President Donald Trump, in an address to the U.S.’ top military officials Tuesday, stressed that after decades of military campaigns abroad, it was time to turn the armed forces inwards against an unspecified “enemy from within.”
“Only in recent decades did politicians somehow come to believe that our job is to police the far reaches of Kenya and Somalia, while America is under invasion from within,” the president said.
“We’re under invasion from within,” Trump repeated. “No different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms. At least when they’re wearing a uniform you can take them out.”
“It’s war from within,” he added.
The president’s alarming comments during an unprecedented gathering of around 800 generals and admirals came as he is increasingly attempting to use the military as a domestic police force while claiming to designate Americans as domestic terrorists.
Virginia Burger, a senior defense analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, told Democracy Docket that while Trump has made similar comments in the past, his remarks this time were addressed to the people most likely to stand in his way.
“It was in line with things he’s already said, but it was especially concerning to have him say it to a room full of the people who would most likely be the ones to stand in front of him and tell him no,” Burger said.
Commissioned officers of the U.S. military take an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. They are also required to refuse illegal orders that violate the Constitution, federal law or international human rights standards.
Risa Brooks, a Marquette University professor who studies the relationship between military organizations and civil society, warned on social media that Tuesday’s meeting and Trump’s address “are part of a larger project aimed at promoting the military leadership’s partisan alignment with the administration.”
“To the generals and admirals in attendance, it signals that overt ideological conformity with the administration is not just appropriate, but key to their career advancement and to protecting their units and commands,” Brooks said.
Trump opened his address by threatening senior military officials, saying they could leave if they disagreed with what he was about to say.
“If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room,” Trump said. “Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future.”
“The ultimate aim here is that people will no longer expect the military to serve the public at large, but that its goal and purpose is to advance the interest of one faction or party in politics,” Brooks added.
The address came just days after Trump deployed 200 National Guard soldiers to Portland — the latest target of the president’s effort to assert control over U.S. cities by force.
While deploying troops to Portland, Trump said he was authorizing the military to use “Full Force, if necessary,” against “domestic terrorists” who he claimed had an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in the city “under siege.”
Senior Oregon and Portland police officials stated in court filings Monday that the deployment is unwarranted and that recent protests outside of the ICE facility have been peaceful demonstrations protected by the First Amendment.
“We have a separation between our military and our police forces for a reason. The military is meant to kill people,” Burger added. “The military is not meant to, or trained to, conduct local policing.”
Before Trump spoke, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addressed the military officials. During his speech, the secretary claimed that rules governing when troops may use force should no longer apply to the U.S. military.
“We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement,” Hegseth said. “We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”
“Who is the adversary? Who are we increasing lethality for?” Burger asked. “Is it China? Is it Russia? Or is it so they can exercise some degree of control over the American public? They didn’t say that quiet part out loud today, but it’s certainly there in between the lines if you read closely.”
In addition to Portland, Trump has deployed, or announced plans to deploy, troops to Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tennessee — all over the objections of state and local leaders.
The president has routinely threatened to send troops against Chicago, and he repeated those threats again before military leaders.
Under normal circumstances, federal law imposes strict limits on the president’s ability to use the military for domestic law enforcement. Through its recent deployments, however, the Trump administration has attempted to push the limits of those statutes or has sought ways to circumvent them.
Trump Tuesday falsely claimed that some of America’s largest cities, including the nation’s capital, were worse than some of the battlefields seen by the officials in attendance. And he suggested that American streets should be used as “training grounds” for the armed forces.
During his address, Trump repeatedly referenced an “enemy from within” that the military must help put down.
“Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances,” Trump said. “This is gonna be a big thing for the people in this room, because it’s the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.”
Trump referred to an executive order that directed Hegseth to prepare the national guard units in each state to be ready to quell “civil disturbances.” Legal experts and former military officials interpreted the order as an attempt to establish a national militarized police force that Trump personally controls.
Though he didn’t specify who the “enemy” was, Trump has used similar language in the past to attack Democrats and others who have opposed or investigated him.
Trump continued those attacks before the military leaders.
In addition to going after former President Joe Biden and several Democratic governors and mayors, Trump told the military’s top brass that Democrats “are bad people” who do not respect the military. He also likened Democrats and his other perceived political opponents to adversaries that troops face on the battlefield.
“They’re vicious people that we have to fight, just like you have to fight vicious people,” Trump said of his political opponents. “Mine are a different kind of vicious.”
Trump ended his address by conflating his political enemies with foreign adversaries that threaten U.S. security.
“When it comes to defending our way of life, nothing will slow us,” Trump said. “No enemy will stop us. They cannot stop us. And no adversary will stop us. They won’t stand in our way. We don’t want them to stand in our way. We don’t even want to put them in that position but they’re not going to stand in our way ever again.”
“You’ll never see four years like we had with Biden and that group of incompetent people that ran this country. They should have never been there.”
“We will vanquish every danger and crush every threat to our freedom in every generation to come,” the president said.