From Christmas Trees to Deep State Coups – The Real Reason They Want Hegseth Gone

Host BKP (Voice of Rural America) opens with light-hearted Christmas banter—Moravian stars, angels vs. stars on trees, his grandmother freaking out over a chirping bird ornament, and teases the annual “Flexible Flyer sledding story” he’ll tell later in December.

He quickly pivots into a truth-telling monologue about what he sees as the most critical behind-the-scenes battle of the incoming Trump administration: who will actually control the United States military.

Core thesis:
Donald Trump and his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, want to restore a “win-first” military culture—go in, complete the mission decisively, and come home victorious.
The post-WWII “Deep State” ecosystem (Pentagon brass, CIA, military-industrial complex, corporate media, retired general class) has spent 70+ years building a system that prefers perpetual negotiated conflicts and regime-change operations over outright victory, because decisive wins are bad for business and power.
Key historical points BKP hammers home:
George Washington deliberately set up civilian control and unity of command to prevent competing generals or a military junta.
World War II was the last unambiguous American victory; everything since has been managed stalemates or losses (Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.).
Eisenhower’s 1961 warning about the military-industrial complex has now fully metastasized.
The 1947 National Security Act required the SecDef to be a civilian (tradition broken recently with waivers for Jim Mattis and Lloyd Austin).
1994 standing rules of engagement (SROE) standardized overly restrictive ROE across all services, effectively taking “mission-specific win rules” off the table.
The current generation of flag officers and media are what he calls the “waterboarding generation”—obsessed with legalistic constraints and globalist narratives, not decisive victory.
Current flashpoint:
Trump has nominated Fox News host and combat veteran Pete Hegseth as SecDef and selected Gen. Dan Caine as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
BKP believes the Deep State apparatus has already begun a coordinated pre-emptive campaign (leaks, anonymous retired generals on cable news, etc.) to force Trump to withdraw Hegseth’s nomination.
Six high-profile retired officers who currently sit in Congress recently appeared in media to lay narrative groundwork that Hegseth is “unqualified” and that the military must remain “independent.”
BKP sees this as the establishment openly signaling they will not cede control of the Pentagon back to a civilian leadership that wants to win wars instead of managing them forever.
Other rapid-fire points:
Strong condemnation of open borders under Biden (25+ million entries, Chinese gangs, Somali enclaves influencing Minnesota elections, cartels operating freely).
Frustration that modern reporters and officers have zero institutional memory of what actual military victory looks like.
Reminder that the interstate highway system was originally a military rapid-transport project, not just for shopping malls.
Belief that corporate America would no longer pivot to war production the way GM and Ford did in WWII.
Tone & closing: BKP repeatedly stresses he has nothing but respect for rank-and-file service members and veterans, but believes the top brass and the system they serve have been captured by interests that profit from endless war and fear decisive American victories. He predicts the next few weeks will determine whether Trump can actually take control of the military or whether the Deep State retains it.