The U.S. military has never liked to be that forthcoming in giving out information. No military, really, enjoys being transparent. What official wants pesky journalists coming in and reporting on potentially damaging news? This is why the relationship between the military and the press has always been a contentious one, and it has only gotten worse under the second Trump administration. Since the start of Trump’s new term, the Defense Department has grown increasingly unaccountable. Given Trump’s propensity to use the military in authoritarian and unlawful ways, this lack of transparency is alarming, especially for the principles of democracy and the First Amendment.
In September, the Pentagon, now led by former Fox News television host Pete Hegseth, announced that reporters would have to gather only authorized information within the building, or else they would face losing their press passes. In other words, the military would now control the narrative. This was a move so blatantly detrimental to the freedom of the press that even outlets like Fox News and CNN, so often at each other’s throats, agreed: Tthe vast majority of the media involved turned in their credentials and refused to accept the Pentagon’s new rules.
This is far from the first time Hegseth’s Defense Department — or Department of War, as Trump now wants it to be called — has cracked down on press freedoms. In January, just a few days after being confirmed as Secretary of Defense, Hegseth removed several mainstream media outlets from their Pentagon desks, claiming that it was part of a new “media rotation program,” and replaced them mostly with conservative news sites. In addition, Hegseth has restricted reporters’ access to the press briefing room and prevented them from walking the halls of the Pentagon without the presence of an official. Beyond restricting interactions with the press, the Pentagon also limited communication between the Defense Department and Congress. Now, officials must obtain permission from the department before speaking to legislators or their staff members. All of these moves have ramped up the military’s efforts to increase censorship.
The lack of transparency shows in the military’s recent activity against supposed narco-traffickers. A series of strikes have been carried out in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean, killing more than 50 people that the Trump administration says are working with drug cartels. Despite calling these strikes an “armed conflict” between the U.S. government and the cartels, Trump has so far refused to ask Congress for a declaration of war and provided little information that would verify the identities of those killed. Even the right is getting antsy about the absence of proof; Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky denounced the “extrajudicial killings” and questioned whether the strikes were actually hitting drug traffickers. With the military increasingly reticent to offer information, how do we know for sure we’re not killing innocent people? And even if all of those people were guilty of smuggling drugs, that is not how justice is served; if they committed criminal acts, they should be brought to court, not wiped off the map.
For a military that has a long and deeply unfortunate history of committing horrific acts – in 2024, the New Yorker compiled a list of nearly 800 potential war crimes carried out by the U.S. armed forces after 9/11 alone — maintaining transparency is key to oversight. We need Congress and the press to keep a watchful eye on what goes on inside the Pentagon. Military authority cannot be allowed to run rampant.
This is especially true for our current moment, because Trump isn’t just using the military to go after foreign drug traffickers — he’s turning it on American civilians. The National Guard has been deployed to five major U.S. cities since Trump took office, including Washington, D.C, supposedly to combat crime. Trump has talked about sending troops into even more Democrat-run cities he doesn’t like, and in front of American soldiers in Japan, he mused that “If we need more than the National Guard, we’ll send more than the National Guard.”
The implications of such threats are obvious. In just nine months, the groundwork has been laid for regular military troops to occupy American cities. In fact, it has already happened; during protests in Los Angeles over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, 700 active-duty Marines were mobilized and sent to the city. Marines are intended to be one of the best fighting forces in the U.S. military, and for them to be used in this way was a chilling harbinger of potential calamity. All Trump has to do is invoke the Insurrection Act, and widespread deployment of the military on American soil could be underway. This tyrannical misuse of the military is exactly what the Founding Fathers fought against as they tried to create a democracy.
A military weaponized by the government against its own people must be held accountable. If we are not allowed to know what the military is doing, and restrictions on news become even more stringent, the gulf between military personnel and civilians will widen. In a speech to senior officials in September, Hegseth said that “You kill people and break things for a living. You are not politically correct and don’t necessarily belong always in polite society.” When the military is told that they are more violent than the rest of America, and that same military keeps their doors shut to the public, our democracy is put in danger by the force of impersonal, unaccountable arms.
The Defense Department’s transparency problem is an issue that cuts right to the heart of what our country wants to be. Are we a nation that values freedom, or a nation that emphasizes unchecked power? In the actions of the military against “enemies” both foreign and domestic, Trump and Hegseth have chosen control over accountability.