President Donald Trump on Tuesday signaled that he would make greater use of the U.S. military to quell disturbances in cities across the United States, warning of a “war from within” and comparing domestic threats to foreign enemies.
“The ones that are run by the radical left Democrats, what they’ve done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they’re very unsafe places. And we’re going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room,” he said in a speech to military leaders. “That’s a war too. It’s a war from within.”
Trump’s comments were delivered in a speech to almost 800 generals, admirals and senior enlisted advisors who had traveled to a military base in Quantico, Virginia, from around the world at short notice on the orders of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
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In a deeply political address, the president criticized his predecessor Joe Biden, railed against “radical left lunatics,” and announced he would deploy the military more frequently across the United States.
“We should use some of the dangerous cities and training grounds” for the military, Trump said. He added that he’s given an order to create military “quick reaction forces” to “help quell civil disturbances.” Deploying the military for civilian law enforcement would violate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.
“We are under invasion from within,” he said, “no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways, because they don’t wear uniforms.”
The meeting comes amid concern over Trump’s increasing use of the military for domestic purposes in his second term. In recent months, he has deployed troops to cities across the country, raising concerns about the stifling of dissent against his unpopular government.
It also comes as the Trump Administration is launching a widespread crackdown on what it describes as “left-wing terrorism” in the wake of the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. That has involved declaring Antifa a terrorist organization and directing federal agencies to investigate and disrupt liberal philanthropic organizations.
Throughout the speech, Trump repeatedly sought to justify his use of the military to quell disturbances in cities across the United States.
“Our history is filled with military heroes who took on all enemies, foreign and domestic,” he said. “That’s what the oath says, foreign and domestic.”
“Many of our leaders used the military to keep peace. Now they like to say, Oh, you’re not allowed to use the military,” he added.
When Trump started the speech, none of the hundreds of command officers applauded, keeping with a tradition of not applauding political leaders in order to show that the military’s role is set apart from American politics. Trump said he’d never walked into a room so silent. “If you want to applaud, you can applaud,” he told the officers. “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room—of course, there goes your rank and your future. You just feel nice and loose, okay, because we’re all on the same team.”
Trump used the speech to criticize his political opponents.
“Biden let people come in from prisons, mental institutions, drug dealers, murderers,” Trump said. “They did not treat you with respect. They’re Democrats, they never do,” he added.
“You’ll never see four years like we had with Biden and a group of incompetent people that ran this country,” he said.
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