A retired Army major general who also helped to lead the National Guard took President Donald Trump to task for his military deployments to multiple American cities, calling the tactic “un-American” and counterproductive.
In a column published on Monday in the Home of the Brave newsletter, Retired Maj. Gen. Randy Manner said the deployments to Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other areas are “being done at the expense of our young men and women in uniform, their families, and their civilian employers.”
Manner served in the military for over 30 years and as the acting vice chief of the National Guard from 2011 to 2012.
In his column, Manner said there was “absolutely no legal or mission justification” for Trump’s deployments, and that they are an “absurd” misuse of the guard’s resources. He also noted that guard troops are being tasked by Trump with acting as law enforcement, even though they have no training to do so.
Members of the West Virginia National Guard patrol on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Aug. 27.
“There are absolutely zero situations where our National Guard should be on the streets of America as a status quo measure, absent some acute short-term crisis. We would never send our sheriff’s deputies to Afghanistan for a special operation; it’s just as illogical to send highly trained combat soldiers and put them into civilian law enforcement roles,” he further noted.
Manner’s main concern is that the National Guard deployments are creating an unnecessary divide between the troops and the civilian population they are supposed to be protecting. He concluded his column by condemning the deployments as a “clear and present danger to the First Amendment rights and freedoms we cherish,” and called for them to end.
Trump’s deployments have been accused of violating federal law that prohibits federal troops from acting as domestic police. This used to be a common argument made by the right, but it has been abandoned in service of ceding more power to Trump.
Historically, the National Guard has been deployed as “minutemen,” a quick reactionary force helping out local communities for major disasters, such as floods, hurricanes, or terrorist attacks. Trump’s use of them to create a police state runs counter to the concept behind the National Guard, and creates a constitutional crisis.
Democratic leaders have been opposing Trump’s actions. Along with lawsuits from state attorneys general from coast to coast, governors like JB Pritzker in Illinois and Gavin Newsom in California have repeatedly made the case that Trump’s actions are based on lies and are against the law.
The deployments have been a chaotic mess, and both civilian and military voices are largely unified against them.
