this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2026
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced onetime trillionaire Elon Musk, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and right-wing entrepreneur Palmer Luckey as the new heads of “Project Meridian”—a massive upcoming study on the “future of warfare.”

Hegseth made the announcement at his “State of the Force” address on Wednesday afternoon, describing the trio of Trump loyalists as “the best forecasters of future conflict.”

“There are obvious biases and risks to asking ourselves to both ask the questions and answer them. So today we are leveraging a unique source of American advantage—one our adversaries do not have: our innovators, our senior leaders, and our technologists. Big thinkers and doers who will forecast the creative solution to tomorrow’s conflicts,” Hegseth said. “And that’s why today … I’m announcing Project Meridian, an effort led by America’s best minds to study the future of warfare.”

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[–] shartgargle@lemmy.zip 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Newt Gingrich is still alive?!?

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Elon Musk hasn't drowned in a hot tub?

[–] shartgargle@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

On all that ketamine it's a roll of the dice every day.

[–] moonbairn@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Didn't Hegseth just proclaim no weirdos, no beardos & no fatties?

[–] Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)
[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

I don't like who he picked but one thing is for sure...he really needs the help!

[–] OctopusNemeses@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

They're going to use Teslas as a global military spy-net. I would be surprised if they aren't already. Minus the military part. This is just formalizing it.

[–] mokus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 1 day ago

The single most terrifying thing about this, to me, is how few people seem to know what Palmer Luckey’s company Anduril does. They are building autonomous kill bots.

The fucking “let’s build skynet” guy is being invited to US military leadership and his name is dropped from the headline and mentioned in barely 2% of replies.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 day ago

Are they just pulling names out of a hat now?

[–] likebudda@reddthat.com 41 points 1 day ago (2 children)

But he just said no fatties, weirdos, or wimps.

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[–] NewSocialWhoDis@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's just Elon telling the DoW how many more of Elon's products they need. While he maintains the ability to disable all of them on a whim.

[–] Radical_Socialist_t00t@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You mean the department of defense. Its gulf of mexico too and lake ontario while we're at it 🙄 Stop indulging the moron please.

[–] NewSocialWhoDis@lemmy.zip 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I work in defense. People are calling it the Department of War, and there is historical context for it. It actually strikes me as less Orwellian and more honest about the types of assholes we are.

I agree that Trump can't singlehandedly rename international bodies of water, but I just don't give a fuck about the executive renaming parts of the executive branch.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 day ago

I think you mean you work in war (/s but also not really)

[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The jokes keep on writing themselves. Man, the onion must really be having a tough time right now.

[–] mattyroses@lemmy.today 5 points 1 day ago

Hegseth, at 21, getting a rejection letter from his application to The Onion . . . "they'll regret this, I don't care what it takes . . ."

[–] skozzii@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 day ago

Elon the immigrant? Strange move.

[–] EchoCranium@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 day ago

Not too hard to forecast future conflicts when you're the ones who will initiate them.

[–] bigbangdangler@reddthat.com 18 points 1 day ago

Hegseth: "no weirdos"

Not even consistent with his own bullshit.

[–] weps@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

so glad he admits he needs help

[–] BooBees@fedinsfw.app 214 points 2 days ago (13 children)

Oh gee, what could go wrong putting a foreign born white supremacist technocrat in a lead position of our military with full access to its systems so he can integrate an AI system no one understands or knows how to defend against or extract should we want to do so at some point.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 74 points 2 days ago

But he saved so much money with DOGE and nothing bad happened there!

/s

[–] errer@lemmy.world 46 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Don’t forget this douche

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[–] TryingToBeGood@reddthat.com 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] HumanOnEarth@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

If you're American, consider that the rest of the world has been reading comments like this daily for years.

Is that the big plan? Every day, new BS, "we're cooked chat". Repeat.

Begging Americans to decide now what is too far and put it on the wall or something. As of right now, it sounds like frogs slowly being boiled in the pot.

[–] NotAnOtter@lemmus.org 10 points 1 day ago

Yes that is literally his plan. Put out constant bullshit headlines about deranged stuff like this, so you become exhausted and stop paying attention. And then he steals billions from his various crimes.

He’s on tape saying as much.

[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

I think the destruction of military power for all the major nation states is the plan of the wealthy.

IMO They are preparing for a world of corporations and billionaires with their own militas. So destroying the competition before they announce the new game has begun.

Thats why all the bluster and fury stops at a certain level before anything changes the plan.

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[–] Yuccagnocchiyaki@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

The end is coming and no one will stop it. It's so crazy and unbelievable. These monsters have written what they want to do and no one can get rid of them?

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 102 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Newt Gingrich is still alive???

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[–] peopleproblems@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Best Forecasters of Future Conflict.

They know future conflict isn't the war that a foreign nation will come at the military with. The future of warfare is how they will fight the revolutionaries that will inevitably rise against tyranny.

Musk has the ability to deploy surveillance technology anywhere. The "study" is "how do they continue to keep squeezing the iron fist?"

Edit: and by anywhere, I mean ANYWHERE. Motherfucker owns a space agency. Tesla cars rely on video processing of always network connected cameras for their driving assist mechanisms. Starlink puts network connectivity anywhere it currently isn't.

And GUESS who is part of the PayPal mafia? Palantir. But also Yelp and LinkedIn. Those are much less important than Palantir, but Yelp can at least target businesses that don't play along, and LinkedIn can harm people seeking employment.

The dystopia we are in is worse than people can truly grasp.

[–] kerryh8er04@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The fuck does Elmo know about war?

Go get some of those mad lads in Ukraine that are fighting for their very existence and ask them about the future of war. Or fuck it, ask James Cameron, he seems to be more on track with how humans will cease to exist in the future than most people.

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[–] tacoplease@lemmy.world 16 points 2 days ago

Just in time for Elon to screw with the machines and for Newt to dribble saliva on everything

[–] MartianRecon@lemmus.org 28 points 2 days ago (4 children)

And the tankies on here will tell you without any sort of fucking irony that Kamala would be just as bad as this fucking bullshit.

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[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 47 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What the actual fuck even is this fever dream, honestly

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[–] cybervseas@lemmy.world 70 points 2 days ago (1 children)

onetime trillionaire Elon Musk

Look I know there are bigger problems we need to work on, but I still have to appreciate the little things

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[–] Lanske@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yanks are ruled by fucking morons

[–] sportsjorts@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago

It’s a cautionary tale about wealth usurping democracy in the modern age.

[–] Mastengwe@sh.itjust.works 25 points 2 days ago

We live in a fucking cartoon.

[–] RedWeasel@lemmy.world 60 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 54 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Honestly neglecting to mention Palmer Luckey in the title is burying the fucking lede here.

He has had a surveillance/military hardware busines for like ten/fifteen fucking years. Anduril.

Also the name, Meridian, deeply implies and ties back to that idea that they want to control the whole Western hemisphere.

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[–] BigMacHole@thelemmy.club 29 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Putting AMERICA First means having an ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT run Our Military!

-LITERALLY Republicans!

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[–] ToiletFlushShowerScream@piefed.world 50 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Hah! You almost got me The Onion!!

Wait...

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[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

We already tried Elon in politics... No!

[–] Furbag@pawb.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Elon will just pay someone to come up with war strategies for him.

[–] adarza@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"hey grok, how do we resolve the middle east conflicts?"

"NOOOO!! not like that!"

"how do we do it while killing lots of bad guys and making lots of money?"

"FUCK YOU, GROK. WE ARE NOT THE BAD GUYS!!!!"

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