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Uriel Epshtein is the CEO of the Renew Democracy Initiative.
For someone who has never served in the military, I’ve spent a lot of time around soldiers and officers. The Renew Democracy Initiative has several decorated veterans among our leaders and supporters. Some have joked to me that RDI is the most militarized nonprofit in the pro-democracy world.
Our men and women in uniform have taught me a lot. One of the lessons that has stayed with me came from a friend of mine from West Point. He highlighted that a key norm that every cadet learns is that officers eat last.
When the troops hit the mess hall, the leaders make sure their subordinates are fed and taken care of before serving themselves.
Officers eat last. It’s both a very simple idea and a powerful model of leadership. The concept is called “servant leadership,” [ [link removed] ] the notion that being in charge is about humility, responsibility to others, and working together to fulfill a mission, not bossing people around or having underlings serve you. It’s influenced how I think about being the head of an organization.
I’ve read a lot of takes on yesterday’s speeches at Quantico from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and President Donald Trump. The implicit demand to America’s top brass for personal loyalty. The exhortation to treat “dangerous” American cities as “training grounds” [ [link removed] ] to test the military’s warfighting capabilities.
Those points add to the already long list of flashing red warning lights for the future of US democracy. But there’s one other element of Trump’s speech that jumped out.
It was when the president mentioned in passing, as he’s repeated many times before, that the 2020 election was rigged.
Aside from the fact that 2020 was not rigged, the bitterness a candidate feels about an election loss is ultimately a personal problem for that politician, not something of consequence for the armed forces. Can you imagine President Joe Biden complaining to the nation’s most senior generals and admirals about his failed attempts to secure the Democratic nomination in 1988 and 2008?
Despite winning last year’s election, the president’s ego is still clearly bruised from his loss in the previous cycle. And now that is everyone else’s problem. It’s not a whole lot better than if Trump had gotten on stage and complained to the assembled officers about one of his ex-wives.
Trump continues to burden the country with his own personal insecurities. He uses his stage time to talk at his audience about himself. And he and Pete Hegseth yanked our most distinguished military leaders, people who have spent their entire careers dutifully observing martial norms and servant leadership, back to Virginia for what amounted to a display of vanity. Trump and Hegseth’s first concern was getting a captive audience, not helping the military do its job.
The contrast between the men on the stage and the people in the audience could not have been starker.
Do you think the president is the kind of guy who eats last?
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