Most of Donald Trump’s public events are similar: The president airs grievances, peddles self-indulgent lies, shares assorted conspiracy theories, condemns his perceived political foes and presents himself as a conquering hero who has single-handedly created an American utopia.

But the audiences aren’t always the same. When the Republican meanders his way through partisan red meat when speaking at a political rally, it’s tiresome but predictable. When he delivers the same message to active-duty military personnel, it’s a qualitatively different kind of story. The Washington Post reported:

President Donald Trump’s rally on Friday followed a familiar plan: He entered to Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless the USA,’ promoted GOP candidates, bashed his predecessor and implored the audience to vote Republican in the midterm elections. The speech ended to the thump of the Village People’s ‘Y.M.C.A.’

The setting, however, was an Army base, and the audience was in uniform.

The president, speaking at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, seemed especially focused on the state’s U.S. Senate race, condemning the leading Democratic candidate, former Gov. Roy Cooper, while touting the likely GOP nominee, former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, who shared the stage with Trump during the on-base political rally.

“You have to vote for us,” Trump told the troops, referring to his party and the 2026 midterm elections.

There is no modern precedent for any American president engaging in such radical politicking with active-duty servicemembers, though over the last several months, it’s become a more common sight. In June, for example, Trump also spoke at Fort Bragg and treated U.S. troops like they were just another MAGA audience, even goading troops to boo Joe Biden, the free press and American elected officials whom the president doesn’t like. (A report in The Bulwark described the display as “grotesque.”)

Three months later, he did it again, summoning the nation’s generals and admirals to listen to him ramble about tariffs, the Nobel Peace Prize, his hatred for Democrats, his contempt for independent news organizations and his belief that his 2020 election defeat was “rigged.”

A week after that, speaking at an event honoring the U.S. Navy’s 250th anniversary, Trump appeared determined to turn military personnel against the parts of the country he doesn’t like. “We have to take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder called the Democrats,” he said.

In October, speaking to U.S. soldiers aboard the USS George Washington in Yokosuka, Japan, the Republican did it once again. The New York Times noted, “Trump has been doing this more often at home lately, but it is still striking to see him basically holding what looks and sounds very much like one of his signature political rallies in front of members of the United States military.”

A Politico report noted at the time, “[W]hat’s most striking is Trump’s willingness to use the troops as a foil for his highly partisan rhetoric.” The report added that the Republican’s brazen efforts were “making some members of the military — privately — very nervous indeed.”

Trump, evidently, does not care.

Just as notably, acknowledging the frequency with which the incumbent president takes these steps, Politico added that this is becoming “the new normal” when it comes to Trump and civil-military affairs.

The problem, however, is that this can’t become our “new normal.” An apolitical military is a foundational, bedrock principle of the United States. Partisan, ideological and electoral considerations must be utterly irrelevant to what the military is and how it functions.

It is nevertheless a principle for which Trump appears to have no use, creating an untenable dynamic. The Atlantic’s Tom Nichols recently highlighted what he described as an ongoing “civil-military crisis,” arguing, “Trump and his valet at the Defense Department, Secretary of Physical Training Pete Hegseth, are now making a dedicated run at turning the men and women of the armed forces into Trump’s personal and partisan army.”

On Friday, the president offered fresh evidence to bolster that point.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.