What Donald Trump Wants to Do with the Military is Insane

Once again, Donald Trump is telling us exactly what he wants to do. Despite the damage control the Fox News propaganda wing of his campaign and other feckless Republicans are attempting, he keeps repeatedly threatening the “enemy within.”

And once again, his supporters are, at best, laughing it off and, at worst, actively cheering him on. But is being able to own the libs or give a big middle finger to the elites worth the risk of testing whether a declining man of questionable mental stability is willing to do exactly what he says he will? The answer is a clear no.

There is no question that the enemy within is Democrats specifically and anyone who disagrees with him more broadly. He is not talking about undocumented people, although if he were, that’s not an excuse. Using the force of the U.S. military against any individual in a non-wartime scenario is insane and immoral. However, his violent fantasies about going after his enemies are an explicit threat against his fellow American citizens.

National Socialist [Nazi] propaganda celebrated the ‘People’s Community’. They promised to overcome class divisions in order to achieve the common good. They also created fear around the idea of an enemy within. To this end, Nazis produced antisemitic propaganda. – The National Holocaust Center and Museum

This isn’t the first time Donald Trump has expressed the desire to use the military against people who disagree with him. According to former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, when discussing what should be done about the widespread protests in Washington, D.C. in 2020, Trump asked Esper, “Can’t you just shoot them?” He also expressed frustration that he couldn’t crack down like Chinese authorities did during the Tiananmen Square massacre, saying, “The Chinese Generals would know what to do.”

It’s hard to reconcile the image of a threatening, strong man with that of the doddering old man Trump is becoming. However, the former president is so dangerous precisely because of his combination of age, bitterness, and love of dictators. The Supreme Court has given the president almost unlimited authority to exercise power without consequences. The guardrails are off, and the jokes aren’t funny anymore.