Americans should be 'deadly afraid' Trump will use military for political whims: expert

A retired major general sounded the alarm Monday on MSNBC during a discussion on what protections could prevent former President Donald Trump from using the military as his personal enforcement mechanism.

A New York Times investigative report sorted through Trump's history of seeking to use the military for his political whims. With a possible second Trump term looming, a larger question is being asked about what protections are in place that prevent Trump from using his second term in office to use the National Guard as a police force.

MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace read part of the report Monday, noting that it wasn't the law that kept Trump at bay — it was individuals in his administration like Gen. Mark Milley. She wondered what would stop Trump and aides like Stephen Miller from such actions in the future.

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"No. 1, every single American should be absolutely deadly afraid of the potential of what he could do," said retired Major General for the National Guard Randy Manner.

If he has the power to select all the officers, which, Manner noted, the president "does have that authority," Trump could then "direct or order people to do things that are quite frankly not in acceptance with normal law at the federal and the state level."

"So, we all need to be extremely concerned about this," he said. "It will take strong-willed people standing behind the principles of law to keep this potential situation under control."

Wallace wondered what people would be there. Part of the conversation around Project 2025 is the Trump administration would be better staffed and prepared to enact the far-right policies that Trump was prevented from doing in his first administration.

Gen. Manner said that the Department of Defense would normally be there to stop such things, but Trump could simply fire the people in charge and keep firing them "until he gets someone to follow his orders." The Justice Department would be in the same boat with a Trump-appointed attorney general.

The only other option, he explained, is that Trump would attempt to send in the military and the state governors could respond.

"The laws are very clear about federal troops or troops on federal status coming into a state," he said. "That is not permitted. And that would raise considerable challenges between a national guard of a state where the governor said the federal troops would not come here or where the president otherwise directed. So it is an area that, fortunately, sane men have not ever tread."

He said that he hopes they never get there.

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