Military in Your Town?
Here’s how it could happen in ~90 days.
In lieu of a functioning Congress, it has become clear the administration is governing by Executive Order (EO) with no regard for the Constitution, Congress or laws of this country.
This April 28, 2025 EO is about unleashing high-impact, aggressive law enforcement “best” practices at the state and local level with indemnification for officers involved. It promises private-sector pro bono assistance (law firms who bent the knee and made deals with Donald Trump to avoid EOs to punish the legal profession.)
I was stopped dead in my tracks at Sec. 4.
Sec 4-Using National Security Assets for Law and Order
Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the heads of agencies as appropriate, shall increase the provision of excess MILITARY and NATIONAL SECURITY assets in local jurisdictions to assist state & local law enforcement.”
Many think it’s a road too far for Trump to declare Martial Law (i.e. S. Korea) or to invoke the Insurrection Act. In Sec. 4 he says he plans to deploy by EO military and national security assets to our towns and cities to assist local law enforcement.
They would be there to see that police and “local leaders” are not relying on state and community laws and norms but are aligned with the Administration’s best practices created to enforce Donald Trump’s objectives and narratives, many of which are illegal.
Tyranny in America requires the subjugation of a widely dispersed American population and cannot quickly happen from Washington DC.
What if he could do this simply by Executive Order, with the willing participation of DOJ, DHS and DOD, send U.S. Armed Services and other “national security assets” to your home town?
The PROBLEM for Trump is that the military has its own culture and apolitical mission “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic.”
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 restricts the use of the U.S. Armed Services in domestic law enforcement without specific authorization by Congress. The Act of 1878 was created to keep military and civilian governance separate to prevent military overreach.
An Executive Order is not authorization by Congress, but Trump has bypassed Congressional oversight with numerous EOs. He has Musk combining our records from Federal agencies, which is illegal, creating a Citizens Database that exposes citizen vulnerabilities. He created an EO based 170 sm military zone on the southern border and has the military working with civilian authorities that is not authorized by Congress.
What we see here is not military overreach but executive overreach.
These days I’m only able to view major actions by the Trump administration through a dark lens, one that applies motives to each action in support of a larger strategy greater than its parts. Like a puzzle. How do they fit together?
Like many, I see pieces of an autocratic, fascist movement where the parts of the puzzle have yet to reveal the larger picture.
The first pieces have been put in place. The Executive Department of Justice (DOJ) is now the retribution and enforcement arm of the president.
The Congress is wholly owned and operated by Donald Trump. Trump governs unchallenged by Congress over his Executive Orders.
He has openly defied SCOTUS and twice admitted it publicly. The Judicial Branch has no enforcement arm even if he defies them.
And freedom of the press, important enough to be in the First Amendment, designed to observe and report to the people the facts about what their government is doing, has long normalized the Administration as a result of blackmail, greed and fear.
With Washington DC under Trump’s control and the media relatively quiet, now he faces the biggest challenge for his dictatorship. How to control the people.
This is where in the story of the totalitarian makeover of America the military becomes the next piece of the puzzle: how to deploy a military willing to address citizen resistance across our vast nation.
In the first days of his administration, Trump undertook a significant overhaul of military leadership, removing high-ranking officials, revoking security clearances for former intelligence and defense officials, reshaping military and intelligence leadership and emphasizing loyalty and unflinching alignment with the administration’s agenda.
At the time, this move was widely interpreted as an effort to consolidate power and align military leadership more closely with the administration’s priorities rather than with its mission to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic.
On May 5 we learned of further reductions in military leadership with a 20% cut of four-star generals and admirals and a further 10% of its general and flag officers across the force, which could include any one-star or above officer of equivalent Navy rank. This isn’t a large number of people, but the severity of loss in overall experience, skill and cultural knowledge will be devastating.
The April 28 Executive Order states its purpose is to ensure “When LOCAL LEADERS DEMONIZE law enforcement and IMPOSE LEGAL and political handcuffs that make aggressively enforcing the law impossible…” the Administration will surge resources to those towns and cities.
And now that military will be greatly compromised by lack of leadership experience and military cultural maturity.
This is Trump’s plan to get a demoralized military and federal national security assets into our states, local governments and municipalities. This is the way he will enforce dictatorial rule among the population.
Seeing the armed military in the streets would create the kind of fear required for tyranny. It would suppress resistance to unwanted policies from Washington and provide additional resources for monitoring the public.
The police and local leaders will be diverted from following state and community laws and norms to align with the administration’s objectives and narratives. Pam Bondi said this much last week. It isn’t about supporting the Constitution, it’s about supporting the agenda of President Trump.
Hegseth placed a critical piece of the puzzle in place. It will be much simpler to utilize a military in chaos and unfocused on its apolitical mission to only be deployed on national soil by an Act of Congress. Resistance within the military will be suppressed and good Americans asked to do the unconscionable according to their mission.
What is visible of the puzzle’s final picture is frightening. Even if this is not the last piece of the puzzle, it may be the final piece required for a fascist dictatorship.
I’ve not seen or heard any media coverage or Congressional outcry of this clear and present danger. The checks and balances have all failed. Tyranny is at our door.
How can there be no comments on this yet???