Donald Trump Could Use National Guard Against Citizens—Ret. Major Gen

A retired major general has warned that Donald Trump could use the National Guard as “his own personal police force,” following the former president’s comments about potentially using the military in a domestic scenario.
Trump has spoken about what he calls the “enemies from within” multiple times during campaigning this year, including on Sunday, when he told Fox News that these “sick people” who are “radical left lunatics” should “be handled” by the National Guard.
The next day, during a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris played a clip of Trump making the comments, along with several similar ones. During CNN’s coverage, Laura Coates interviewed Ret. Major General Randy Manner, who has endorsed Harris for president.
“If (Trump) was to be the commander-in-chief again, everything changes – the Supreme Court has given him immunity,” Manner said. “And the threshold for turning the National Guard into his personal police force is quite low.”
Manner went on: “As long as (Trump) has a consenting governor, he can authorize the funds to pay them as the commander-in-chief. And he can use the National Guard, almost in any way that he wants. And most Americans don’t know how very easy it would be for an unhinged president to use the military against our own citizens.”
When asked whether the military would comply with such an order, Manner pointed out that the country’s president is responsible for promoting officers in the military—although they have to be approved by the Senate.
Newsweek contacted Trump’s team via email outside of normal working hours for a response to these comments.
On Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, host Maria Bartiromo asked Trump, the Republican presidential nominee: “What are you expecting? Joe Biden said he doesn’t think it’s going to be a peaceful election day.”
During a White House press briefing, Biden said last week that he is confident that the upcoming election will be “free and fair,” but said he was concerned about the transfer of power being peaceful on account of Trump’s words and actions following his loss in 2020.
Trump responded: “I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within…We have some very bad people, some sick people, radical left lunatics. And it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military.”
At another point during the interview, he said: “We have two enemies. We have the outside enemy. And, and then we have the enemy from within. And the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries.”
Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, previously told Newsweek: “President Trump is 100 percent correct – those who seek to undermine democracy by sowing chaos in our elections are a direct threat, just like the terrorist from Afghanistan that was arrested for plotting multiple attacks on election day within the United States.”
Cheung was referring to Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, the 27-year-old Afghan national who was arrested last week over a planned “ISIS-inspired” attack on election day.
Sources told NBC that Tawhedi, who lives in Oklahoma City, had worked as a security guard in his home country for the CIA, before entering the U.S. in September 2021—shortly after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The unsealed criminal complaint showed the suspect was in the U.S. on a special immigrant visa and was currently on parole awaiting adjudication of his immigration status. His wife and one child were also living with him. The CIA declined to comment.