A former military leader revealed the "implied" message President Donald Trump left for active duty troops during his televised speech for America's top military brass.
On Tuesday, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke to America's military leaders in a meeting that some have described as an "insult" and a "waste of time." Trump told the military that they needed to start training in American cities that have the most crime, which retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling said carried a hidden implication.
Hertling discussed Trump's speech in a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast."
"You're putting an infantryman, a tanker, a truck driver in front of the American people," Hertling said. "That would be like saying you and I could go out and arrest people and quell riots and do all those kinds of things. The military does have its force to support civilian authorities. If manpower is needed, certainly military forces can go to an area and protect guard buildings, put up fences, do the kind of things that you need a lot of people to do."
"But that razor's edge into policing activities again is, contrary to the Constitution and contrary to our laws," he continued. "So it shouldn't be done. But what I heard the president say yesterday was an implied remark that he was telling everyone in that room is be prepared to do that."
Hertling added that it seemed Trump was stoking the fires of insurrection to justify deploying the military into American cities.
"That only happens once an insurrection occurs, like during the Civil War," he said. "So, unless he's prepared to stoke that kind of insurrection by further dividing the American people and it turns to violence, soldiers are the means of last resort for any kind of police activity, primarily because they're not trained to do things like that, and secondarily because it's against the law."