Soldiers appearing near President Donald Trump at a Tuesday speech at Fort Bragg were reportedly screened for their partisan politics and physical appearance.
Ahead of Trump’s visit to the North Carolina base, service members were asked to alert superiors if they had political differences with Trump so they could be removed, Military.com reports, citing internal 82nd Airborne Division communications.
"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," one note to troops obtained by the outlet said.
Another allegedly focused on the troops’ physical appearance, bluntly commanding, “No fat soldiers.”
"This has been a bad week for the Army for anyone who cares about us being a neutral institution," a commander at Fort Bragg told the outlet. "This was shameful. I don't expect anything to come out of it, but I hope maybe we can learn from it long term."
The Independent has contacted the 82nd Airborne Division for comment.
During Trump’s visit, a vendor was also reportedly allowed to sell campaign-style Make America Great Again merchandise to troops, and the crowd of soldiers booed and cheered at Trump’s partisan speech, all of which broke with the military’s tradition and regulations around remaining non-political.
"Believe me, no one needs to be encouraged to boo the media," Sean Parnell, a top Pentagon spokesperson, said in response to the reporting. "Look no further than this query, which is nothing more than a disgraceful attempt to ruin the lives of young soldiers."
The Tuesday speech in question saw Trump lash out at Democratic opponents like California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, baselessly accusing them of paying L.A. protesters and backing “troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists.”
The president also defended his decision to send federalized California National Guard troops into the Los Angeles crisis over the objections of state and local leaders.
“Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness here at home, like is happening in California,” Trump said. “As Commander in Chief, I will not let that happen. It's never going to happen.”
Some criticized the event, arguing Trump was breaking longstanding political norms around respecting the military’s independence.
“No president in modern history has done more to put the military in the middle of political and cultural crossfire than Donald Trump,” one columnist wrote in The New York Times.
The criticisms come as Trump has pushed the boundaries of military norms in response to the Los Angeles protests by federalizing state National Guard troops and sending Marines to join in with the local police response to the civil unrest, coming perilously close to using the military for domestic law enforcement.
The president has also vowed to use force on those who protest a Saturday parade in Washington for the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army’s founding that coincides with Trump’s birthday.
Other presidents have been accused of using appearances alongside the military for political points, including Joe Biden, who was criticized for a 2022 anti-Trump speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia that featured Marines in dress uniforms in the background.
