President Donald Trump signed an ominous executive order Monday that calls for a sweeping reorientation of the National Guard around domestic policing. Particularly alarming is Trump’s order that the secretary of defense create a “quick reaction force” within the National Guard for “rapid nationwide deployment” as part of a broader effort at “quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety.” While it’s not clear exactly what form such a force would take, Trump appears to be making an extraordinary attempt to amass autocratic power by misusing the military for policing.
The National Guard, a part of the U.S. armed forces, is primarily used to provide manpower for U.S. military operations abroad and help states respond to natural disasters such as hurricanes, forest fires and pandemics. More rarely the National Guard may be called upon to conduct “civil disturbance operations” and support law enforcement to deal with exceptional social disorder, such as when the guard was activated in many states during riots after police murdered George Floyd in 2020.
The red line is going to be when the president orders our military to start firing on demonstrators. That’s when all hell is going to break loose.”
retired Major General Randy Manner
Trump wants the “civil disturbance” to become a focal point of the National Guard. Part of Monday’s executive order directs the National Guard in every state to be trained to help federal and state law enforcement with “quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety and order whenever the circumstances necessitate.” Typically governors decide if and how much the National Guard in their state will be trained for civil disturbance, but Trump has the authority to issue this broad directive. We don’t know the details of how training regimens will change, but the broad takeaway is that Trump wants the National Guard spending less time training for deployment abroad — and more time training for deployment domestically as a potential policing power.
Lindsay Cohn, a visiting professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, speaking in her personal capacity, told me in an interview that Trump’s executive order represents a “big change.”
“Maybe before they might have prioritized training for an Afghanistan-style mission abroad. Now they will be training for civil disturbance operations at home,” Cohn said. “It doesn’t mean no one will be training for the Afghanistan-type mission. But it does mean a reprioritization.”
The most eye-catching part of Trump’s agenda to crack down on what he deems civil disturbances seems to be his call for the formation of that “quick reaction force” that can be sent anywhere in the country.
“It’s likely designed to ensure that whatever units they decide to use are fully trained and ready to deploy more quickly than they would normally be,” John Dehn, a professor at Loyola University Chicago, told me. “If they wait to identify the units until the need arises, they have to then train the units and go through all the different paperwork hurdles that they need to get those units on to where they need to be.”
An Aug. 12 Washington Post report provided clues as to what a quick reaction force might look like. That report was based on a review of internal Pentagon documents, marked “predecisional,” discussing plans for a “Domestic Civil Disturbance Quick Reaction Force.” According to the Post, that plan, as described in the documents, “calls for 600 troops to be on standby at all times so they can deploy in as little as one hour.”
I called up retired Maj. Gen. Randy Manner, who has overseen domestic operations at the No. 2 position in the National Guard and also overseen combat operations as the deputy commanding general of all Army forces in the Middle East. He was alarmed, to put it lightly.
“Why the heck are we using armed, uniform military against our own population? This is absurd,” he said. “It’s not the proper use of the military, and we should not go there. We need to invest in law enforcement if what we want to do is reduce crime.”
So far, Trump has used deceptive claims about crime and disorder as a pretext for deploying the National Guard in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and is threatening to do so in Chicago. Trump sees the National Guard as a tool for testing the scope of executive power. He sees it as an instrument for repressing and intimidating people in cities he whimsically deems dangerous and which are run by political opponents. He’s pushing it into uncharted territory — organizationally, politically and legally. Some of the experts I spoke to for this article emphasized a particular concern about Trump deploying National Guard troops around the 2026 election and depressing turnout by intimidating potential voters. There are also concerns that the quick reaction force could evolve into an armed loyalist cadre who enforce Trump’s despotic agenda with force against civilians. “The red line is going to be when the president orders our military to start firing on demonstrators. That’s when all hell is going to break loose,” Manner said. Even if it never gets to that point, the country is already entering deeply anti-democratic territory. “Shouldn’t the concept of having the U.S. military on the streets of our cities alarm every single human being in the United States?” Manner asked. “Military, who are trained to kill people — and they’re not trained in law enforcement — on our streets. This should scare the crap out of every single person in the country.” Manner is right. A major theme of Trump’s political project has been to reject the idea that the U.S. military should be used to nation-build abroad. Instead, he’s trying to use the military to tear down the principles and rules that this nation has long held dear. The National Guard, a part of the U.S. armed forces, is primarily used to provide manpower for U.S. military operations abroad and help states respond to natural disasters such as hurricanes, forest fires and pandemics. More rarely the National Guard may be called upon to conduct “civil disturbance operations” and support law enforcement to deal with exceptional social disorder, such as when the guard was activated in many states during riots after police murdered George Floyd in 2020.
Zeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy. 
