UNITED STATES NEWS

Trump tested the limits on using the military at home. If elected again, he plans to go further

Oct 13, 2024, 4:22 AM

FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump greets members of the Nation...

FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump greets members of the National Guard on the U.S.-Mexico border, Feb. 29, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

(AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.

United States News

Palestinians gather to receive bags of flour distributed by UNRWA, the U.N. agency helping Palestin...

Associated Press

Middle East latest: Israel ends agreement with UN agency providing aid in Gaza

Israel said Monday it had terminated the agreement facilitating the work of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the main aid provider in Gaza, in what appeared to be a step to implement legislation passed last month that would sever ties with the agency and prevent it from operating in Israel. Israel says the agency, […]

4 hours ago

Miami-Dade residents wait in line to vote at the Joseph Caleb Center during the "Souls to the Polls...

Associated Press

Florida will vote on marijuana, abortion in an election that will test GOP’s dominance

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida’s election will test whether the state maintains its new reputation as a Republican stronghold, or whether Democrats make some gains by tapping into the support for abortion and marijuana ballot questions and the new energy Vice President Kamala Harris brings to the race. Gone are the days when Florida was […]

6 hours ago

Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks at lecturn...

Associated Press

Federal Reserve is set to cut rates again while facing a hazy post-election outlook

The Federal Reserve's move two days after Election Day is much easier to predict than the future president: With inflation continuing to cool, the Fed is set to cut interest rates for a second time this year.

8 hours ago

Associated Press

Stock market today: Asian shares are mostly higher as China begins major economic meeting

Shares were mostly higher in Asia on Monday as China’s leaders began a major meeting expected to bring fresh pledges of help for the world’s second-largest economy. Oil prices gained more than $1 a barrel after the OPEC+ oil producing nations said they would extend production cuts until the end of the year. No reason […]

9 hours ago

A Boeing employee looks at informational pamphlets before heading in to vote on a new contract offe...

Associated Press

Boeing machinists are holding a contract vote that could end their 7-week strike

Unionized factory workers at Boeing are voting Monday whether to accept a contract offer or to continue their strike, which has lasted more than seven weeks and shut down production of most Boeing passenger planes. A vote to ratify the contract would clear the way for the aerospace giant to resume airplane production and bring […]

12 hours ago

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters after delivering r...

Associated Press

Harris won’t say how she voted on California measure that would reverse criminal justice reforms

DETROIT (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday declined to say how she voted on a key ballot measure in her home state of California that would reverse criminal justice reforms approved in recent years. Harris punted on a question about the ballot initiative in comments to reporters while campaigning in the battleground state […]

17 hours ago

Sponsored Articles

...

DISC Desert Institute for Spine Care

The best methods to make your back pain disappear for good

Are you struggling with back pain that will not go away?

...

Dr. Shanyn Lancaster, Family & Sports Medicine physician, Midwestern University Comprehensive Care Clinic – Central Phoenix

Exercise is truly your best medicine

“You never slow down, you never grow old”. – Tom Petty

...

Sanderson Ford

3 storylines to get you revved up for the 2024 Arizona Cardinals

Arizona Cardinals training camp is just a couple weeks away starting on July 25, and Sanderson Ford is revved up and ready to go.

Trump tested the limits on using the military at home. If elected again, he plans to go further