How defense leaders expect Trump to use the military in his second term

During Donald Trump’s first term as president, he exercised unprecedented broad constitutional authority over the military.

He mobilized thousands of National Guard troops to push back against Black Lives Matter protests in Washington, suspended long-running military exercises with U.S. ally South Korea to appease North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, and banned transgender recruits from serving – exposing politics in a tweet.

Trump says he would go much further given a second term.

Now, just days before a historically close election, former defense officials and lawmakers say the results could be apocalyptic.

Trump has warned that he may deploy U.S. troops to fight the “enemy within,” claiming American soldiers can deal with “radical leftist lunatics.”

In June, Trump amplified a social media post in which he called for the punishment of former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, the co-chair of the House special committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, who was tried for high treason by military tribunal. Treason is punishable by death.

According to some current and former defense officials, Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act and order U.S. troops to participate. mass deportations of illegal immigrantsarrest citizens engaged in civil disobedience – and persecute his political opponents.

“He would use the military to go after these people,” said Chuck Hagel, a Republican and former defense secretary under President Barack Obama. “It is quite clear that this is authoritarian speech.”

Sen. Jack Reed, the Rhode Island Democrat who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said: “Frankly, he’s going to destroy the Department of Defense.”

“Like many Americans, I’m very concerned about a second Trump term – I’m not making assumptions,” Hagel said. “But based on his own words.”

Defense leaders express concerns

This story is based on interviews with two former defense secretaries who served in the Obama administration, Reed, and several current and former defense officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Representatives for John Kelly, Trump’s former homeland security secretary, and retired Gen. Mark Milley, Trump’s former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said both officials declined to comment, as did Christopher Miller, Trump’s last acting defense secretary.

Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the ranking Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump is on the campaign trail deploying US forces into the country to help mass deportations of illegal immigrants.

In interview with TIME earlier this year, Trump announced he would deploy the National Guard along with local law enforcement to carry out deportations. “If I thought the situation was getting out of control, I would have no problem using the military,” he said.

Asked if he would deploy troops within U.S. borders, he said: “I don’t think I would have to do that. I think the National Guard could do it. If they couldn’t, I would use the army.

The Trump campaign’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, reinforced that commitment in a statement.

“President Trump will restore his effective immigration policy, implement brand new repressive measures that will send shockwaves through every criminal smuggler in the world, and marshal all the federal and state powers necessary to carry out the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers and human traffickers in American history ” – she said.

In 1992, soldiers were used in the United States after the assassination of Rodney King

Federal law generally prohibits the use of active-duty soldiers on U.S. territory for law enforcement purposes. But the Sedition Act of 1807 gives the president emergency powers. It was last invoked in 1992 during the Los Angeles riots, after the acquittal of police officers for the beating of Rodney King.

If Trump did invoke the Insurrection Act to order the military to arrest and deport immigrants, soldiers would be faced with the legality of those actions, according to one current and one former senior defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

If military lawyers interpret the deportation orders – which could affect millions of people – as lawful, soldiers will be obligated to comply with them.

Trump will likely nominate cabinet members fully committed to his agenda, unlike his first term, he will not step down as former defense secretaries Jim Mattis and Mark Esper did.

“He never really understood the role of the military and he never understood that their primary oath was against the Constitution, not the president,” said Leon Panetta, who was Obama’s defense secretary and CIA director.

“He will undoubtedly try to appoint civilians to key positions in the Pentagon, which will give him at least some ability to influence what happens to the military,” Panetta said.

If these civilian officials issue orders that conflict with their interpretation of the constitution, such as mass deportations, Panetta expects widespread resignations among uniformed leaders.

Refusal to obey

“The military leaders I know will refuse to obey an order that they believe violates their oath under the Constitution,” said Panetta, who continues to consult with Pentagon officials. “We may therefore lose many members of the highest military command if he continues to give them orders that violate their oath.”

Trump flirted with invoking the Insurrection Act in 2020 as protests swept the nation in response to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. When protesters gathered in Washington, D.C., units from the 82nd Airborne Division According to Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, they moved to the outskirts of the nation’s capital to await orders to move in.

In June 2020, Trump considered deploying troops to American cities to suppress the demonstrations.

“If a city or state refuses to take the actions necessary to defend the lives and property of its residents, I will send in the United States military and quickly solve the problem for them,” he said.

Trump has not abandoned this idea. And now he says he wouldn’t wait for permission from state and local leaders.

“I will send federal forces, including the National Guard, to cities where there has been a complete breakdown of public security until law and order is restored,” he said. address last year at the Conservative Political Action Conference, adding, “We shouldn’t be doing this.”

And at rally in Davenport, Iowalast March, Trump announced an intervention to “get crime out of our cities,” such as New York and Chicago, which he called “crime dens.” Data shows violent crime in urban areas across the country it fell With Peak in the pandemic era.

He admitted that “you shouldn’t get involved in this, it’s enough for the voivode or the mayor to ask you to come.”

“Next time,” he said, “I won’t wait.”

Following threats

Hagel believes Trump will follow through on threats, including a military trial for critics like Cheney and using the military to persecute the “domestic enemy” – an evolving category that included Democratic lawmakers including but not limited to: former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi AND Adam Schiffwho presided over Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2020.

“It’s a threat to democracy,” said Hagel, a former GOP senator from Nebraska. “When you start using the military for your own purposes, it really strikes at the heart of a nation governed by a constitution, a nation of laws.”

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung defended Trump’s description of the domestic threat.

“President Trump is 100% correct,” Cheung said in a statement. “Those who seek to undermine democracy by sowing chaos in our elections pose an immediate threat.”

Asked whether he agreed with Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general, that Trump fits the definition of a fascist, Reed only slightly disagreed. Kelly also said in an interview with The New York Times that Trump spoke admiringly of Hitler’s generals.

“I’m very concerned that regardless of the definition of a fascist, he would act like a fascist,” Reed said.