Rules of Engagement? Dictates Predicated on Pretense for Deploying Troops in American Cities

Trump claims “I have a right to do anything I want.”

This week, Donald Trump issued a new piece of paper claiming to have the power to establish “specialized units” to “deal with public order” in American cities. The assertion, styled as an Executive Order, directs the former FOX paid commentator whom Trump has cast as the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to create a “quick reaction force” ready for “rapid nationwide deployment.”

This is a deeply dangerous declaration of power, and it is predicated on false claims about the crime rate in Washington, DC, and other cities. Reliable statistics show that crime is at a 30-year low in DC, and the crime rate in DC and other “blue” cities in blue states is lower than in many “red” state cities, despite what FOX News claims.

The President of the United States does not constitutionally have the power to order the deployment of National Guard troops “nationwide” to arrest Americans under the pretense of policing state and local crime. At least not under the Constitution as written and enforced for more than two centuries. This, too, will be litigated and we will soon see if the Republican faction dominating the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts treats this breach of the constitutional division of powers as yet another opportunity to embolden Trump.

Just last week–after several rulings by the Roberts Court overturning temporary injunctions issued by lower courts–Trump declared at a White House meeting, surrounded by the Cabinet of misfits he has given parts to in this unscripted reality show: “I have the right to do anything I want. I’m the president of the United States.”

Thanks, John Roberts. As Ed Pilkington wrote in The Guardian last month, you’re the umpire who picked a side. Earlier this year, when Trump was hot under the collar over detailed rulings against him by independent judges following the legal precedents that constitute the rule of law, Roberts assured Trump there was no need to call for their impeachment because, in essence, they don’t have the final say. “[I]mpeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts stated, “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

And then Roberts used that appellate process– specifically the shadow docket–to deliver for Trump, who Roberts orchestrated unprecedented immunity from criminal prosecution for and helped sweep back into power. Under Roberts, the Republican appointees to the Supreme Court have been aggressively overturning well-reasoned rulings of lower court judges who issued detailed findings that support temporary restraining orders blocking several of the Trump regime’s extreme actions regarding immigrants, civil servants, and more.

Not only that, but the number of times the Roberts Court has intervened to aid Trump over these past few months is also unprecedented. The way that the Republican faction of the Court has done so, through the shadow docket and without issuing detailed findings to justify these extraordinary reversals, is also unprecedented as the dissents have eloquently noted. Earlier this summer, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted that the Court’s rulings have created “a zone of lawlessness within which the executive has the prerogative to take or leave the law as it wishes.” No wonder Trump is flexing out loud that he can do whatever he wants, even deploy troops in our cities to purportedly arrest people who break state or local laws, even though cities have more than enough police, and not a single mayor or governor has asked for assistance from Trump or the Guard.

This week, another federal judge ruled against Trump, based on the foundational component of the division of power between the federal government and the states, in response to a suit over his use of the military in response to protests over ICE seizures in Los Angeles: “There were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence… Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.” The judge found no valid basis for Trump to order military deployment. That ruling is right on the law, but we’ll have to see how Roberts and his partisan allies on the Court attempt to mangle that too in further servitude to Trump.

Watching the absurd scenes of armored vehicles outside federal buildings in DC and National Guard troops rounding up impoverished people with no homes outside Union Station, just steps from the Capitol, I have wept for the city I used to call my home–and for our nation. I’m old enough to remember that just four years ago, Trump told the Acting Secretary of Defense, Christopher Miller, to disarm the DC National Guard as Trump was gathering his loyalists in DC to try to stop the vote against him from being counted.

As noted in the report of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, the Defense Department sent a memo on January 4, 2021, ordering that “without the Acting Secretary’s ‘subsequent, personal authorization,’ the Guard would not be issued batons, helmets, or body armor; could not interact physically with protestors, except in self-defense; and that the Quick Reaction Force (QRF)—40 servicemembers staged in case of an emergency at Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County, Maryland—could be deployed only as a last resort…” Then on January 6, as his fans violently attacked the Capitol after he told them to take action or “we would not have a country left,” Miller failed to respond quickly to calls for help from Congress and governors until later in the afternoon. Then it took an hour to get the Guard the equipment and rules of engagement they needed to help the Capitol police–only after Trump praised his followers as patriots and told them to leave, long after the Capitol was invaded and Capitol police were assaulted and grievously harmed. Trump later pardoned his followers who were duly convicted for such acts.

This is all by Trump’s design. When the citadel of our democracy and our duly elected representatives needed urgent help to respond to the rebellion he incited, the Guard was held back. But, now, when Trump needs a distraction from the ongoing scandal involving pedophile Ghislaine Maxwell and the Epstein files, the National Guard has been deployed–fully armed–to roam the streets of DC and possibly a city near you, too.

---

What I’m reading:

• A Coffin for King Charles: The Trial and Execution of Charles I

  • I am hoping that history does not repeat itself in spawning a civil war in response to a lawless leader. As Goodreads summarizes: “King Charles I was his own worst enemy. Self-righteous, arrogant, and unscrupulous, he had a penchant for making bad decisions. His troubles began the moment he ascended the throne in 1625… Charles simultaneously alienated both his subjects and his Parliament, prompting a series of events that ultimately lead to civil war, his own death and the abolition of the English monarchy.” In 1649, King Charles I was found guilty of trying to "uphold in himself an unlimited and tyrannical power to rule according to his will, and to overthrow the rights and liberties of the people," and then he was beheaded by order of the government.

• The Appendix to the House Select Committee Report on the DC National Guard Preparation for and Response to January 6th

  • This report details the orders that kept the Guard from being a “quick” reaction force on the day Trump attempted to stop the vote from being counted, in contrast to his Executive Order this week to create quick reaction forces he could order into cities at will, if it is allowed to stand.

• And, as always, our Constitution, which sets boundaries between federal and state powers that principled “federalists” or a Federalist Society true to its name would be actively defending in response to Trump’s actions and claims (but they are not). Where is Leonard Leo’s condemnation of the regime’s destructive acts, which the operatives he helped get installed on the Supreme Court are aiding?

---

Advertise in this newsletter

Do you or your company want to support COURIER’s mission and showcase your products or services to an aligned audience of 190,000+ subscribers at the same time? Contact advertising@couriernewsroom.com for more information.