For years, political strategists have suggested bringing back the draft. Not because those strategists wanted to toss young men into war, but because nothing politically activates young people like the prospect of being drafted into war. Well, those political strategists should have been more careful about what they wished for. In America, there hasn’t been a conscripted draft since the 1970s. Throughout my life, I’ve known Vietnam veterans who were drafted and it’s no f–king joke. Young American men have no sense of what the draft is life, what it’s like to hear their number called, what it’s like to see their friends blown up in some old man’s war. Unfortunately, many of them are about to find out.
Eligible men between the ages of 18 and 25 will automatically be registered into the U.S. military draft pool starting in December.
This is a change from the pre-existing mandate of self-registration into the Selective Service System (SSS) — the government agency that maintains a database of men to be called up to serve in the case of a national emergency.
The SSS website reads, “We are part of America’s National Defense Strategy, fostering deterrence through innovation and supporting the Department of War’s priority to maintain a formidable end-strength that provides America’s all-volunteer force with the overmatch necessary to deter, compete and win in the future.”
In December 2025, President Donald Trump signed into law the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act — allocating a $31.3 million budget to the agency — which mandates automatic SSS registration. The change, aimed at saving time and money, “transfers responsibility for registration from individual men to SSS through integration with federal data sources,” according to the website.
The U.S. military has not held a draft since 1973, during the Vietnam War. However, President Jimmy Carter reinstated the SSS in 1980. In the case of a “national emergency,” the registry can be used to “provide personnel to the Department of War and alternative service for conscientious objectors, if authorized by the President and Congress.”
While the act mandating automatic draft registration was signed into law months ago, The Hill notes that it is currently pending review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and awaiting finalization.
For what it’s worth, in the 2024 election, the “youth vote” had a huge gender gap. While a majority of women under the age of 29 voted for Kamala Harris, young men (under 29) swung wildly for Donald Trump, the senile, demented “manosphere” candidate endorsed by Joe Rogan and various right-wing predator podcasters. We were told endlessly that the majority of young men are becoming more conservative and that they hate women and feminism and anything “woke.” We were told those young men loved the virility and coolness projected by a decrepit draft-dodger with bone spurs. Well, congrats to all of the MAGA voters, particularly those young manosphere voters, for voting for this: the return of the national draft to fight in Derp Fuhrer’s endless wars.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
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- Washington, WA United States President Donald J. Trump walks to the motorcade from the White House residence in Washington, DC, USA, 01 April 2026. President Trump is going to attend the Supreme Court arguments in the birthright citizenship case and will become the first sitting president to attend oral arguments. Pictured: Donald J. Trump BACKGRID USA 1 APRIL 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, left, and US Air Force General Dan Caine, Chair, Joint Chiefs of Staff, right, listen as US President Donald J Trump conducts a press conference in the James S Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington. The President is expected to take questions on the Iran War and oil prices. Pictured: President Donald J Trump BACKGRID USA 6 APRIL 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Washington, DC United States President Donald J Trump speaks to the press as he and first lady Melania Trump host the 2026 White House Easter Egg Roll, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Monday, April 6, 2026. It is an annual tradition that began in 1878 during the administration of US President Rutherford B Hayes. Pictured: Trump BACKGRID USA 6 APRIL 2026 BYLINE MUST READ: MediaPunch / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
What am I missing? It sounds like instead of me having to remember to register my son, it now happens automatically. It doesn’t sound like they’re activating the draft. What has changed really then?
I ask because my kid turns 18 next month and we were already planning to register him.
That’s what my take is BUT then everyone who is 18 should automatically be registered to vote as well.
You’re not missing anything in terms of what has actually changed. However, the fact that it will be done “automatically” via “integration with federal data sources” will for sure be enough to make the young dudebros go apeshit. As we all know (SARCASM), anything involving federal agencies, information integration/databases and actual efficiency is big-brother commie socialist freedom infringing tyranny!!1! (Plus, now they can’t use the “I forgot to register” excuse, as it will be done for them)
Maybe this is just administrative. Maybe it is fine to automatically register young men for the draft but not to vote. A definite difference is Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, and existing/threatened military actions in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Cuba, Greenland, Mexico, Colombia, Somalia, and Nigeria. I’m not including Canada because that has apparently been nixed for now. There is also the fact that the administration thinks the military is Trump’s personal force to use however he likes, including against the citizens of the US. Trump’s plans require a lot more bodies than our current volunteer force provides.
