With no one to stop him, Trump is ready to militarize police nationally
Thanks to the cowardice of so-called conservative Republicans in Washington, Donald Trump has been able to militarize local police forces in Washington, DC and Los Angeles using troops from the National Guard and the US military and now, based on the “success” of his dictatorial actions, he’s ready to do the same thing nationally.
His next targets are Chicago and New York City (via Politico.com):
CHICAGO — President Donald Trump said he is looking to send in the National Guard to Chicago or New York, seeking to extend the deployment of guardsmen elsewhere after amassing troops in Washington.
Trump told reporters Friday he’s considering deploying guardsmen to Chicago after ordering troops into the nation’s capital and to Los Angeles earlier this year — a move the Trump administration is now being forced to defend in court.
“We’re going to make our cities very, very safe. Chicago is a mess,” Trump said. “We’ll straighten that one out probably next. That will be our next one after this, and it won’t even be tough.”
Trump later mentioned New York along with Chicago as cities he’d like the National Guard to “help.”
The president praised the hundreds of guardsmen currently deployed in Washington and noted he’s willing to “bring in the regular military” to help support his campaign to reduce crime in the city.
“I really am honored that the National Guard has done such an incredible job working with the police, and we haven’t had to bring in the regular military, which we’re willing to do,” he said. “After we do this, we’ll go to another location, and we’ll make it safe also.” (Emphasis mine)
As I wrote in my article after Trump seized control of our nation’s capital a few weeks ago, he does have some limited authority to take over the Metropolitan Police Department under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, which includes a provision granting him the ability to take over the department when there are “special conditions of an emergency nature” for a period of 30 days — I guess January 6, 2021, when thousands of his sycophants invaded the Capitol in an attempt to help him steal the election, wasn’t one of those “special conditions of an emergency nature.”
But Trump’s actions in Washington, DC had nothing to do with any so-called “emergency” and everything to do with tyranny and his desire to be the defacto king of America, as we see in his promise to militarize police nationally (via USAToday.com):
President Donald Trump said he might expand his crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital to other major U.S. cities as he announced plans to send 800 National Guard troops into Washington, D.C.
Trump singled out New York City, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and Oakland, California during a Monday, Aug. 11, news conference as potential future targets in what would be a drastic escalation of federal presence on the streets of American cities.
“We’re not going to lose our cities over this. This will go further. We’re starting very strongly with D.C., and we’re going to clean it up real quick,” Trump said.
Trump did not elaborate on his plans for other cities. But one of the two executive actions he signed Aug. 11 directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to coordinate with governors of states and “authorize the orders of any additional members of the National Guard to active service, as he deems necessary and appropriate, to augment this mission.” (Emphasis mine)
It has always been my contention that Donald Trump would use immigration and border security as an excuse to declare martial law. So, when he mentioned that he would authorize Pete Hegseth to use the Defense Department to militarize police nationally, he confirmed my suspicions based on a DHS memo released during his takeover of LA spelling out how he would use the military within the United States as a police force:
The memo lays out the need to persuade top Pentagon officials to get much more serious about using the military to combat illegal immigration—and not just at the border. It suggests that DHS is anticipating many more uses of the military in urban centers, noting that L.A.-style operations may be needed “for years to come.” And it likens the threat posed by transnational gangs and cartels to having “Al Qaeda or ISIS cells and fighters operating freely inside America,” hinting at a ramped-up militarized posture inside the interior.
The memo was authored by Philip Hegseth—the younger brother of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—who is a senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and DHS liaison officer to the Defense Department. (Emphasis mine)
Trump launched his plan to militarize the police nationally on Inauguration Day when he issued an executive order declaring a national emergency on the southern border that required Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to provide a joint report with recommendations on whether the invocation of the Insurrection Act might be necessary.
“Within 90 days of the date of this proclamation, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit a joint report to the President about the conditions at the southern border of the United States and any recommendations regarding additional actions that may be necessary to obtain complete operational control of the southern border, including whether to invoke the Insurrection Act of 1807.”
Though Hegseth and Noem pretended to oppose the idea of invoking the Insurrection Act, Trump acted as if it had been done when he deployed the National Guard to LA to allegedly “protect” Immigration Control Enforcement (ICE) officers from protestors who disagreed with his immigration policies.
In his memo deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles, Trump threatened to have the Pentagon send active-duty military to the city when he wrote that “the Secretary of Defense may employ any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary to augment and support the protection of Federal functions and property in any number determined appropriate in his discretion.” A mere 48 hours later, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mobilized nearly 1000 marines to LA to “support” the National Guard with their police actions.
Donald Trump is a tyrant, and his recent actions in LA and DC show us how he plans to militarize police nationally. In the end, he will suspend the Constitution, appoint military commanders over civilian authorities and local police, and replace the judiciary with military tribunals.
It’s only a matter of time.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative and the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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