🌵 Three-Star General Buchanan on Border Militarization: Behind the Scenes of Trump's New National Defense Areas
Former commander of 6,000 border troops explains the real differences between past and present border operations
Based on the Buckmaster Show for 4/30/25, a daily radio show in Tucson, AZ, interviewing local newsmakers. Analysis and opinions are my own.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
The Buckmaster Show 🎙️ covered two interesting topics. First, Dr. Schaller explained that the time period Trump considers "great America" (the 1890s) was actually quite terrible for most people. There were no child labor laws 👶🚫, women couldn't vote 🚺🗳️, and there was a big economic crash 📉💥.
Then, General Buchanan discussed how soldiers are being used at the border today compared to when he was in charge a few years ago. He also talked about protecting wolves 🐺 and allowing hunters to use dogs 🐕 when hunting mountain lions and bears. The show teaches us 📚🧠 that we should learn from history's mistakes instead of pretending the past was perfect.
🗝️ Takeaways
📉 The Gilded Age that Trump glorifies actually featured one of America's worst economic downturns, second only to the Great Depression
👷 The period was marked by child labor, suppression of minorities and women, and extreme economic inequality
🧠 Even William McKinley ("The Tariff Man") eventually concluded that "commercial wars are unprofitable"
🔄 Ronald Reagan originally used the "Make America Great Again" slogan but represented very different values
🛡️ The current border operation differs from previous ones primarily through the creation of National Defense Areas
🐕 The Arizona Game & Fish Commission unanimously voted to keep using dogs for hunting predators, claiming science supports the practice
🐺 The Mexican wolf recovery program has grown from 7 wolves in 1998 to about 286 today
MAGA and the Gilded Age: Trump's Dangerous Historical Fantasy
The Nostalgia Trap: Unpacking America's Manufactured Golden Era
In the latest episode of the Buckmaster Show, Bill Buckmaster delved into the perilous waters of American historical revisionism with two luminaries whose expertise cut through the fog of MAGA mythology.
The April 30th broadcast featured Dr. Michael Schaller, Regents Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Arizona, who masterfully deconstructed former President Trump's peculiar obsession with the Gilded Age.
Later, retired three-star General Jeffrey Buchanan offered insights on military border operations and wildlife conservation that revealed the complex interplay between policy, science, and politics in our borderlands.
Dr. Michael Schaller: Exposing the Gilded Age's Tarnished Reality
Dr. Schaller, an acclaimed Reagan biographer and U.S. history expert, didn't mince words when discussing Trump's romanticized vision of America's past. The conversation began with Buckmaster asking a pointed question: "What was so exciting about 1896 that President Trump seems to think was the best of times?"
Schaller's response was illuminating: "Trump and his acolytes look back on this period from after the Civil War until about the First World War, the so-called Gilded Age... and they argue that that led to a sort of paradise on earth of prosperity, growth, and domestic peace. That's how they remembered it. Few historians would actually describe that period with the same glowing words that they would use."
It's fascinating how conservatives cling to this sepia-toned fantasy of American history where everything was supposedly perfect—as long as you weren't poor, female, non-white, an immigrant, or basically anyone without capital.
The professor meticulously dissected the harsh realities of the era, explaining that despite economic growth during the Industrial Revolution, "there were terrible economic inequalities, the suppression of labor, the suppression of women, the suppression of minorities, foreign conquests. This was hardly a golden age."
He highlighted that the 1890s saw one of the worst economic downturns in American history, second only to the Great Depression. The period was defined by child labor, the dispossession of Native American tribes, blatant racism in the South, and legal inequality for women, who couldn't even vote.
"There were terrible economic downturns," Schaller emphasized. "Except for the Great Depression of the 1930s, the 1890s were probably the worst downturn in U.S. history, save for the Great Depression."
Isn't it telling that the "great" America Trump yearns for was actually a dystopian nightmare for the vast majority of Americans? The only people who thrived were the robber barons—the 19th-century equivalents of today's billionaire class that forms Trump's inner circle.
The discussion turned to William McKinley, nicknamed "the Tariff Man," who relied heavily on tariffs as the primary revenue source for the federal government before the income tax was implemented in 1913. Schaller explained the economic landscape:
"Tariffs were really the only way the federal government could raise money in those days. There was no income tax till 1913, 1914, when the Constitution was amended."
