Trump’s Paramilitaries

The Trump regime’s paramilitary troops pose a greater threat to U.S. democracy than its threats to deploy National Guard or regular military in U.S. cities. Merriam Webster says that “paramilitary” means “of, relating to, being, or characteristic of a force formed on a military pattern especially as a potential auxiliary military force.” That’s exactly how the Trump paramilitary task forces operate. 

Trump’s paramilitary forces include a wide array of federal law enforcement agents, drawn from multiple agencies, including the FBI, DEA, IRS, ATF, and many others. The Cato Institute reports that more than 28,000 federal law enforcement officers have been ordered to leave their work and focus instead on arresting immigrants. That includes one in five FBI agents and half of all DEA agents. As Cato’s David Bier dryly observes, “This diversion has significantly curtailed the government’s capacity to address criminal activity in the United States.”

Trump threatened to deploy the U.S. military to Chicago, pledging to fight crime. Instead, the troops that arrived are part of the immigration enforcement operation. They focus on arresting any immigrant that they can, sweeping up permanent legal residents with decades-old criminal convictions along with undocumented immigrants with no criminal records and the occasional U.S. citizen. They also violently repress protests, shooting pepper balls and canisters of chemical irritants into groups of protesters, sometimes scoring direct hits on individual protesters and journalists. Among the actions of the paramilitary forces in Chicago:

• Federal agents pursued a man who had just dropped off his children at school, and shot and killed him when he tried to drive away. 
• Federal agents shot a journalist in the face with a chemical weapon as the journalist covered a protest at a Chicago suburb.
• Federal agents arrested another journalist covering the protest. 

There’s more: the list could go on for pages.

On September 27, Trump said he was sending federal troops to Portland, a city he characterized as “war-ravaged.” He didn’t specify whether the “federal troops” would be U.S. military or paramilitary forces like those already assembled and moved into Los Angeles, Washington DC,  and Chicago, and coming soon to Memphis.

Trump wrote on Truth Social: 

“At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to provide all necessary Troops to protect War ravaged Portland, and any of our ICE Facilities under siege from attack by Antifa, and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing Full Force, if necessary.” 

Leaving aside the question of whether a Truth Social post can be an actual presidential order, many other questions remain. 

What troops? When will they go? What will they do? What is “Full Force”?

No answers from the White House or Pete Hegseth on any of these mundane details. Their focus, however, is clearly and squarely on protests against ICE. Trump called protesters “anarchists and agitators,” and said that “we’re gonna do a pretty big number on those people in Portland.” He had previously said that living in Portland was like “living in Hell.” 

Portland residents promptly responded by posting on-line videos of a sunny, peaceful Saturday afternoon in parks, streets, and farmers’ markets. Public officials, including the Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, city council members, U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, and U.S. Senator Ralph Merkley urged residents not to “take the bait,” but to remain peaceful. Portland police had previously attributed responsibility for skirmishes at protests to federal agents “instigating” clashes and using violence against peaceful protesters.

Proclamations and Policies

On September 25, Trump issued National Security Policy Memorandum/NSPM-7, which targets “leftist” opponents of the Trump regime.  NSPM-7, titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” repeats the usual lies and distortions about political violence in the United States. Then it directs existing Joint Terrorism Task Forces, established to respond to foreign terrorism after 9/11, to investigate and “disrupt” leftist U.S. individuals and groups, including “anonymous chat forums, in-person meetings, social media, and even educational institutions.”  Other federal agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service, are directed to support and implement the policy.  

NSPM-7 identifies a list of people to be targeted. They include individuals and “entities” that are identified as anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-Christianity, supporting the overthrow of the U.S. government, hostile to “traditional American views” on family or on religion or on morality, or holding “extremist” views on race, gender, or migration.

Want to guess what “traditional American views” are on the proper role of women in the family? Or on gay marriage? Or on racism? 

Trump had already issued an executive order designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. That’s crazy on many grounds, including:

• There is no legal authority to designate domestic terrorist organizations
• Antifa does not exist as an organization, has no designated leaders, and no members. It is, at most, a political commitment of Anti-Fascism.  

Because there’s no real Antifa organization, the targets of this order could be anyone opposed to the Trump regime. 

Which brings us back to Trump’s paramilitary forces. 

First they came for the immigrants
And then they came for the protesters,
and the universities,
and the news media.

Then they came for Antifa
And for those with extremist views
on race, on gender, on migration. 
And those whom they called “anti-Christian” or “anti-American.”
And those who did not hold “traditional American views” 
on family or religion or morality. 

Where on the list are you?