Words fail me as I read this as a possible horror of a
future for our country. How ANYONE can embrace this
type of thinking AND the person who is promoting it is
totally and completely beyond me and truly says that
they are unable to comprehend the consequences of their
actions.
"Trump tested the limits on using the military at home.
If elected again, he plans to go further
During his first term as president, Donald Trump tested
the limits of how he could use the military to achieve
policy goals. If given a second term, the Republican
and his allies are preparing to go much further,
reimagining the military as an all-powerful tool to
deploy on U.S. soil.
He has pledged to recall thousands of American troops
from overseas and station them at the U.S. border with
Mexico. He has explored using troops for domestic
policy priorities such as deportations and confronting
civil unrest. He has talked of weeding out military
officers who are ideologically opposed to him.
Trump's vision amounts to a potentially dramatic shift
in the role of the military in U.S. society, carrying
grave implications for both the country's place in the
world and the restraints that have traditionally been
placed on domestic use of the military.
As Trump’s campaign heads into its final stretch
against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, he is
promising forceful action against immigrants who do not
have permanent legal status. Speaking in Colorado on
Friday, the Republican described the city of Aurora as
a “war zone” controlled by Venezuelan gangs, even
though authorities say that was a single block of the
Denver suburb, and the area is safe again.
“I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been
invaded and conquered,” Trump said at the rally. “We
will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in
jail or kick them out of our country.”
The former president and his advisers are developing
plans to shift the military’s priorities and resources,
even at a time when wars are raging in Europe and the
Middle East. Trump’s top priority in his platform,
known as Agenda 47, is to implement hard-line measures
at the U.S.-Mexico border by “moving thousands of
troops currently stationed overseas” to that border. He
is also pledging to “declare war” on cartels and deploy
the Navy in a blockade that would board and inspect
ships for fentanyl.
Trump also has said he will use the National Guard and
possibly the military as part of the operation to
deport millions of immigrants who do not have permanent
legal status.
While Trump’s campaign declined to discuss the details
of those plans, including how many troops he would
shift from overseas assignments to the border, his
allies are not shy about casting the operation as a
sweeping mission that would use the most powerful tools
of the federal government in new and dramatic ways.
“There could be an alliance of the Justice Department,
Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. Those
three departments have to be coordinated in a way that
maybe has never been done before,” said Ron Vitiello,
who worked as the acting director of Immigrations and
Customs Enforcement under Trump.
While both Democratic and Republican presidential
administrations have long used military resources at
the border, the plans would be a striking escalation of
the military’s involvement in domestic policy.
Advocates for human rights and civil liberties have
grown alarmed.
“They are promising to use the military to do mass
raids of American families at a scale that harkens back
to some of the worst things our country has done,” said
Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, an immigration
advocacy organization.
In Congress, which has the power to restrict the use of
military force through funding and other
authorizations, Republicans are largely on board with
Trump's plans.
“The reason I support Donald Trump is he will secure
the border on Day 1. Now that could be misinterpreted
as being a dictator. No, he’s got to secure the
border,” said Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a member of the
House Armed Services Committee.
Many Republicans argue that Trump's rhetoric on
immigration reflects reality and points to the need for
military action.
“There is a case that this is an invasion,” said North
Carolina Sen. Ted Budd, a Republican on the Senate
Armed Services Committee. “You look at 10 million
people, many of which are not here for a better future,
and, unfortunately, it’s made it necessary. This is a
problem that the Biden administration and Harris
administration have created.”
Still, Trump’s plans to move military assets from
abroad could further inflame tension within the GOP
between those hawkish on foreign policy and Republicans
who promote Trump’s brand of “America First”
isolationism.
Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, chairman of the
House Armed Services Committee, insisted Trump would
not move active-duty troops to the border, even though
Trump’s platform clearly states he would.
In the Senate, where more traditional Republicans still
hold sway, Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top
Republican on the Armed Services Committee, issued a
statement encouraging the Department of Defense to
assist with border security, but adding that the effort
“needs to be led by the Department of Homeland
Security.”
Trump’s designs for the military may not stop at the
border.
As Trump completes a campaign marked by serious threats
to his life, his aides already made an unusual request
for military aircraft to transport him amid growing
concerns over threats from Iran.
During his first term while riots and protests against
police brutality roiled the nation, Trump also pushed
to deploy military personnel. Top military officers,
such as then- Gen. Mark Milley, resisted those plans,
including issuing a memo that stressed that every
member of the military “swears an oath to support and
defend the Constitution and the values embedded within
it.”
Trump's potential actions would likely require him to
invoke wartime or emergency powers, such as carrying
out mass deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, a
1798 law, or quelling unrest under the Insurrection
Act, an 1807 law that allows a president to deploy the
military domestically and against U.S. citizens. It was
last used by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 during
rioting in Los Angeles after police officers beat the
Black motorist Rodney King.
Ahead of a potential second term for Trump, Democrats
in Congress tried to update presidential powers like
the Insurrection Act but found little success.
That’s left them instead issuing dire warnings that
Trump now has fewer guardrails on how he could use the
military. He has shown an ability to bend institutions
to his goals, from a Supreme Court willing to
reconsider long-standing interpretations of
presidential powers to a military scrubbed of officers
and leaders likely to push back on his plans.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who introduced
legislation to update the Insurrection Act, said the
plans “illuminate Donald Trump’s total misunderstanding
of the United States military as a force for national
defense, not for his personal preferences to demagogue
an issue.”
But Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, underscored how many in
his party have grown comfortable with deploying the
military to confront illegal immigration and drug
trafficking.
“Whatever fixes the border, I think we’re OK with,” he
said."
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