Yes, its the current administration that makes this change so worrisome, not necessarily the change itself.
So, before now were you REQUIRED to be registered? Because to me, that’s the the difference, but I’m not American.
I think so, yes. But it was kind of meaningless because there was no draft and it seemed unlikely there would be again barring some global conflict like WWII. There’s a question somewhere that my husband and brothers have had to answer about whether they were registered or something along those lines. I can’t think of where though. Maybe tax returns? IDK.
Young men needed to register if they wanted to be eligible for financial assistance through the federal government. Not sure when that began, but I recall helping my son through the process. It was easy to do but very difficult emotionally for me as I knew many who did not come back from Vietnam.
Yes, young men were already required to register at 18. The forms are at the post office.
Legally required, but not actually enforced. It would count against someone though, if they were applying for a federal job or tuition assistance. Not registering would be cause for denial.
For me part of the issue is how did they obtain the data? And where did they get the data? Was that a legal use? I’m guessing from social security & I’m also guessing that was not legal.
And yeah, if you’re going to automatically sign them up for a potential draft you can automatically sign them up to vote.
Hmm, does this include Barron Trump?!?!?! Or will he be ‘exempt’- are bone spurs hereditary?
My understanding is that at a press conference, when it was asked (Barron being drafted) he would not be because he is “too tall”.
But if men are being “automatically “ registered, how would it possibly be known — automatically— that Barron is too tall? Where — exactly— would data like that be coming from? My unsupported guess is that DOGE combined data from multiple sources, including data that should have been both siloed and confidential. I remember reading at one point that DOGE had access to private insurance data — something that now begins to make more sense. The Trump regime has requested voter information records from the states, many of which have resisted. This, too, begins to make more sense.
I believe that the last time the US had a draft, there were deferments that privileged the white and the wealthy— like status as a student or service in the National Guard. There were also physical and mental fitness standards— so: bone spurs. I’m terrified that men targeted for active service and potentially for more dangerous assignments will disproportionately parallel the goals of Miller and Hegseth and others who long for the US to be transformed into a whiter, more “Christian” and more MAGA country — thanks to data that will allow the Pentagon to choose exactly which young men will be identified for mandatory military service. Neither Trump nor Netanyahu will care about the sacrifices of potential draftees who have been meticulously identified as being expendable.
I hope I’m wrong.
Just like daddy dearest, he’s lying about his height. He’s not 6’9″ he’s more like 6’4″ or 6’5″ which doesn’t require a waiver
And see 7’0″ former NBA star David Robinson. If you want to serve you can get a height waiver.
Can guarantee Barron wont be drafted.
Perhaps Kyle Rittenhouse will volunteer as tribute. [snark]
Hope so!! :))
The point about manosphere voters reminds me of Joan’s speech from Mad Men. Roughly: When you’re over there fighting, don’t kid yourself you’re doing it for me because I never liked you.
Went through this with my 3 brothers and Vietnam. Now I’m facing it again with 3 grandson’s being eligible and 2 more turning 18 within a year. My heart is sad.
Good. This will have a sobering effect. The mercenary dimension of the Pentagon procurement system was always geared toward corruption. There is a huge amount of money at stake for people like Erik Prinz who operate outside the uniform code of military justice for a price. This reinstates fiscal accountability, but other bigger ticket items, like a national debate grounded in a real cost-benefit analysis, like, is it worth actually getting killed?
I remember a lot of people voted for Trump for the sole reason that he won’t send their kids into wars because he is “anti-war” president.
I really feel sorry for young men and everyone else who voted for Kamala. Parents of those young men. They didn’t deserve this.
