Trump has repeatedly threatened to deploy the military inside major cities run by Democrats. Senior officials nationwide are preparing to defend their communities from his threats

Senior Democrats in US cities are preparing to defend their communities in the event of Donald Trump’s return to the White House after the former president has repeated threats that he would use presidential powers to seize control of major urban centers.

Trump has proposed deploying the military inside major cities largely run by Democrats to deal with protesters or to crush criminal gangs. He has threatened to dispatch large numbers of federal immigration agents to carry out mass deportations of undocumented people in so-called “sanctuary” cities.

He also aims to obliterate the progressive criminal justice policies of left-leaning prosecutors.

“In cities where there has been a complete breakdown of law and order … I will not hesitate to send in federal assets including the national guard until safety is restored,” Trump says in the campaign platform for his bid to become the 47th US president, Agenda47.

Trump provoked uproar earlier this week when he called for US armed forces to be deployed against his political rivals – “the enemy within” – on election day next month. But his plans to use national guard troops and military personnel as a means to attack those he sees as his opponents go much wider than that, spanning entire cities with Democratic leadership.

  • aramis87@fedia.io
    351·
    4 days ago

    So, ghettoes. And not the US ghettoes of the 60s and 70s, but the German ghettoes of the 30s and 40s.

  • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
    5·
    4 days ago

    Sounds like he’s promoting firing up civil war tbh. How much of that could he get away with before people aggressively fight back? Or at least I hope we’d aggressively fight back

  • WoahWoah@lemmy.world
    41·
    3 days ago

    If Trump loses the elections, US cities at risk of stochastic violence and domestic terrorism. It’s not like Harris winning would suddenly make half the country go, “my bad, you’re right.”

  • Gumby@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    3 days ago

    But the constitution forbids the US military from operating within the borders of the US! Surely that’ll stop him from ever being able to do this! Right? Right???

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      3·
      3 days ago

      The paper won’t stop him but the officer corps isn’t going to obey those orders without him converting it first. A process that historically takes years to complete and leaves a military a shadow of it’s former self.

    • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
      8·
      3 days ago

      Possibly? One might be able to make the case for the National Guard, but maybe the average person won’t know/care about the difference when interacting with armed people in uniform.

      Aside from that, I’ve noticed other Lemmings bring up the fact that the Armed Forces in general are sworn to uphold the US Constitution. As an organization, they may disregard orders that are in conflict with this. Of course, that comes down to interpretation of any individual in command, so despite loud protest to the contrary I personally wouldn’t rely on that.

      • GiddyGap@lemm.ee
        6·
        3 days ago

        Yeah, everyone has their own interpretation of the Constitution these days. They’ll “uphold” whatever version of the Constitution their own interpretation allows.

        • sorval_the_eeter@lemmy.world
          41·
          3 days ago

          To be fair the constitution is deeply flawed and needed to evolve a lot more than it has to keep up with the progression of society. It needs to evolve or die, and with our current batch of compromised and etheically empty politicians I wouldnt trust them to alter it.

      • ZMonster@lemmy.world
        8·
        3 days ago

        As an organization, they may disregard orders that are in conflict with this. Of course, that comes down to interpretation of any individual in command, so despite loud protest to the contrary I personally wouldn’t rely on that.

        This is going to make me throw up a little, but I think the command leadership in recent years has really turned a heel on political alignment. And - hurk - I feel like they would do the honorable thing. You’re not wrong though, obviously the military attracts right wing shit heads who believe what they want. So I would imagine that there would be a breakdown of the command at lower levels in scant instances; but brigade, division, corps, and post commanders usually follow rigorous and strict guidelines. Values are a big deal. But brainworm has been feeding on dumb dumbs and it doesn’t appear to be starving any time soon.

    • nickwitha_k (he/him)@lemmy.sdf.org
      20·
      3 days ago

      It also forbids warrantless search and seizure of property and the president from receiving financial gifts from foreign governments. The courts have been filled with people who don’t care.

      • GlobalCompatriot@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        Congress didn’t care either. There were multiple constitutional violations that Trump committed while he was in office, but Pelosi never went for those. She went for small bullshit stuff that would result in what we got.

    • GlobalCompatriot@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      3 days ago

      Not according to change is made by the DOD last month to 5240.01. It allows US military action on US soil, including lethal force.

  • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
    196·
    3 days ago

    A military takeover of the cities would last about 20minutes, if that, it’s against the HOA rules.

    What happens when the wealthy home owners see their property values drop, because the army is on every corner, they’ll start calling their political reps.

    This is a childish fantasy, the highest real estate values are in cities, the wealthiest people have homes in cities. It is a fantasy of the Republic base, that tends not to live in large urban centers.

    • jj4211@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 days ago

      Oh, I’m sure they could deploy in a way that has acceptable optics for those folks. They would see a strong violent force there to enforce their interests over those pesky desperate poors.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      13·
      3 days ago

      You know he means the downtown core, not the suburban white people who likely voted for him. But I gave you an upvote for the hilarity of an HOA council member telling the Proud Boys they aren’t allowed to setup there.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
    12·
    3 days ago

    US military personnel pledge an oath to protect the US Constitution from foreign and domestic enemies and that includes the Commander-in-Chief.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      8·
      3 days ago

      So much suffering. That was so avoidable. I like that the point of movie isn’t which ideology wins. It’s that America isn’t immune, any civil war will be a very dirty affair that causes massive amounts of suffering so nobody should be rooting for that path.

  • Snowclone@lemmy.world
    391·
    4 days ago

    No not ‘‘at risk’’. This is his NUMBER ONE policy promise. He’s running on this. Explicitly. Why are we pretending it’s not?

    • tmyakal@lemm.ee
      7·
      3 days ago

      Because last time his number one policy promise was to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. And his number two promise was an alternative to Obamacare.

      He’s not so great at following through with his promises. That’s the only thing non-MAGAs have going for them: he’s pretty incompetent.

      • AlbertSpangler@lemmings.world
        22·
        3 days ago

        Doesn’t need to be competent in order to say “hey, go kill some people who make you feel uncomfortable, we give you tacit approval and you’ll be the new Kyle Rittenhouse”