Whatever the worst-case scenario, Janessa Goldbeck has probably imagined it. In 2023 the US marine veteran consulted on a documentary that war-gamed a presidential candidate staging a military coup. Last year she advised local leaders on the hypothetical of troops being deployed to their streets for immigration enforcement.
Then Donald Trump won and Goldbeck’s nightmare came true.
“It’s a little surreal to see something that we’ve been talking about and thinking about and stressing out about,” the chief executive of Vet Voice Foundation, a non-profit advocacy organisation, says via Zoom from her home in San Diego, California. “When we first did War Game, the film, some folks would ask during our press tour, ‘Do you think you’re scaring people? This feels a little hyperbolic?’ It doesn’t feel good to say I told you so in this moment.”……….
Having read the Project 2025 policy document, Goldbeck saw this coming. Last year Vet Voice Foundation, which mobilises veterans and military families to defend US democracy, ran exercises with local elected officials, activists and journalists to prepare for a second Trump administration conducting aggressive immigration enforcement. It has now become a vital resource for governors, state attorneys general and mayors trying to weather the storm……..
Goldbeck, 40, explains: “This year the vast majority of our work has been supporting litigation to halt or slow down national guard deployments, providing subject expert witnesses, retired generals, to talk through with staff what the footprint of these deployments might look like and how to prepare, and training for activist groups on who the guard is, who they’re not – the difference in the uniforms that the guys at ICE are wearing versus the national guard……
The deployments come in broader context that has seen Trump expand presidential power. He has sought to sideline Congress, gut the civil service, flout the law, weaponise the justice department against his perceived enemies and coerce law firms, media and universities. Goldbeck warns that he could use the military to cling to power……
“I hope that people have learned that this administration, this president, mean what they say, even it if sounds absurd or anti-American or anti-democratic. They mean it. I absolutely think that this president wants to remain in power much longer, for as long as he can.”
She adds: “My fear is that this is all a lead-up to potential use of the guard or the US military around the next election cycle. I’m not just dreaming about that. It’s because it’s been spoken about by very senior members of this administration and the president himself. That is incredibly alarming. It is not American to conduct elections with troops in the streets and to intimidate voters. It’s very authoritarian.”…..
Goldbeck’s activism in Washington brought her into contact with military and security personnel. She observed a disconnect between humanitarian workers and the security forces that enable their operations. To bridge this gap and gain a “master’s degree, so to speak, in military”, she decided to join the Marine Corps at age 25…….
Goldbeck commissioned as a Marine Corps officer in 2012 and served for seven years as a combat engineer officer – a role she defines as someone who “builds things and blows things up” – while advocating for fellow female and LGBTQ+ service members.
Goldbeck (responds): “Pete Hegseth is unequivocally the least qualified person who ever led the department of defense.”
Hegseth has also gone on the record with the opinion: “I’m straight up saying we should not have women in combat roles”. This is anathema to Goldbeck, who put herself forward for infantry officer training, a position then closed to female marines, and later worked with advocacy groups to successfully repeal the policy. She states that in the decade since women have served successfully and standards have not been lowered.
“To see this fight that has already been litigated, has already put to bed, that nobody in the service is actually still grumbling about except for a few guys that have holes in their soul that will never be filled, is so incredibly infuriating,” she reflects.
-David Smith: The Guardian, December 26, 2025