Recommendations of the Editorial team
In 1932, veterans opened their tents on the Anacostia River. In the oppressive summer heat, tens of thousands of veterans of the First World War and their families formed a protest camp in Washington, DC they called themselves the bonus army. And they came with a message: America has to redeem its promises to those who served.
Protests on the D-Day
This chapter of history is often forgotten – but it is written again. This time not with tents, but with job cancellations, broken pension commitments and a frontal attack on the federal authorities that serve them. And they are supposed to occupy the burden of the fight.
On June 6th-the D-Day-thousands will protest across the country. The largest rally takes place on the stages of the Capitol.
Veterans make up almost 30 percent of the federal workforce. You work in every authority. From the Ministry of Homeland Security to the Ministry of Housing. And now many expect the same fate. A letter of termination, an enemy work environment and a lie from Donald Trump and Elon Musk that they should find a different job. Not a single voice from the Republican Party rises against this hideous and wrong narrative.
Strategic hollowing out
Trump’s so -called “Department of Government Efficiency” (Doge), formerly led by billionaire Musk, with executors such as the Minister of Veteran affairs Doug Collins, is released over 15 percent of the VA workforce. Around 83,000 people. Many of them veterans with disabilities. Among those to be discharged: specialists for mental health, suicide prevention, LGBTQ+contact persons and health specialists in the public service. These are not Fox News bureaucrats who complain about their 12-hour days like the deputy FBI director Dan Bongino. These are committed specialists who work every day to ensure that our veterans survive another day.
Veterans know that the layoffs are not about saving. It is about weakening the institution and ultimately privatizing and abolishing the VA-Invalidity services. As intended in Project 2025. Internal documents show plans, homelessness offices, suicide prevention, women’s health and toxic exposure. That would destroy specialized expertise. And remove life -saving programs.
And the veterans that remain in these buildings? They are suppressed. Literally. Tens of thousands of remote federal employees are forced to return to offices in which there are not even enough jobs. Some VA clinic employees are now working in broom chambers. The goal of the Trump administration: Working conditions at VA make it so unbearable that people voluntarily terminate people. Once again: radio silence from the Republican managers.
Targeted discrimination
Veterans know that Trump is stroking research scholarships for universities, looking after veterans or researching them. The resilience center for veterans and families from Columbia University, which offers trauma-informed care and therapist training, is to be closed. The VA-associated research programs from Harvard to cancer, suicide prevention and toxic exposure were abruptly deleted. No explanation. No replacement.
Blacks, Latinos, gays, women and other veterans are deleted by websites and programs of the Ministry of Defense.
An army in the crisis
Trump has just reintroduced his ban on trans sex soldiers. With the support of Defense Minister Pete Hegseth and the MP Barry Moore (R-Ala.), Who brought a law to permanently anchor this ban. This is not about “operational readiness”. It’s about hate.
Trans-Americans served honorably in every partial dispute. You fly missions. You lead teams. But in Trump’s second term, they are suddenly not good enough.
Thousands are now facing medical examinations and cleansing – while our army is experiencing a historical recruitment crisis. This cleaning will drive away talented linguists, paramedics, mechanics and pilots. And weaken our armed forces, do not strengthen.
Trump’s executive arrangement “Remodeling of the Federal Support” has already cost thousands of federal employees. And will be disenfranchised and drive into bankruptcy. Veterans know all of this. And now they rise.
No more instrumentalization
We rise because we recognize the signs. Trump wants to privatize the VA and hand over veterans to the same corporations that provide profit about people. The goal? The VA sabotage to sell them to the highest bidder – Trump’s donor and company friends who want to earn the suffering of the veterans.
Veterans are more than a political catchphrase. We are not chess figures in a cultural struggle. We are patriots. Black, white, latinos, Asians, indigenous, gays, heteros, trans and everything in between. Our strength lies in our diversity. Our victim is our legitimation. Our unity will be clearly visible on Friday.
Trump’s betrayal of the veteran community is unforgivable. But he is not unanswered.
We answer. In protest. In court. In the media. At the ballot box.
Veterans rise against Trump. Not because we hate America, but because we love enough to fight for his soul.