Donald Trump signed an executive order this morning expanding the role of the National Guard in Washington, DC, creating a “specialized unit” that is “dedicated” to “public safety.” Anyone who thought the federal government would pull out after 30 days—following the law—is sadly mistaken. The order draws upon various agencies within the government:
The Secretary of Defense shall, subject to the availability of appropriations and applicable law, immediately create and begin training, manning, hiring, and equipping a specialized unit within the District of Columbia National Guard, subject to activation under Title 32 of the United States Code, that is dedicated to ensuring public safety and order in the Nation’s capital.
As appropriate and consistent with applicable law, the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, shall each deputize the members of this unit to enforce Federal law.
But it gets worse, much worse.
The order also calls for Pete Hegseth to create a “quick reaction force” to go to any locale in any state at a moment’s notice for “quelling public disturbances”, and also to ensure that state National Guard units are trained to work for the federal government and federal law enforcement.
What exactly is a “public disturbance,” and have we really experienced anything so terrible that it requires federalizing the National Guard and creating a special “quick reaction force”?
Surely we’ve seen terrible storms and natural disasters in which the Guard has aided citizens, and sometimes they’ve done so in helping local law enforcement regarding criminal activity. But there’s no reason we need the federal government to coordinate and oversee any of this. Governors can call in and have called in their states’ National Guard. The federal government’s role should be in making sure that FEMA is doing the work that is vital to its mission—oh, but Trump wants to gut FEMA.
No, Trump is envisioning “quelling” public protest, and using the National Guard to chill speech. And he’s thinking about elections and ways to intimidate voters, and he’s planning for backup for speeding up mass deportations.
How do we know this? Because he talks about stifling speech and limiting voting all the time, obsessed with both. And he’s already using the National Guard in DC and Los Angeles to help ICE’s diabolical work in rounding up immigrants.
According to the order, Hegseth, “shall immediately begin ensuring that each State’s Army National Guard and Air National Guard are resourced, trained, organized, and available to assist Federal, State, and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety.”
The Secretary of Defense also, “shall designate an appropriate number of each State’s trained National Guard members to be reasonably available for rapid mobilization for such purposes. In addition, the Secretary of Defense shall ensure the availability of a standing National Guard quick reaction force that shall be resourced, trained, and available for rapid nationwide deployment. “
So, let’s read that right. The federal government will basically take over every state’s National Guard, making sure they are there to “assist” federal law enforcement—that would be ICE, the FBI, the DEA and other agencies Trump is using for mass deportations—and would create a “quick reaction force” to be deployed at any time to any state.
You can imagine that the “quick reaction force” will likely cost hundreds of millions of dollars, since teams of service members dedicated to that mission only will need to be housed and always ready, and they will need to have aircraft available to fly them anywhere at a moment’s notice. And the fact that Trump thinks that such a force is needed means he’s planning to use it for very nefarious reasons.
This is another turning point in Trump’s march toward fascism, make no mistake.
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