The road to a Fascist state is a slippery slope.
On April 21, 2025 I wrote my first post about a campaign in which I was collaborating with another activist to make military personnel aware that they may be told to carry out orders that go against the Constitution and the laws of the United States. Our principle concern was that Donald Trump would order US military personnel to be deployed within our borders to round up U.S. citizens or immigrant families for detention or deportation — whether or not they have committed a crime.
The campaign, directed at military personnel, is called “JUST FOLLOW ORDERS?” YOUR DECISION. It invites and challenges members of the military to consider the consequences of their actions, informs them of their options, and provides resources for support. Not too many people took it seriously at the time.
And then in June Trump did what we expected, initially sending 2000 Federalized National Guard troops to Los Angeles (and later an additional 2000), and shortly thereafter 700 Marines to do his bidding. At the time, the New York Times reported that, “President Trump had called the protesters in Los Angeles ‘insurrectionists,’” a term that several of his aides have used as well, in what may become a rationale for him to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act.
I immediately sent the “JUST FOLLOW ORDERS?” YOUR DECISION campaign again, urging people to share it with everyone they know in the US military.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Governor Gavin Newsom wasted no time in suing the Trump Administration on the grounds that Trump’s actions are prohibited by the Posse Comitatus Act. Additionally, he ignored the objections of the Governor, the wishes of local law enforcement, and his actions were unsupported by conditions on the ground. Opening arguments in that lawsuit began today.
And then came the latest bombshell; Trump announced that the Federal Government would be taking control of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and sending in National Guard troops “to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.”
Blowing smoke (as usual) from deep inside his fantasy world, Trump is hyper focused on an alleged carjacking attempt on a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee, and is mischaracterizing D.C. as a city that looks like something out of one of the Mad Max movies. “Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people, and we’re not going to let it happen anymore.” Just a wee bit hyperbolic, don’t you think?
Quite ironically, the Department of Justice reported in January 2025 that violent crime has been trending downward in recent years, reaching a 30-year low in 2024. But hey, we have seen over and over that Trump never lets facts get in the way of his fascist steamroller.
And D.C. is likely just the beginning of Trump’s military takeover of our nation’s cities. As Trump said, “We’re not going to lose our cities over this, and this will go further,… We’re starting very strongly with D.C., and we’re going to clean it up real quick, very quickly, as they say.”
Just as with the Los Angeles deployment, this will involve yet more illegal and authoritarian escalation. What’s next? – Insurrection Act? Mass arrests? Unrestrained violence against people engaged in resistance to the illegal actions of the regime? And who will carry out those illegal orders?
All U.S. military personnel take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States – NOT a person! Misusing members of the armed forces is both unconscionable and illegal, and we must not let this stand. Furthermore, members of the armed forces need to know both their rights and responsibilities under the law.
The issue of “rights” is not always so clear cut for military personnel.They are duty bound to follow orders, and it is no simple matter to disobey an order a soldier believes might be illegal. There can be serious consequences and they may have little, if any, recourse. We, however, as (civilian) citizens of this country have the right to speak out on behalf of soldiers.
Many soldiers are likely questioning what they are being ordered to do, yet they are keeping quiet out of fear of reprisal. We need to do what we can to support them by helping them understand their rights as well as by challenging the Trump regime.
We also need to barrage our members of Congress, asking them why they are NOT upholding the Constitution, and letting them know that we are going to vote them out of office unless they start representing We The People and NOT the grifters running our fragile Democracy into the ground. Click here to sign one of the many petitions circulating to tell Congress to stand up to Trump.
Please share this post far and wide, and you can click here to download a printable (PDF) campaign flyer (2 per printed page) that you can hand out to members of the military. It has a QR code that links to a document with a number of confidential resources available to military personnel.
The stakes are high. Our Democracy is in peril, and we need all hands on deck to keep it from totally falling apart. If we succeed, one day we will be able to clean up the mess and start rebuilding something better for future generations.
