President Donald Trump warned all 800 of America’s top military leaders that there is a “war from within” and that the nation is “under invasion” — not by armies in uniform, he said.
“America is under invasion from within, we’re under invasion from within,” the Commander in Chief told the generals and admirals assembled at Quantico, Virginia.
“No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways, because they don’t wear uniforms. At least when they’re wearing a uniform, you can take them out. These people don’t have uniforms. But we are under invasion from within.”
According to The Hill, Trump “said defending the homeland was the military’s ‘most important priority.’ He signaled that the leaders in the room could be tasked with aiding in federal interventions in Democratic-led cities like Chicago and New York City.”
“They’re very unsafe places, and we’re going to straighten them out one by one,” Trump continued. “And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war too. It’s a war from within.”
Critics blasted the President.
Historian Federico Finchelstein, an expert on fascism, responded to the President’s remarks, writing: “The idea of the internal enemy was intrinsically connected to a notion about the inferiority, impurity, and treasonous nature of those who were considered different from the majority. Fascists disputed the idea that citizenship defined the community.”
Russian political activist Garry Kasparov warned: “And with ‘the enemy within’, and legitimizing violence, even declaring war, against it, Trump is officially using textbook descriptions of authoritarianism and fascism as a playbook.”
Arizona Democratic State Senator Priya Sundareshan wrote: “Completely unAmerican to reference US citizens and yearn for less due process to ‘take them out.'”
Other critics pointed to Trump’s recent executive order declaring Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization.”