Trump Is Expanding The National Guard S Role Some Former Generals

Bonisiwe Shabane

-Dec 31, 2025, 10:59 AM

trump is expanding the national guard s role some former generals

With the White House in the distance, National Guard troops patrol the Mall as part of President Donald Trump’s order to impose federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital, in Washington, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) Armed National Guard soldiers from West Virginia patrol the Mall near the Labor Department in Washington, where a poster of President Donald Trump is displayed, Aug. 26, 2025.

(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) Armed West Virginia National Guardsmen patrol at the Korean War Veterans Memorial, Aug. 26, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File) WASHINGTON (AP) — National Guard troops patrolling the streets of U.S.

cities. Weapons of war deployed against international gangs suspected of drug trafficking. Military bases and resources redirected to mass immigration enforcement operations. President Donald Trump is swiftly implementing his vision of the military as an all-powerful tool for his policy goals. It’s ground that presidents have hardly ever crossed outside of times of war, and experts say it’s remaking the role of the most powerful military in the world and its relationship with the American... A big unknown with President Donald Trump’s move Monday to federalize the DC Metropolitan Police Department and deploy the National Guard in the nation’s capital is how much he wants a crackdown versus the...

Trump’s mobilization of the military two months ago in Los Angeles seemed to fit the latter category. Maybe Trump just wants to look like he’s getting tough on crime in DC. But with Trump’s now-repeated and historically extraordinary deployment of the Guard – and his comments about bringing this approach to other cities – he’s doing what he often does: gradually pushing the envelope and... That might sound overwrought to some. But it’s worth emphasizing that this is precisely the outcome that multiple top generals and military officials who served in Trump’s first term worried about – and warned about. For years, they’ve cast Trump’s desire to dispatch the military on US soil as one of his most troubling tendencies – and even case-in-point evidence of his authoritarianism.

In 2025, during Donald Trump's second presidency, federal government forces, primarily National Guard troops, have been deployed in select U.S. cities. Trump has given multiple explanations for the deployments, saying they are officially part of crackdowns on protests, civil unrest, crime, homelessness, and illegal immigration. The actions targeted Democratic Party-led cities and sparked significant controversy, with critics labeling them as abuses of power and potential violations of laws like the Posse Comitatus Act, which limits military involvement in domestic... Deployments began in Los Angeles in June 2025 and expanded to Washington, D.C., in August 2025, before presidential authorizations were issued to expand to Memphis, Tennessee, and Portland, Oregon, in September 2025. Federal forces arrived in Memphis in October 2025.[7] Plans were underway for Chicago and potentially other cities like New York, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Oakland, California.[8][9][10][11] In September 2025, Trump told military leaders to...

On September 2, federal courts ruled that the administration had illegally sent troops into Los Angeles in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, a development described as potentially complicating Trump's threats for further military... I have the right to do anything I want to do. I'm the president of the United States. If I think our country is in danger, and it is in danger in these cities, I can do it. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said he would use the military to end protests without consent from state governors, actions which his aides had talked him out of during his first term.[5] He... Members of the National Guard patrol near the U.S.

Capitol on Oct. 1 in Washington, D.C. Al Drago/Getty Images North America hide caption Pruning trees, collecting trash, patrolling neighborhoods. These are some of the ways the National Guard has been deployed in recent weeks. In his second term, President Trump has increasingly sought the use of the Guard — specifically in Democratic-led cities — to address crime, quell protests and support ICE operations.

In Washington, D.C., where Guard members have been deployed since August, they have largely patrolled the capital's streets and taken part in beautification projects. The U.S. Army said troops had cleared 1,142 bags of trash, spread 1,045 cubic yards of mulch, pruned 400 trees, cleared 7.9 miles of roadway, painted 270 feet of fencing and packaged 6,030 pounds of food... 1. The Trump administration has also pushed to deploy troops in Oregon and Illinois to safeguard ICE facilities and personnel. Meanwhile, in Missouri, a small group of Guard members have been called to assist ICE with "data entry, case management, and logistical support." As for Memphis, the Guard's role has yet to be seen,...

Stephen Groves, Associated Press Stephen Groves, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — National Guard troops patrolling the streets of U.S. cities. Weapons of war deployed against international gangs suspected of drug trafficking. Military bases and resources redirected to mass immigration enforcement operations. President Donald Trump is swiftly implementing his vision of the military as an all-powerful tool for his policy goals.

It's ground that presidents have hardly ever crossed outside of times of war, and experts say it's remaking the role of the most powerful military in the world and its relationship with the American... Yet as Trump has dramatically stepped up his use of military force, fellow Republicans in Congress — where authorization for such actions is supposed to originate — have done little but cheer him on. That's giving the president significant leeway as he raises plans to send troops next to Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans. "If I were one of those mayors, I'd be glad to have the help," said Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, speaking from a Capitol building where National Guard troops were patrolling the surrounding city. "I think the big city Democrats are really making a mistake.

I think they're being tone deaf." President Donald Trump has expanded his military campaign against the United States by deploying armed troops to yet another major metropolitan area, announcing on Monday that he is sending the National Guard into Washington,... The D.C. operation, launched two months after the start of his Los Angeles crackdown, broadens a police-state-style domestic campaign that some senior Trump administration officials describe to Rolling Stone as a “shock and awe” show of... The president and his top government appointees are publicly stressing that this will not end with D.C. and L.A., that other military options are very much on the table.

The facts, the laws, and data do not seem to matter: Trump and his team believe he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, including using the U.S. armed forces for domestic political purposes as well as intimidating his enemies. His team is privately putting together plans for him to do just that. “Make no mistake, this is just the beginning,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro — a staunchly pro-Trump former Fox News host whom the president tapped specifically to “crack skulls” — said Monday night. At a press conference Monday announcing that the federal government had seized “direct” control of D.C.’s police department and that the National Guard would soon occupy the city, Trump warned that if he and...

The president named a few, including Chicago, Oakland, and Baltimore. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat whom Trump attacked by name, compared Trump’s use of the military to the Nazis tearing apart Germany’s constitutional republic, per the Chicago Tribune.

Trump Is Expanding The National Guard S Role Some Former Generals

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