I mean, we saw the other day, three days ago on Truth Social, Trump made a post where he said, ‘At the request of the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am the directing secretary of war, Pete Hegseth.’ Of course he doesn’t have the authority to change it to secretary of war from secretary of defense, but we’ll leave that aside, right? He’s authorizing Hegseth to “provide all necessary troops to protect [war-ravaged] Portland,” of course the mayor of Portland says it’s not war-ravaged, “and any other ICE facilities under a siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing full force if necessary.”
Now, what does Trump mean by “full force”? I can only assume that full means maximum, and maximum means lethal. Now he says “if necessary,” and he’ll say, “well look, I’m not telling the troops to go and shoot everybody they see,” but if they deem it necessary to use lethal force, then they have the authority to use it. Now, of course, that’s always true in that if American soldiers are threatened and their lives are threatened, then they have the authority to respond. But why would you emphasize that if not to raise the temperature, if not to express your — as president — your authority to unleash the military in a domestic setting in an American city, even though that violates the Posse Comitatus Act, which specifically bars the use of the military for domestic law enforcement. He just doesn’t seem to recognize that law because he doesn’t accept any limits on his authority. He sees his authority as absolute.
Sargent: Well, yes, I think he’s trying to create the impression that he’s ordered the military to kill Americans. I think he’s very, very explicitly trying to create that impression. Let’s listen to a bit more from Trump’s speech. First, here’s Trump talking about how he signed another executive order that’s supposed to be about crime and disorder on U.S. streets.
