Cities across the United States are facing an invasion by the federal government.
After sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump intensified his push to utilize the National Guard as a substitute for local law enforcement. The president signed an executive order this week to “formalize the creation of a special trained National Guard unit” to “ensure public safety and security.”
During a press conference, Trump mused about sending more troops to New York City, Chicago and Baltimore. He told reporters he could “solve” the crime problem in Chicago in a week.
Typically, governors deploy National Guard troops for domestic issues such as natural disasters and local disturbances. Trump’s order expands the guard’s responsibilities, which now include taking orders from an unhinged commander-in-chief more concerned about cheap platitudes and television optics than actually working with local law enforcement officials.
Trump’s claim that troops are needed in these cities because crime is out of control is another lie. Statistics actually show a decline in crime in many of these major cities.
Pushing Back
Maryland Governor Wes Moore, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, sent the president a letter. Moore cited actual statistics in his letter, informing the president that:
“Homicides in Maryland are down statewide by 20% since my inauguration two and a half years ago. In the first six months of 2025, the Baltimore Police Department continued to see double-digit reductions in gun violence, including a 22% decrease in homicides and a 19% decrease in non-fatal shootings from the year before. We are currently on track to have the lowest number of homicides in Baltimore City since we began officially keeping crime statistics.”
While the president’s supporters are hailing his executive order targeting the cities of his political enemies, critics are deeply concerned about increasing military presence across the country.
Retired Maj. Gen. Randy Manner, U.S. National Guard and former acting vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, told PBS, “I think this is unneeded and also very dangerous. It’s setting a new precedent.”
After describing the typical use of the National Guard, Manner continued voicing his concern, “The difference here is that it’s focused on — quote, unquote — ‘public order.’ That’s very disturbing.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker offered a powerful and personal statement against the president because he was so outraged: “If you hurt my people, nothing will stop me – not time or political circumstance – from making sure that you face justice under our constitutional rule of law.”
The president is playing with fire. First, sending troops to these cities and creating a special division is unnecessary. Local law enforcement and politicians are already working hard to reduce their crime rates. Current statistics prove this reality.
Domestic Precedent
Second, sending troops trained for combat into cities for policing purposes creates the potential for the federal government to use violent force against its own citizens. While Trump already demonstrated his willingness to use federal law enforcement to clear out peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square in 2020, using National Guard troops for “public order” reminds citizens of Kent State.
On May 4, 1970, 28 National Guard troops were sent to Kent State University in Ohio to quell protesters against the Vietnam War. Troops shot into a crowd of students, killing four and wounding nine. While we pray that another incident does not occur like Kent State, the potential for violence looms near.
What’s the real reason behind the president’s order, an apparent overreach for political purposes? Is it really to needle his political enemies? Is he trying to “own the Libs” again? Or is there something more nefarious at work?
Along with the expansion of the National Guard to help police states, the Trump administration is also going to use troops to assist ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), as the immigration agency ramps up arrests, detentions and deportations.
Newsweek reported, “Up to 1,700 National Guard troops could reportedly soon be deployed in 19 states, most of them led by Republicans, to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with immigration enforcement.”
Since the second Trump administration took office, ICE has increased its objectives and increasingly used violent force to detain undocumented and documented migrants.
The stage is set if the president wants to declare martial law. Trump even floated the idea of changing the Secretary of Defense to the Secretary of War.
A Warning from History
With ICE and the National Guard now working together at the president’s direction, a haunting memory of history calls out a warning.
In 1933, Hermann Göring consolidated Germany’s political police units into one organization called the Gestapo. Just three years later, Adolf Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler as Chief of German Police.
Under Himmler’s oversight, the Gestapo evolved into the Nazi’s most feared nationalized police force. The Gestapo’s purpose was to maintain “law and order” within Germany and its occupied territories for “public order.”
The Nazis, like most authoritarian states, used the Gestapo to maintain and protect their power. The Gestapo utilized “surveillance and intelligence” to identify threats against the government. They mainly targeted Hitler’s political enemies as well as any group or person considered a threat to the mantra “Make Germany Great Again.”
The United States must face facts: The country is heading into dangerous territory under leadership more concerned about exerting power over others than enacting policies beneficial for the common good. Many of the very people who support the current president and his policies will be the ones subject to his ongoing cruelty and hubris.
Americans must wake up to the fact that a petty dictator and his cronies have invaded the country. What was not accomplished on January 6, 2021, is being finished under the thunderous applause of Trump and his supporters. If citizens don’t return to the streets, demand accountability, and fight back, then we will lose our beloved democracy. The shining city on the hill will become a hell on earth.
America’s democratic heart still beats, but it’s growing faint. Americans, for the most part, remain compassionate, generous and just people, but we have lost our way. We need to recapture what truly made this country great: our willingness to recognize our shortcomings and correct them to create a more perfect union for all people, not just the wealthy and powerful.
As we wake to the invasion before our eyes, I am reminded of Second Corinthians 3:17, when Paul reminds the church, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Until our dying breaths, may we continue to fight for the freedoms that God instilled within us all—the freedom to live without the coercion, manipulation and oppression of tyrants.
The freedom of the Lord is a gift we should never relinquish. People of good faith remember the words of Jesus in John (8:32), “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
Brothers and sisters, it’s time to wake to the truth and be free!
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