That, but also the draft. Gen Z and younger have been absolutely terrified of the draft being reinstated since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Right did a great job making them incredibly paranoid that Biden would send them to war. When that didn’t happen, the Right then pivoted to saying that Harris would start a war in Iran and then implement a draft. Pretty ironic in hindsight.
Sigh.
I hate it here.
https://www.13abc.com/2022/02/25/young-adults-worry-about-draft-being-reinstated-now-that-russia-has-invaded-ukraine/
Every accusation is a confession.
But automatically registering people to vote at 18 is “impossible.”
The people who thought Trump was for peace and Hillary/Kamala would lead us into war were (and are) dangerous fools.
Gee if only these bros read Project 2025 they would have seen this.
People ignoring or not taking P25 seriously is a huge fucking reason why we’re in this mess.
This! And this damn fool looked right into the camera during a debate and said he has never read Project 2025 and has nothing to do with it. And everyone believed a man who told them over 30,000 lies his first term.
All I know is, my sons will be dragged into his BS over my dead body.
The Supreme Court stupidly gave MElon Musk and his Doge idiots access to all of our social security numbers, and the DOJ requested and is suing states for voter ID info – many red states, incl mine, had already complied. And the Secretary of War Crimes has been blocking the promotion of Black, female and other minority military officers. He had originally wanted the military to be all white and male only. But with recruitment down, I’m not surprised by this move. I have several nephews this age so this saddens and maddens me.
Every day we are subjected to new horrifying news and detrimental actions taken by the Felon (my autocorrect wrote Demon which is truth) while the Republican controlled Congress does nothing. But the MAGA civil war seems to be heating up, with MAGA podcasters starting to wake up – white supremacist Nick Fuentes recently stated he misses Obama and Nip Tucker Carlson recently stated that the Felon is the anti Christ.
I’m sorry Chantal1 this is just awful. I just don’t know how America can get out of this. The best way to stop fascism is to not vote it in. Once it’s there, it doesn’t leave willingly. This is why the wait until November plan makes me so nervous – it assumes free and fair elections. It assumes that an administration which has proven itself to be completely lawless is going to recognize election results when they are on the losing end. They’ve already shown us they don’t acknowledge election results where they lose.
I honestly think the fact that MAGA and former MAGA are turning on him doesn’t mater at this point. The regime is installed and it’s not leaving. Not willingly anyway.
At this point my hope is in the Generals who were fired because they wouldn’t follow illegal orders. The ICC are showing they’re a joke, they’re not coming to arrest any of them for a single war crime and there have been plenty of them. Congress is asleep at the wheel and he will probably just do away with them altogether soon. Or they can keep doing what they are doing which is be on a perpetual vacation.
Project 2025 specifically called for this – it’s not like there was no warning. This plan was decades in the making – first the racist Russian bots all over social media spreading hate and disinformation. Then the oligarchs pushing alt-right content on males who are lonely and addicted to their screens – all to have this outcome where people vote alt-right so they can take over. It’s astounding how easy it was for them to get people to vote against their interests. And what I find so alarming, they’ll do it again. Next time, the package will be younger, more handsome, intelligent, and slightly more competent. I can’t think of a package more unattractive than trump. If people voted for that (3 frigging times) they will vote for anything or anyone who tells them they are in danger (because of Brown people) and only I can save you.
I think we are all witnessing the fall of America in real time with Iran about to collapse the dollar just like Putin planned it. It’s crazy how there all all these laws and no one willing to enforce them when it comes to a particular demographic. Which is the whole cause of this downfall to begin with…
SideEye Thank you. The MAGA base is who gave the Felon his power and he thrived off it. Now his actions are turning many of them against him, with some leaving MAGA. A recent poll showed that 100% of MAGA supported this war, but once this news, along with the rising cost of gas and groceries plus the continued devastation to the economy as a whole, fully hits MAGA, the majority will revolt and then the Repubs in Congress will act. Dems recently flipping GOP seats and the increasing closures of rural hospitals already has them rattled. Now, more Americans along with at least 85 congressional Democrats are demanding that they impeach the Felon. Sadly, not nearly enough. The 25th Amendment can only be implemented by the Cowardly Lyin Vance and the Cabinet of Sycophants or Vance and the majority of Congress. So we don’t have the numbers to do either – YET. But once he’s removed, it will take years, possibly decades, for the US and countries we’ve harmed to recover from the damage done he caused. And it will likely take longer than that to regain the trust of our allies and the world.
