Trump denies he wants a military draft. Don't believe him.

It appears those close to Trump went too public with the idea, sending Trump into a frenzy, perhaps fearful of the impact on the election. That doesn't mean he's not planning on it.

Donald Trump took to Truth Social in one of his screeds this week, feverishly denying he wants to implement a military draft if elected president and blaming “the Fake News Washington Post” for making up “the ridiculous idea.”

This was reminiscent of when Trump seemed to slip in an interview with a Pittsburgh TV news anchor who asked a few weeks ago if he supported banning contraception, responding that we’re “looking at it.” Within hours of the story blowing up, however, he put out a maniacal all-caps statement on Truth Social, claiming all this was false and accusing the media of making it up—even though he’s right there on video saying it.

It’s easy to see how this happens. Trump speaks with advisers and supporters, getting behind ideas and making promises that, in the moment, might not seem controversial because he has embraced so many extreme positions. (On the issue of reproductive rights, he’s also hellbent on sticking to the “send it back to the states” argument.) But then, when it blows up as something that is a jarring policy position opposed by the vast majority of Americans—and attacked by the Biden campaign—he freaks out about the consequences of the election.

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On the topic of the military draft, the idea came in an interview with the Washington Post with one of Trump’s former defense secretaries, Christopher Miller, who is reported to be Trump’s top choice for defense secretary in a new Trump administration, as well as from one of Trump’s VP running mate contenders, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, and other GOP supporters.

Trump couldn’t implement the draft without a vote by Congress, but it’s apparently popular among some Republican politicians, and if the GOP controls Congress while Trump is president, we all know it would do whatever Trump wants done. “I like the idea of military service,” Vance, a devoted MAGA senator, told the Post.

Indeed, Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Post that though military leaders are worried about recruitment goals, she doesn’t see that “as enough to make the case for Congress to direct mandatory service onto America’s youth”—unless, she said, the White House pushed for it.

Miller is a hardline Trumpist who became Trump’s acting defense secretary when Defense Secretary Mark Esper was “terminated” by Trump in November 2020 following the presidential election (Esper had a resignation letter ready) after he refused to follow Trump’s orders to use the military against Black Lives Matter protesters. And Miller stood with Trump right through January 6th and the insurrection.

Miller is a diehard loyalist who is “at the top of the list” to be Trump’s defense secretary in a new term, according to Politico, and he wrote the 195-page section on “The Common Defense” in the Heritage Foundation’s extremist Project 2025, the blueprint for authoritarianism that conservative think tanks have provided for a Trump White House. Trump has already embraced many of its policy proposals, such as rounding up and deporting millions of immigrants after putting them in massive camps.

Writing in The Nation, William D. Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, zeroed in on how Miller, per his writing in Project 2025, wants to expand the U.S. Army—and all of the military, including nuclear weapons capabilities—in dramatic ways.

The central component of Miller’s ultra-muscular approach to “defense” is to double down on efforts to create a military that can beat China in a potential conflict. “By far the most significant danger to Americans’ security, freedoms, and prosperity is China,” he warns, adding, with some redundancy, that “U.S. defense strategy must identify China unequivocally as the top priority for U.S. defense planning. Far from ensuring this country’s safety, however, a military-first approach to China increases the prospects for a war between nuclear-armed powers that we should be doing everything in our power to prevent.

You can just see Trump’s eyes widening at the proposal to have a military force the same size or bigger than that of China, which has the largest standing army in the world. Trump is all about big, big, big—bigger. Big buildings. A big wall. Big military parades. And he’s obsessed with China and President Xi, both admiring the Chinese leader’s brutal authoritarian reign and competing with him at once.

The fact that Cadet Bone Spurs never served, receiving military deferments for bogus medical issues, seems highly ironic, and maybe incongruous to some. Trump also infamously called those who served and died in wars, “suckers and losers,” according to his former Chief of Staff, John Kelly. But this actually aligns with who Trump is. He doesn’t respect the military and those who serve—like much of the GOP, which fought the Pact Act to help veterans who were victims of burn bits—but sees the military as useful for himself and his ends.

It’s actually the way he treats his supporters. Trump even recently said at his Las Vegas rally, where some attendees were passing out in the blistering heat while he encouraged them to endure it, “I don’t care about you. I just want your votes.”

And forcing millions of young Americans to join the military and then be part of the force that will round up people from their places of work and grab children from playgrounds, bringing them to massive camps awaiting deportation, seems right in line with Trump’s sadistic impulses.

Why would Miller, the top contender to be Trump’s defense secretary, give an interview to the Washington Post openly discussing a military draft unless he’d already had that conversation with a receptive Trump? MAGA loyalists only say things they believe Dear Leader supports—and would never say anything he opposes—and are always looking to get in his good graces. In the article, slavishly devoted Senator Lindsay Graham and other MAGA loyalists are quoted supporting mandatory military service, which says enough.

J.D. Vance, who is auditioning to be Trump’s running mate, is certainly not going to say anything that he knows Trump opposes and, conversely, will only promote ideas Trump has gotten behind. So I doubt he gave an interview on the subject without knowing he was supporting Trump’s idea.

Miller told the Post a military draft should be “strongly considered.”

He described the concept as a common “rite of passage,” one that would create a sense of “shared sacrifice” among America’s youth.

“It reinforces the bonds of civility,” Miller said. “… Why wouldn’t we give that a try?”

Miller is committed to the idea of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test being required for all public high school students.

“If we’re going to prepare for a great-power competition,” Miller said, “it’s helpful to have a baseline understanding of the pool of potential military service members and their specific aptitudes prior.”

His contribution to Project 2025 also advocates granting military recruiters greater access to secondary schools, and he’s proposed halting use of the Defense Department’s electronic medical records platform, which he says leads to “unnecessary delays” and “unwarranted rejections” for some people with disabilities or other conditions who otherwise want to serve.

After the Washington Post story received some attention, Trump and maybe others in the campaign, clearly saw such discussion as a liability for the election, as with the issue of banning contraception. Trump spun into a dervish of denial, blaming the media. But it's his own MAGA loyalists, who it’s hard to believe didn’t have a conversation with him about this and would just go public, who promoted the idea, not the Washington Post.

As then happens with the corporate media, the reports soon focused on Trump “shooting down” the idea he “could push for mandatory military service,” and leaving the story right there.

But do any of us truly believe that this came out of nowhere and that Trump, for sure, will not push Congress to implement a military draft if elected? And if the GOP has control of the House and Senate, do we really believe they won’t go along with him?

Everyone, including young voters and parent of young people, needs to take this seriously.