The Trump Administration’s Military Escalation in U.S. Cities is Dangerous and Un-American

Washington, D.C. — The Trump administration’s recent deployment of National Guard troops to U.S. cities, and the President’s address to the nation’s Flag and General Officers today attempting to justify these deployments, is a dangerous escalation of militarizing civilian spaces that targets Democratic-led cities for partisan ends while threatening the apolitical nature of the nation’s armed forces. 

President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth met with top military leadership today to lay out a new vision for the United States military, one that politicized the military in dangerous ways. Hegseth laid out plans to radically change the makeup of the military, targeting policies that promote diversity and women’s membership. Hegseth indicated he would work to undermine long-developed international and domestic laws regarding rules of engagement and internal policies that protect American service members. Following this, President Trump’s remarks amounted to a direct threat to U.S. civilians. Claiming we are facing a “war from within,” he called on military leaders to support his efforts, seemingly in reference to the choice to increasingly flood American cities with military forces against the expressed wishes of state officials. This week alone, President Trump has deployed or threatened to deploy forces to Oregon, Tennessee, Illinois, and Louisiana. The administration has also sent armed federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security to patrol the streets of cities like Chicago, intimidating residents and igniting fear throughout communities. 

The President’s rationalization for this federal overreach is drawn from false and dangerous claims. In his statement on the deployment of 200 National Guard troops to Portland, President Trump erroneously described the city as “war-ravaged” and promised that federal agents would protect all Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities from “domestic terrorists.” State and city officials have continuously assured the administration that Portland is not in a state of emergency and that protests around ICE facilities have been largely peaceful, insisting that police and local authorities are well-equipped to handle these protests. 

This is a continuation of the alarming pattern we have seen in other cities, including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., in which the deployment of the Guard has been used not only to intimidate residents but also in conflation with immigration enforcement activities. “This is an incredibly dangerous time for our country,” said Hanah Stiverson, Associate Director of Democracy Protection. “Not only is the President abusing his power, he is doing so to suppress dissent over his own cruel immigration policies, which have routinely seen individuals rounded up, detained, and deported without due process.”  

Director of Veterans for American Ideals, Gretchen Klingler, stated, “President Trump has indicated a willingness to turn the military into a political machine, and to use that machine against our own civilians. It appears to be purposely unclear who and what actions qualify as an “enemy from within” as President Trump mentioned in his remarks today, and this ambiguity is undoubtedly intentional. This politicization and manipulation of the military and its power is a hallmark of the authoritarian regimes that the United States has historically fought against. The apparent dismantling of America’s tradition of having an apolitical military threatens to harm service members and civilians alike, while also eroding the rights and democratic values that define our nation. Certainly, American military leaders have already drawn parallels between the misrule of dictators and regimes our nation has pushed back against for decades and the harmful narratives this administration is perpetuating. This rhetoric is authoritarian and un-American at its very core.”