Thank you for this insight. It gives me some hope. I just don’t have faith in Congress to act. I think a lot of those voting with trump are in the files. I wish Iran would just release the files – it would force people to resign there’s just too much Kompromat on them for them to do the right thing.
As a Canadian (I have dual citizenships) the sentiment here is we aren’t returning to America. I think it’s billions in lost revenue in Vegas alone – and restaurants, stores closing. I think your media is reporting it’s the tariffs but that’s incorrect. It’s the threats of invasion, the concentration camps, the treatment of immigrants and POC, and fascism, the violence, as well as trump is loathed here and we can’t stand Vance either. We are completely turned off and we don’t trust the voter base. No one wants to set foot in a country where they could end up in a concentration camp over nothing. I think there are some 53 Canadians in those camps now.
I’m very worried there will be an ethnic cleansing over there. It’s giving me such anxiety. When the administration posts on its own DHS site the goal is to “deport” 100 million people, and there are only 50 million immigrants, documented or not, you can only arrive at the conclusion that they want to exterminate a bunch of people who are citizens. And we all know who that is. I take it to the next step (because Stephen Miller has said he thinks the correct number of Americans should be around 100 million) because I think they want to add on anyone who opposes them – and I believe that’s why they want the voter rolls. That a lot of these concentration camps are near railroad tracks and trump himself has said they are carefully choosing their locations, just knowing how they romanticize nazi Germany, it gives me chills. It’s like we see what’s coming and we’re powerless to stop it.
I wish we could all sue this administration for the stress it has caused us. It’s been 11 years of trump’s bullshit and I just want that time back. I’m so tired. I am in Canada and I can’t imagine how people over there feel especially marginalized communities.
@SIde Eye: this resonated with me, ‘I wish we could all sue this administration for the stress it has caused us. It’s been 11 years of trump’s bullshit and I just want that time back. I’m so tired.’
Same. Take care. 😔❤️
Thank you Beanie Bean. You too! Stay safe. xo
There was a whole generation of men who went to law school just for the education exemption. Of course, they were white and affluent…
The Republikkkans have thrived in rural white America for 50 years by othering minority groups, especially black women. Most rural magats believe with their full chest that “others” are getting more than them while expecting the “others” to do all the manual labor, caregiving and soldier-ing. It did not dawn on rural poor whites that mango was coming for them and they had more in common with “the others” than the .01% or that they statistically received more social welfare than any other group. The hardcore magats are not self-aware enough to change their belief systems and will spend their lives bouncing from one fascist/p#do cult to the next, but most of the trashiest magats have truly turned on their current false idol over Iran. Many of the magat long-time commentators and supporters like Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson and MTG have jumped ship because they also know the con is up and it is time to swap grifts.
IDK I think MTG and Carlson are grifters but I also think, like most people, they both genuinely think wars are bad. I don’t think being anti-interventionalist is incompatible with being America First.
@SideEye Thank you. The MAGA base is who gave the Felon his power and he thrived off it. Now his actions are turning many of them against him, with some leaving MAGA. A recent poll showed that 100% of MAGA supported this war, but once this news, along with the rising cost of gas and groceries plus the continued devastation to the economy as a whole, fully hits MAGA, the majority will revolt and then the Repubs in Congress will act. Dems recently flipping GOP seats and the increasing closures of rural hospitals already has them rattled. Now, more Americans along with at least 85 congressional Democrats are demanding that they impeach the Felon. Sadly, not nearly enough. The 25th Amendment can only be implemented by the Cowardly Lyin Vance and the Cabinet of Sycophants or Vance and the majority of Congress. So we don’t have the numbers to do either – YET. But once he’s removed, it will take years, possibly decades, for the US and countries we’ve harmed to recover from the damage done he caused. And it will likely take longer than that to regain the trust of our allies and the world.
