Already looking ahead to the turmoil his re-election could cause, Donald Trump and his allies are reportedly circling an idea to invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office, deploying the military to act as domestic law enforcement.
According to a Washington Post report on Sunday, the drafting of such plans has largely been “unofficially outsourced” thus far to a coalition of right-wing think tanks working under the title “Project 2025.” It was identified as an immediate priority for the hypothetical resurrected Trump administration, internal communications obtained by the newspaper showed.
In response to questions from the Post, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung provided a statement: “President Trump is focused on crushing his opponents in the primary election and then going on to beat Crooked Joe Biden,” he said. “President Trump has always stood for law and order, and protecting the Constitution.”
How to have large swathes of the military join the protestors, step 1.
People IMO VASTLY overestimate the popularity of the Republicans among the troops. It probably breaks about the same way as the general populace, and as far as being willing to follow orders to march against protestors, the troops that would do it are probably more worried about their own fellow soldiers turning on them than they are about being reprimanded for saying no.
That might be the point. Deploy the military in a low stakes situation to see who listens. Kick all the defactors out of the military. Then, when you actually need them, you are left with a military full of loyalists.
I think attempting that would instantly prompt an international crisis for no reason other than the fact that the US would instantly be reduced to a sliver of its usual operating military strength.
Forget the military turning on itself, at that point the EU are sending troops over for an intervention.
Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your judicial and regulatory distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt no not misuse regional names for foods. Resistance is negotiable in parliament, but will take a long time to do so.
Trump has repeatedly stated a desire to pull out of NATO, and the republicans broadly have been critical of our involvement in Ukraine. Our current military posture is one of asking if 3 wars at once is too much (Taiwan, Ukraine, and Gaza). Besides, the US would still have nukes and 2 oceans. I think Trump has room to scale back US military capacity in favor of his personal interests.
Eliminating the vast majority of Military personnel from the ranks over not understanding that the US military swears its oaths to the constitution, not to any one figure, is actually not just a mere scale back.
Trump wouldn’t give a shit though and neither would the other fascists.
But the people in the military with the tanks and guns would.
I don’t necessarily buy that. 30% of the population are Trump supporters and that includes a large number of people in the military and veterans. I can see the military acting in favor of the fascists.
8 years in the USMC. No.
The USA is it’s own continent, noone is going to attempt to send troops over. A self coup like that is very plausible, it’s been done many times before in other countries and there’s nothing exceptional about the USA in this regard.
Oooh, You see the scary smart level of evil.
So are these military members who help “overthrow” the current rule going to wear a specific color? Like Brown Shirts, for instance?
It’s not that easy. You could lose the wrong kind of people, let leaders, have rank imbalance. It’s not one big pool of people. I mean what if 70% refuse? We just neuter ourselves?
As far as active duty folks go, I agree with you. But the overwhelming likelihood is that it would be National Guard troops deployed in this manner, not Regular Army. In my limited experience working with Guard units, they vary pretty widely in terms of training and professionalism.
Hmm, maybe that could introduce some variability but I’d point to the DC riots where NG troops were so ashamed of what they were doing that several confessed to reporters that they were lying to their families and saying they weren’t deployed for that.
Ultimately it’ll end up coming down to how willing your typical boots on the ground in the moment soldier would react to being given such a wildly unconstitutional order as to openly engage in hostilities against dissenters, to that end I believe the US shares Germany’s protection of the right to refuse an unlawful order and to arrest the superior issuing and trying to force it.
I also think most military higher ups tend to air at least on the side of not being flagrant about contempting the general lean of the public against a more right wing posture, so I’d place decent odds that Trump would be playing with the possibility of the US military going on strike rather than assisting his attempt at being a big strong boss man and locking up everyone who disagrees.
We could debate what a general strike would do to the US economy, but we can all agree that the USM going on strike would more or less instantly prompt constitutional crisis mode.
The military is there to preserve the system and nothing more. It’ll mow down dissenters regardless of who they are. The military is ultimately the only branch that holds any real power since they’re the ones with greater access to violence anyway, and could just hold a coup and take over the government the same way they do in third world countries.
When you post these kinds of c/i’m14andthisisdeep takes, completely devoid of nuance, it just makes it seem like you don’t have a single clue what you’re talking about. No offense intended, I honestly edited this comment several times, attempting to make it more civil.
When you dismiss sound arguments and obvious facts with an appeal to a sub that doesn’t even exist on Lemmy yet, we know you’re just a hopeless retard who doesn’t want to hear the truth, will only get people killed and should not be listened to or respected.
Yeah except how the military isn’t an independent institution and any attempt to try would immediately be met with having their entire budget cut their leaders arrested and every soldier who even breathed agreement with the notion being given their own cell in the newly built supermax prison made to order just for them, assuming they aren’t all executed for treason and insurrection that is.
Yeah, it would be a dangerous move for Trump, certainly. I’m cautiously optimistic about the military not supporting a fascist coup, but a lot less sanguine about them participating in a general strike. Regardless, it’s frustrating how many people seem to think the military is just the cops with bigger guns. The culture is completely different. If anything, I’d say the average soldier’s mentality hews much closer to “Protect and Serve”, rather than toxic warrior-cop “civilians are the enemy” bullshit that infects seemingly every police department.