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Trump Wants the Military to Target Americans Who Oppose Him
The former president said he thinks U.S. troops should be deployed "if necessary" against "radical rightist supporters" on election day


October 13, 2024

Trump Wants the Military to Target Americans Who Oppose Him
Donald Trump on October 11, 2024 in Reno, Nevada. Justin Sullivan/Getty
Images
Donald Trump has proposed a fascist plan to deploy military forces
against U.S. citizens who oppose him on election day.
“I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within,” the former
president told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo when she asked if he expects
“chaos on election day” from immigrants. “We have some very bad people,
some sick people, radical left lunatics…. And it should be easily handled
by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the
military.”
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1845469638768972272
Throughout his campaign, Trump has laid out a dystopian vision for
America where the military uses violence to detain and deport immigrants, suppress protests, and target criminals. He has used fascistic, violent language and recently repeated his vow to be a “dictator” for “one day”
if elected.
At a rally last year in Iowa, Trump promised to use federal forces to
“get crime out of our cities.” He went on to say that Chicago, Los
Angeles, New York and San Francisco were “crime dens” run by Democrats.
As Rolling Stone reported, during his time in the White House, Trump
became enamored with the idea of using mass executions against gang
members and drug kingpins.

The former president has also said he would send potentially “hundreds of thousands” of troops to close the southern border and construct immigrant detention camps. He has threatened to engage the military in mass
deportations, which could trigger large public demonstrations.
“I expect massive civil disobedience, and then violence if Trump decides
to suppress it using the military,” Michael Klarman, a Harvard law
professor and an expert in executive power, told Rolling Stone last
month.
In private emails from a Trump-aligned group obtained by The New York
Times, supporters discussed the idea of using troops to “stop riots” by protesters.
“I would use certainly the National Guard, if the police were unable to
stop” protests, Trump told Time magazine in April.

During his presidency, Trump proposed troops shoot protesters and
undocumented immigrants.

The Insurrection Act of 1807 grants the president broad authority to use
armed forces during emergencies to quell civil unrest. “It’s a huge blank check, it is easily subject to abuse, it’s easy to imagine abuse,”
Harvard law professor and Presidential Reform Project leader Jack
Goldsmith told NPR.
Democrats — including Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Jamie Raskin —
have been working to pass legislation that would reform the law and
impose restrictions. But if Trump wins in November, it may already be too
late.
Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat told NBC News that Trump’s threats to curb
dissent are “out of the autocratic playbook.”


“As autocrats consolidate their power once they’re in office, anything
that threatens their power, or exposes their corruption, or releases information that’s harmful to them in any way becomes illegal,” Ben-Ghiat
said.
“He’s actually rehearsing, in a sense, what he would be doing as head of
state, which is what Orban does, Modi is doing, Putin has long done,” she added, naming the dictatorial leaders of Hungary, India and Russia, all
of whom Trump has lavishly praised.

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