The move suggests Donald Trump is doubling down on his claimed crime emergency in the nation’s capital after the election.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized the National Guard to begin using boats, several dozen marked police cars, humvees and light medium tactical vehicles in the nation’s capital — an escalation of the troops’ presence that could further blur the line between their military and law enforcement role.
It’s not clear why the Trump administration is making the move now. The Oct. 29 memo obtained by POLITICO detailing the expansion doesn’t provide any further details beyond doubling down on Trump’s plan to use the National Guard to crack down on what he’s called a “crime emergency”in the nation’s capital.
The beefed-up presence, which will be in place through the end of the year, would see members of the National Guard driving vehicles typically used by U.S. troops on battlefields like Iraq and Afghanistan on city streets to support law enforcement officers making drug busts, though they are not allowed to pursue suspects or make arrests.
Yep, rampant, scared spending that increased the closer we got to the midterms, Trump apparently trying to hide evidence he’s a felon (???lol???) all the conservatives scrambling to save their own hides already…
I definitely expect them to try something. I just don’t think it was plan A-E, so it’s probably a last-minute Hail Mary plan F. Still could be something awful and dangerous, but these peoples’ plan A is almost always a clusterfuck, and the American people just showed that we are tired of their fascist shit and are done with them altogether, so they’ll have a massively uphill battle no matter what they do