Members of the military wait for U.S. President Donald Trump to arrive for a meeting convened by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, at Marine Corps Base Quantico, in Quantico, Virginia, U.S., September 30, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The speeches given Tuesday at Quantico by President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth were not only reprehensible, but "tantamount to incitement," according to Kori Schake the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, in Foreign Policy.

"Their words should leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that the civilian leadership intends to use the threat and actuality of violence to infringe on Americans’ constitutional rights," Schake says.

As dismal as that may be, Schake says there's still cause for optimism, as seen in the stoic demeanor of the high ranking military members summoned to Virginia Tuesday for what Schake called a "pep rally," and what many vets derided as "bad optics," and "insulting."

"Americans, like me, can take some comfort is in the quiet professionalism displayed by our military in this disgraceful and dangerous maelstrom," Schake writes.

Both Trump's and Hegseth's remarks, Schake says, were "unprecedented" and "dangerous" — especially the president's comments about the enemy "from within" and Hegseth's taunting of military to resign if they didn't like what he had to say. But what was reassuring was the way the audience reacted, or rather, didn't react.

"They exemplified the professional restraint of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at State of the Union addresses: present but not participating in the politics," Schake says.

Schake also praised the military for their lack of reaction to Trump's call for applause, which was met with silence.

"They did not, just as the chiefs do not applaud at the political festival that is the State of the Union address," she writes, adding, "It is the appropriate professional response by the military when forced by their civilian leaders into being present at political events."

Despite some calls by critics for military to resign rather than cower under the subordination of an increasingly authoritarian Commander in Chief, Schake says it's a bad idea.

"There will be critics who want these military leaders to resign in protest, but this is a bad idea. It further encourages the public to consider the military in partisan terms and leads them to respect our military less."

It's the lack of reaction that's the most effective method of military resistance, Schake writes.

"The best posture for the American military in febrile political times is inertness. They cannot save us from the leaders we elect or the officials the Senate consents to confirm to high office, and we should neither want nor expect them to. That’s on the rest of us," she says.