Bottom Line Up Front:
Trump is sending troops into California. This could be the start of a much wider military crackdown — on U.S. soil — that many of us feared.
WHAT HAPPENED
This week, President Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops into Los Angeles and placed active-duty Marines on alert in response to protests following mass ICE raids. Behind the scenes, the White House has reportedly discussed invoking the Insurrection Act, which is a law that allows the president to deploy military force on American soil.
To most people, this may sound like another headline in a chaotic news cycle. But to those of us who worked under Trump, it’s something else entirely: a crackdown that could spiral into something far, far worse.
WHAT IT MEANS
Trump isn’t using this moment to restore order. He’s been planning to do it for years as a way of dramatically expanding presidential authority. Indeed, if you wanted to turn America into an autocracy, this would be your secret weapon.
Here’s what I wrote in Blowback:
“Of all the emergency powers a president possesses, this one … was very much on Trump’s mind. It was part of the ‘magical authorities’ he often referenced. The Insurrection Act permits a president to deploy the military inside the United States in order to suppress a rebellion or repel a foreign invasion. If it’s invoked, the president can call forth the military to enforce U.S. laws. The statute is the closest thing to ‘martial law’ in our system.”
Donald Trump would bring it up to us in meetings. He wanted to send armed troops to do things they weren’t supposed to do. And he nearly did.
In 2019, while serving as DHS Chief of Staff, I rushed to the White House because I’d gotten word Trump was considering invoking the Insurrection Act. He’d just watched cable news footage of a migrant caravan approaching the southern border, and he was furious. Aides alerted us that he wanted to announce in his State of the Union address that he was sending the military to take over border security and to override any objection, law, or court.
Our lawyers told us this was madness. This didn’t rise to the level of a “foreign invasion.” Not even close. I agreed. What’s more, I feared that if he did this at the border, it would be a slippery slope: he’d send the military anywhere in the country that he wasn’t getting his way.
I got to the White House while the President was practicing his speech in the Map Room. A group of us tried persuading him that there were other, better ways to deal with the caravan situation. We got the White House lawyers on our side. And eventually (and begrudgingly) he relented.
But after that moment it was clear: he would try again.
Now he is taking steps in that direction, and the restraints are gone. While he hasn’t formally invoked the Insurrection Act yet (Trump is using another law initially to deploy U.S. troops), his allies are already laying the groundwork. They’re talking about “insurrection.”
On MSNBC this morning, I put it bluntly: “This is the big one … This is the one people like me were warning about.”
WHAT’S NEXT
If Trump is allowed to send in the military to California to suppress political protests, expect to see it again — and not just in L.A. Wherever people try to challenge Trump’s power, he could threaten military force. Invoking the Insurrection Act would allow him to make good on that threat.
Those words almost feels outlandish to write. But like me, Trump’s former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was worried about this precise scenario.
“I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens.… We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate.’… It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect.”
This could be the beginning of Trump’s worst abuse of power. Who is to say he won’t send U.S. troops into each “Blue State” that opposes his policies? Or to shut down organizations he doesn’t like? Or to round up his critics?
The President is already: investigating political opponents (including me) for protected speech … floating the suspension of habeas corpus … rolling back journalist protections … abusing the pardon power to reward loyalists … ignoring court rulings that limit his reach … and much more.
Weaponizing the military against American citizens could well be the beginning of a doctrine of domestic repression, hiding behind the language of security.
So here’s what I ask:
Don’t dismiss this moment. It’s not just another Trump stunt. It’s a stress test for democracy.
Watch what I said. Here’s the MSNBC clip.
Share this post or the graphic below. Spread the word before our city streets become the front lines of Trump’s suppression of Constitutional rights.
This is how it starts. Let’s make sure it’s not how it ends.
— Miles
Trump could also suspend elections by invoking the Insurrection Act
Thanks Miles for great reporting!