President Donald Trump on Tuesday gave a campaign-style speech to the nation’s top military brass, suggesting that the Pentagon use American cities as “training grounds” for its troops in a remarkable break from decades of precedent that sought to keep politics and the military separate.
The 72-minute speech at the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, just south of Washington, offered many of Trump’s favorite talking points: renaming the Gulf of Mexico, condemning unauthorized immigrants and trashing diversity, equity and inclusion. He also mocked “sleepy Joe Biden” and “radical left lunatics” while promoting himself and his policies.
But peppered throughout was the president’s justification for using military force in American cities and the role he envisions for the newly renamed Department of War to play in domestic patrol. His comments mark a major departure from how previous presidents and civilian defense officials have spoken about civil-military relations, and suggest Trump’s relatively limited National Guard forays into American cities are the start of a new era.
“Inner cities are a big part of war,” Trump said, before criticizing Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle and Washington. “I will never hesitate to protect our people from the horrible plague that is taking place from within.”
He compared Portland to a “war zone” and floated that the military should use “dangerous” American cities as “training grounds,” calling on the Pentagon leaders to “handle” the “enemy from within … before it gets out of control.”
Trump has ordered the National Guard to Washington, Memphis, Los Angeles and Portland — four deep-blue strongholds he has cast as lawless since the racial justice protests there at the end of his first term. He and his administration have also floated sending the Guard to other Democratic cities, including Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore and New York City.
“History is built with military heroes who took on all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Trump said, adding: “George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, George Bush and others all used the armed forces to keep domestic order and peace.”
Those leaders didn’t deploy troops domestically to target vague groups or immigrants, as the Trump administration is doing. The use of soldiers took place during wartime or during large-scale violent civil unrest unlike anything seen today.
The president’s speech touched on a number of other topics, including Biden’s use of the autopen, CNN, the Nobel Peace Prize and his hope that he’d never have to use nuclear weapons.
“I call it the N-word,” Trump said. “There are two N-words and you can’t say either of them.”
Trump’s remarks followed those of his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who portrayed the military as a class apart from, and, in many ways, above civilians. Hegseth had ordered commanders from around the world to Virginia to gather for what amounted to a pep talk about military standards and his anti-“woke” strategy for managing the department.
The unprecedented event, with nearly every general and admiral from the military present, cost the government millions of dollars to fly the officers in from active combat zones and critical jobs for the three hours of speeches. Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House before boarding his helicopter to fly to Quantico, admitted that “there’s a little bit of expense” and said he’d rather spend the money on “bullets and rockets” — but added it was worth it “this one time” to raise the military’s spirits.
Like Trump’s comments about his vision for more domestic military missions, Hegseth sought to draw a line between the active duty military and civilian society, something presidents and defense secretaries have traditionally refused to do — or warned is a dangerous distinction to make.
“The Ivy League faculty lounges will never understand us, and that’s okay, because they could never do what you do,” Hegseth said. “You are not politically correct and don’t necessarily belong, always, in polite society.”
