump was trying to manufacture a crisis so that he could continue to take more authoritarian actions and to usurp more power, Goldman told The Jim Acosta Show.
He added that he believed Trump was looking ahead to 2028, where he will use the made-up reasons to tell the generals that they were being invaded from within and can't have an election under these circumstances. “I think that’s why he’s floating a third term. I think that’s why he’s talking about this language of a war, of enemy within, of invasions, of securing our border,” Goldman said, adding that there’s no invasion. “There’s no war. This is all manufactured and made up by him to usurp more power for himself,” Goldman said, referring to Trump’s statement that America is under invasion from within.
“No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms,” the US President said.
President Trump was met by silence as he began his address to hundreds of senior U.S. military officers, a contrast from the rousing applause he expects at his speeches.https://t.co/FKBB3c4Tba pic.twitter.com/XaGf4YwhI5
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 30, 2025
Anti-constiution
Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, a decorated combat hero, also held the same view. Stating that his jaw dropped when he heard the US President’s speech to the “group of individuals who have such experience," Gen. Hertling said Trump “buried a sinister message in his speech” and opened a dangerous new path for the armed forces when he said he wants to use American cities as "training grounds" for the military.
In his speech, Trump said he signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances. “So this is going to be a big thing for the people in this room, because it's the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control," Trump added.
Gen. Hertling said troops are not trained to perform police activities unless they intend to become military police, and breaking that norm is anti-constitution. “Breaking that razor’s edge into policing activities, again, is contrary to the Constitution and contrary to our laws,” he told the Daily Beast podcast. “It shouldn’t be done,” Hertling went on. “But what I heard the president say yesterday was an implied remark that he was telling everyone in that room is: Be prepared to do that. And that only happens once an insurrection occurs, like during the Civil War.”
He said soldiers are the means of last resort for any kind of police activity unless Trump is prepared to stoke insurrection by dividing the American people.
On Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s statement that would crack down on physical fitness and grooming standards, and throw out "woke" policies, Gen. Hertling said: “I find it really offensive that anyone is insulting them, and claiming that their promotions and their advancement through the services are the result of policies or 'wokeness' or DEI. It's just not true”.
