Donald Trump’s America is sharpening its sabre with Russia in its sights - Patrick Mercer

Now, President Trump admired Mr Hegseth’s initiative and called it ‘nothing unusual’. He’s right: it’s not unusual, it’s unprecedented - nothing like this has occurred in America’s history for over 200 years. Think about it: these officers are going to have to be away from their commands for several days at a time when tensions are twanging.

More to the point, all of them will be concentrated in one place for several hours making them a deeply juicy target for any one of Uncle Sam’s many enemies. And it’s going to cost a packet.

So what was it all about? The President himself was there despite his hints that it was nothing much more than a demonstration of new equipment. Others have recalled that in May Mr Hegseth announced that the forces under his hand would be told to cut 20 per cent of its four-star general officers and that a further 10 per cent cut of all generals and naval flag officers across the force would follow whilst the National Guard would be invited to cull 20 per cent of all its top people.

Perhaps that explains it: perhaps the War Secretary wants to face hundreds of anxious, angry officers before turning them loose on his Human Resources blokes who’ll help them to plan spending more time with their families. I doubt it: such things need careful management, not short notice - and you shouldn’t keep the head shed away from their commands a minute longer than necessary.

Maybe all this brass has been summoned to explain why the President has ordered lethally armed troops into the streets of his cities. Yes, that’s a controversial move that may need more discussion, particularly amongst those officers who are not natural MAGA supporters. But, those deployments will come from forces based in the US: there’s no urgency for people stationed in Africa to have it explained to their face.

It might also be helpful to know why, suddenly, there’s been an official clamp down on the media reporting anything about the Pentagon’s activities before the copy’s been carefully scrutinised. And that’s really unusual in what passes for peacetime.

The suddenness, the thoroughness and the efforts to play it down all make me think, though, that Mr Hegseth needs to speak directly to his commanders without being overheard. Does that suggest a compromise of the Pentagon’s usually highly secure communications systems? If so, who might do such a thing?

Well, the USA’s enemies are numerous and varied and whilst China is probably the most powerful, my money would be on practised and battle hardened Russia.

Similarly, I also wonder if it’s too much of a coincidence that all of this happened at the same time as Mr Trump reversed direction after the UN meeting a few days ago. In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said Kiev could win back "the original borders from where this war started" with the help of Europe and Nato, due to pressures on Russia's economy.

Simultaneously, there have been significant escalations in the direct tensions between NATO and Russia. Drone intrusions over Poland, Romania and the Baltic States are now commonplace whilst last week a patrol of Russian fighters ‘strayed’ into Estonian airspace for 12 minutes causing NATO aircraft to get aloft to deal with them.

In response, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said,

“That means if there is an intrusion in the airspace, after warning, after being very clear, of course, the option of shooting down a fighter jet that is intruding our airspace is on the table.”

Then, in the margins of the UN meeting, Mr Trump agreed that NATO countries should attack Moscow’s aircraft that trespassed causing Polish Foreign Affairs Minister Radosław Sikorski to respond with a chilling “Roger that.”

Then another alarm bell rang when President Zelensky passed a measure in the Rada (Ukraine’s parliament) which will allow him to deploy troops outside the borders of his country. He’s already done that, of course, in the various raids and thrusts into Russia that have happened, but there’s a great deal of speculation that this relates to an operation within Moldova should things deteriorate following recent elections.

Sitting between Ukraine and NATO soil, Moldova already has Russian troops in one of its contested provinces and is ripe for another of Moscow’s land grabs. Always a flashpoint, I wonder what Uncle Sam has planned to safeguard it?

Finally, ponder this recent statement from Mr Hegseth:

“At your direction, 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 (sic), not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct. We're going to raise up warriors, not just defenders.”

With those sort of comments as a backdrop, I doubt that redundancy payments and resettlement training were discussed very earnestly by the brass hats a few days ago. I may be wrong, but I think Trump’s America is sharpening its sabre!

Patrick Mercer is a former MP for Newark and Army colonel.