Retired Gen. Steven M. Anderson spoke to CNN’s Pamela Brown about 2024 and blasted Donald Trump supporters in the military as a threat from within, and advised they stop listening to “the pillow guy” and get educated on civics.
Anderson, along with fellow retired Gens. Paul Eaton and Antonio Taguba, authored an oped earlier this month warning of the potential for a “Trumpian” coup attempt in 2024.
On CNN, he talked about the subject, saying the big problem is where allegiances lie, and the potential for a “cult-like” figure to sway even military members into insurrection. And he mentioned MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell as a major source of misinformation.
“There’s a threat within,” said the retired general. “We’ve got some people that just haven’t been educated. They haven’t been found out, and they’ve grown in power, through perhaps inaction on the parts of some of our key leaders.”
“What we can do now, identify those people, get them out of our ranks, and train the rest of the force on civics 101, about how our country is supposed to work, how elections work,” he said. “Stop listening to the pillow guy and start learning about our country and how it’s actually supposed to run.”
“Really quickly, just walk us through your concern about this partisan divide and how it could impact the chain of command, and why that is so concerning to you in terms of preventing another coup attempt potentially in 2024,” said Pamela Brown.
“Well, the big problem here is allegiance to the Constitution, versus allegiance to a leader. Or in this case, a cult-like figure like Trump,” said Anderson. “There’s a lot of people in uniform that are confused about that. They think the president is something like a king, and it’s not.”
“You know, we swore an oath to the Constitution. That’s how our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines need to act. And you know we’re concerned that there’s so much activity within the military that shows that people are ignorant of what our Constitution is really all about, and they have responded to people like Trump, and when he tells them to jump, they’re probably willing to do that.”