In a striking parallel to contemporary politics, Schaller noted Trump's decades-long fixation on tariffs: "He's talked about it long before he was a presidential candidate. In the 1980s, he was going on about tariffs. Then the enemy wasn't China, it was Japan, Japanese cars, especially in textiles."
But Schaller delivered a brilliant rebuke to this economic strategy: "Even a so-called American, all-American car, in fact, is largely assembled in the United States from parts that come from all over the world. And in some cases, go back and forth... So the notion that things can be American-built and everything would work out ignores the realities of the modern economy."
The irony is palpable—the MAGA crowd cheers for economic policies that would make their consumer goods dramatically more expensive while Trump himself continues to manufacture his merchandise overseas. His golden nostalgia is merely gold plating over a core of hypocrisy.
Perhaps the most fascinating revelation came when Schaller mentioned that Ronald Reagan actually used the "Make America Great Again" slogan in his 1980 campaign, though it wasn't his primary message. "It was never the main theme, but it was there. And there were posters and buttons with that on it. And Trump recycled it."
But there was a crucial difference: "I think Reagan really was talking about the post-World War II era. He wasn't talking about going back to the 19th century. Remember, Reagan was an ardent New Dealer during the 1930s and much of the 1940s."
Comparing the two Republican presidents, Schaller didn't hold back: "Ronald Reagan was a very different kind of conservative. I wasn't a total fan of his, but he certainly had his pulse on the positive side of the American psyche. An optimist, he believed in wide-scale immigration. He believed in no tariffs. He was a free trader."
In contrast, Trump's leadership style centers on "vengeance and retribution and getting even. Those are anathema to Ronald Reagan."
Even Reagan—the patron saint of conservative mythology—would likely be horrified by today's Republican Party. When Reagan looks like a moderate compared to your platform, you've gone off the deep end.
In a fascinating historical footnote, Schaller revealed that President McKinley eventually recognized his trade policies' folly.
"In his final speech the day before he was fatally shot in 1901, President McKinley himself actually backed away from the aggressive tariffs that he had promoted for most of his political life, declaring that commercial wars are unprofitable."
Schaller concluded, "Almost all economists, right, left, and center today think tariffs are a dead end, you know, as a general rule of thumb. And McKinley himself had begun to come to that conclusion in 1901."
If only the MAGA movement could learn from history rather than fabricating a version that never existed. Even their own historical heroes eventually figured out what most of us already know—economic isolationism is a lose-lose proposition in a global economy.
General Jeffrey Buchanan: Border Reality vs. Political Theater
The conversation shifted dramatically when retired three-star General Jeffrey Buchanan joined the program. Buchanan brought 40 years of military experience, including commanding 6,000 troops on the southwest border from 2018 to 2019, to provide context for the current militarization of the border.
Buckmaster pointedly asked about the difference between Buchanan's previous border mission and "what's going on now with what President Trump has ordered the army to take control of the border?"
Buchanan carefully explained that many aspects of the mission remain unchanged: providing support to Customs and Border Protection with manpower, aviation assets, engineering support, and medical assistance. However, he highlighted a key difference: "What is different is the declaration of an NDA. National Defense Area, where the Department of Interior transferred the responsibility of some of its stewarded land... to the U.S. military."
This move allows the military "to have detention authority over people who trespass" before transferring them to Border Patrol agents. Importantly, Buchanan clarified that this doesn't apply to the entire border and "is expected to be challenged in the courts."
He emphasized an often-overlooked fact: "Make no mistake. The security of the borders is a federal mission, and it falls under the Department of Homeland Security. And Customs and Border Protection has the lead for that. The military is just primarily there to support CBP."
The militarization of our border is less about actual security and more about political theater—a wasteful performance designed to inflame xenophobia rather than implement humane and effective immigration policy. Using our military as props in this drama is an abuse of their purpose and our resources.
Wildlife Conservation and the Politics of Science
As an Arizona Game and Fish Commission commissioner, Buchanan also discussed the recent controversial decision to maintain the legality of using dogs to hunt large predators like mountain lions and bears. The commission unanimously rejected a petition from conservation groups, including the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.
Buchanan defended the decision with a scientific argument: "When you use dogs to tree a mountain lion, for example, then you can go up and you can determine the sex of the mountain lion... The number of males that are killed is almost irrelevant to the success of the population. But you've got to be very careful with the number of females. And that's what we manage very closely."