Just casually telling people about mandatory drafting because the draft as I understand it is only in place for emergency circumstances (?) But we know how these people work. That “emergency” status will be removed and it’ll just be any war at Trump’s / GOP’s whim be it for oil or oppression reasons.
Exactly. If he can send ICE into airports to work as TSA agents, he’ll send draftees to act as ‘security’ for protests, voting, etc.
Speaking of voting, I received my precinct card yesterday. I didn’t realize it, but Hawaii is a strictly vote by mail state (I only recently returned here & had voted by mail before because where I lived had no polling stations). Oregon has been voting by mail only since 2000. All of which is to say, trump’s little hissy fit EO about no more voting by mail is just horsesh*t & simply won’t work. Too many states now vote by mail only. There’s eight total.
Can it apply to red states only? My 20 year old son didn’t vote for that ass hat.
How about only applying it to 1) the male descendants of people who voted for trump or 2) any male under the age of 65 who voted for trump. Send the white middle aged MAGATS to the front lines.
Nor did anyone in those states who voted for Harris, especially in the cities.
For a young person this must be a very scary thought. The way Trump and the United States are heading, World War 3 isn’t that far away.
But what if they have bone spurs? And are millionaires? And Magats? Then what? So Barron is going to be drafted too?
They are not sending their own children. What is crazy is if you are under 4’11 or taller than 6’8 you are medically exempt from the draft. Those people are disqualified because they would not fit the equipment. Apparently Barron is 6’9 and would be medically exempt – not that he’d be drafted anyway. They send the poors to war. Rich people pretty much get a pass.
Strange but one of the few times trump was accurate was when he said Barron was too tall for the draft.
My understanding is you can get a student deferment if you are in high school or college.
Someone please chime in if I have this wrong.
Barron is lying about his height, just like his daddy does.
This is horrible, and I can’t imagine it’s going to go over well. At least, I hope not.
Martin Luther King Jr. did so many great things in his life. Last year, I discovered something great he did that I did not know about. During the Vietnam War, the U.S. sent Black soldiers/troops to the most dangerous assignments with the highest mortality rates. MLK Jr. negotiated with the U.S. government to change that and it was changed. I looked this up last summer, so maybe I haven’t gotten all the details right, but that was the gist of it. There is also a government site of soldiers killed in Vietnam, through state and city, I think. I looked through New York and found the city right next to mine. You could write tributes to the soldiers and the site would okay it or not. I wrote to an 18 year old Black man (forgot how I figured it) and told him how sorry I was that his life was taken for a wrong war at such a young age. In college, I had three Black suite mates. The young woman from Harlem said all of her male cousins were killed in the Vietnam War. ALL. So, so horrible. This article reminded me of that time last summer. Trump is a warmonger and a racist. I fear the future with that madman in office.
As an older Black woman who saw the draft stop for my generation of boys in 1974. That’s when I graduated from HS and boys were planning to draft dodge. You already know they will try to send Black boys first to eliminate them. My 4 grandsons are 19-24. I will tell them to smoke pot and show up drunk. Maybe they will be exempt. I will be looking at other ways for them not to be accepted into a death march. It’s truly disgusting but for Black folks, just another day.
They will absolutely try to send Black men and put them on the front lines on the most dangerous assignments. I believe they can get student deferments if they are in high school or college. You are also exempt from the draft if you have asthma and certain other conditions, like bone spurs. Everyone should be googling what medical conditions would exempt you.
My son has both US and Canadian citizenships. I was born in Canada and I am renouncing my US one. We’ve discussed him joining me in renouncing the US one if it comes to that.
Black people especially need to get ahead of this. We know this administration has one goal and that is to exterminate Black people, save a few entertainers and useful tokens here and there that are willing to carry water for White Supremacy.
dreamchild, You are absolutely right. Such a horrible history and a horrible president just itching to get our young men killed (especially young men of color).
Is his son draft automatically too? I mean, Barron is old enough…
He can do auto registration for the draft, but not for voting. I’m so tired of his BS!
We won our freedom from a mad king only to lose it again to a demented egomaniac.