Over these past eight and a half months, Donald Trump has—on an almost daily basis—implemented policies that blatantly defy the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the rule of law. Masked ICE agents, acting as a secret police force, employ brutal military tactics to abduct noncitizens and citizens alike—denying many their due process rights—to carry out Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
At the same time, Trump has weaponized the Department of Justice to investigate and indict his perceived political enemies. He’s ordered the Pentagon, re-named the War Department without congressional approval, to deploy the National Guard to an ever-expanding list of U.S. cities. After troops were federalized and sent to Los Angeles over the summer, defying opposition by California Gov. Newsom, National Guard were then deployed to Washington, D.C. In recent weeks, Trump has ordered more National Guard soldiers to Memphis, Portland and Chicago.
While a federal judge has temporarily blocked Trump from deploying National Guard troops from Texas and California to Portland, another judge declined to block the president from sending troops to Illinois pending a ruling. However, Trump ordered Texas National Guard to Chicago despite the judge’s warning not to do so before a ruling was made. On Oct. 6, the president said he’s considering invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act to bypass courts, state and local officials who oppose his plan to militarize U.S. cities. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Mel Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, and a former CIA analyst. Here he expresses grave concern that Trump’s invocation of the Insurrection Act, will escalate the president’s attack on Americans who he calls the “enemy within” and hasten the demise of U.S. democracy.
MEL GOODMAN: Well, it’s very clear that they have a playbook. We have no reason to be surprised or shocked by any of this because he’s told us what he is going to do. It started essentially with Homeland Security, sending ICE agents to targeted cities. The targeted cities were essentially major cities in blue states, usually mayors of color. That was certainly true in the beginning with Washington and L.A. It’ll be true for Chicago. These agents are masked and they’re armed. Whoever thought we would see masked agents in American cities? They’re using tear gas, they’re using chemicals. They’re raiding homes. They’re rappelling into apartment buildings. That looked like a scene out of Fallujah, the wars we fought in Iraq, Afghanistan. It was hard to believe that this was an American city, particularly an American city as important as Chicago. And clearly their role is to provoke demonstrations. What Trump has already done is exaggerated the scale and the severity.
He’s referred to Portland as “war ravaged,” which is ludicrous. Chicago he’s called a crime-ridden war zone, and now the president and the secretary of defense are in a position to deploy federalized National Guard troops. Apparently, they’re destined to go to Chicago. They’ve already been denied by the courts a position in Portland, Oregon. But Trump keeps changing the terms. If he can’t get the federalized Oregon National Guard, he went to California. When he couldn’t get that, he called out the Texas National Guard. And of course, Abbott was only too glad to accommodate that request. And the judges who stopped this were referred to by Steven Miller—who’s the fascist leader of this plot—as being guilty of “legal insurrection.” That’s a new term. The judges who’ve ruled against Trump are guilty of legal insurrection. And the end result of all of this, I think, was to invoke the Insurrection Act from 1807, something that he wanted to do in the year 2020 when you had the protests in Minneapolis following the brutal murder of George Floyd.
So with the Insurrection Act, even though he’s already doing what he wants to do, he could act with impunity and he could circumvent the Posse Comitatus Act from 1878, which prevents the use of the military in domestic situations. So with the Insurrection Act, he’ll be able to deploy the military. He’ll be able to federalize the National Guard and he’ll have a statutory exception to the Posse Comitatus Act. And what I worry about, because people are counting on the courts to confront Trump in this way, I think the Supreme Court particularly will look at this as a national security problem and they will defer to the president.
You’re getting some good decisions from appeals courts and federal courts, various state courts. But when it goes to the Supreme Court where he has this 6-3 majority, I don’t think he has any real concerns. I think he’s very confident that the Supreme Court on national security grounds will support the president. This is terrifying to me what’s happening in this country and how quickly it’s happening. I worry particularly, and this is my final point, that we do have these national protests scheduled for Oct. 18th. Will this be the justification for finally invoking the Insurrection Act?
SCOTT HARRIS: Well, we only have a minute or so left, Mel and I did want to ask you one important question that could be a longer conversation, but just your quick take on this. When the U.S.military active duty soldiers, National Guard, whoever they may be, they swear their allegiance to the Constitution, not the president. And as I understand it, they have an obligation to disobey illegal, unconstitutional orders. And I guess the big question is, will a majority of the military turn their guns on people of the United States in cities that they’re now deployed to? Or will they disobey those orders under their right to not abide by unconstitutional and illegal orders to harm fellow citizens?
For more information, visit Mel Goodman’s website at melvingoodman.com and the Center for International Policy at internationalpolicy.org.
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