He claimed that states that banned this hunting method saw female harvests increase, though he didn't provide specific data to support this assertion. Buchanan aimed the petitioners: "My biggest concern about some of these groups is that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but they're not entitled to their own facts. And sometimes they lay out things that are facts as facts that are not factual. And they use it primarily as a means to raise money."
The general's argument sounds convincing on its surface, but one has to wonder if preserving traditional hunting methods is truly about scientific management or about maintaining the status quo for hunters' convenience. Conservation groups like the Center for Biological Diversity have their own scientists and data—are they truly just making things up to raise money?
The discussion also touched on the Mexican wolf recovery program, with Buchanan noting its growth from just seven wolves in 1998 to around 286 individuals across Arizona and New Mexico today. He explained the importance of keeping these endangered wolves south of Interstate 40 to prevent interbreeding with northern gray wolves, which could eliminate the Mexican subspecies.
America's Past and Future: Challenging the Myths That Hold Us Back
The Buckmaster Show once again demonstrated how understanding our true history is essential for crafting effective policy today. Dr. Schaller's deconstruction of the Gilded Age myth reveals how dangerous historical revisionism can be when it shapes modern political platforms. General Buchanan's insights show the complex reality of border security beyond political sloganeering.
We cannot move forward as a society if we keep trying to return to a mythologized past that never existed. The "greatness" of America never resided in a specific era but in our ongoing struggle to form a more perfect union—a struggle that requires honest reckoning with our history, not nostalgic fantasy.
Both discussions clearly show that oversimplification—whether of economic history or environmental management—leads to poor policy outcomes. Real solutions require nuanced understanding and evidence-based approaches, not slogans or political theater.
As we grapple with these complex questions about our past and present, perhaps the greatest wisdom comes from examining history's triumphs and failures rather than seeking a mythologized golden age that never truly existed. Our strength as a nation has always come from our ability to learn, adapt, and progress toward a more just and sustainable future.
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Join the Conversation
What period of American history do you think best represents our nation's highest ideals? Do you believe there are lessons from the Gilded Age we should heed today? How do you feel about the militarization of our border and its effectiveness? Does wildlife management in Arizona strike the right balance between conservation and hunting traditions?
Share your thoughts in the comments below. Your perspective enriches our community's understanding of these complex issues.
Quotes
Dr. Michael Schaller on the Gilded Age reality: "There were terrible economic inequalities, the suppression of labor, the suppression of women, the suppression of minorities, foreign conquests. This was hardly a golden age."
Dr. Schaller on the 1890s economy: "Except for the Great Depression of the 1930s, the 1890s were probably the worst downturn in U.S. history."
Dr. Schaller on Trump vs. Reagan: "Trump uses vengeance and retribution and getting even. Those are anathema to Ronald Reagan."
Dr. Schaller on global manufacturing: "Even a so-called American, all-American car, in fact, is largely assembled in the United States from parts that come from all over the world."
Dr. Schaller on McKinley's evolution: "In his final speech the day before he was fatally shot in 1901, President McKinley himself actually backed away from the aggressive tariffs that he had promoted for most of his political life."
General Buchanan on border operations: "What is different is the declaration of an NDA. National Defense Area, where the Department of Interior transferred the responsibility of some of its stewarded land... to the U.S. military."
General Buchanan on conservation groups: "Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but they're not entitled to their own facts. And sometimes they lay out things that are facts as facts that are not factual. And they use it primarily as a means to raise money."
People Mentioned
Dr. Michael Schaller, Regents Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Arizona and Reagan biographer: "Almost all economists today, right, left, and center, think tariffs are a dead end."
General Jeffrey Buchanan - Retired three-star general who commanded 6,000 troops on the southwest border and Arizona Game and Fish Commissioner: "The security of the borders is a federal mission, and it falls under the Department of Homeland Security."
William McKinley - Republican president (1897-1901) known as "the Tariff Man": Before his death declared that "commercial wars are unprofitable."
Donald Trump - Former president with a "fixation on tariffs" who "recycled" Reagan's MAGA slogan.
Ronald Reagan - Former president who was "an optimist, believed in wide scale immigration... was a free trader" according to Schaller.
Mark Twain - American humorist who coined the term "gilded age" to describe "a tacky period of superficial class" according to Schaller.
Bill Buckmaster - Host of the Buckmaster Show, now in his "15th year already with the radio show and 37th year in Tucson radio and TV."
Tom Fairbanks - Engineer and producer of the Buckmaster Show, briefly mentioned at the beginning.
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