New York Times Opinion: Trump’s domestic deployments harms the military

David French, a New York Times Opinion Columnist, penned an article “warning” about the dangers of President Donald Trump’s deploying the National Guard into US Cities. French opined that domestic deployments like the one to Los Angeles and the one in Washington D.C. risked military cohesion and morale, pushed the military beyond its training, endangered national security, and risked the abuses that totalitarian governments perpetrate with their own militaries.

From The New York Times:

First, he risks military cohesion and morale. The U.S. military is not MAGA. Sure, there are MAGA members of the military, and the best available data indicates that it’s right-leaning, but it’s still a remarkably politically diverse institution. You simply cannot assume the political beliefs of a man or woman in uniform.

Turning parts of the military into Trump’s domestic security force would dragoon Democrats, independents and Republicans into a MAGA campaign that many would find grotesque.

Part of the obligation of military service is that you agree to deploy where your commanders lawfully tell you to deploy — even if their orders are misguided, dangerous or foolish.

But that obligation creates a moral imperative for our nation’s leadership. If soldiers are willing to leave their homes and families, then it’s the obligation of the commander in chief to make sure that the deployment is in service of our national interests, not his own campaign of repression and revenge.

Second, Trump is pushing the military beyond its training. National Guard units (much less active-duty troops) are not trained to police American streets. Even members of the military police are ill-suited for the task. They’re certainly trained in basic policing tactics, but they’re trained to enforce the Uniform Code of Military Justice in a unique military environment, not to police civilian streets to enforce state and local laws.

The military can be indispensable in restoring order in the face of large-scale riots, the kinds that completely overwhelm local authorities. But in the absence of a total breakdown in public order, they’re simply not trained to be effective civilian police officers.

At present, the National Guard troops deployed to Washington appear to be destined to perform relatively small tasks, providing logistical and administrative support and simply standing around as a show of force to deter crime.

As a result, I’m less concerned that a terrible violent incident will ensue (in my experience, soldiers are remarkably disciplined with their weapons, even in locations far more dangerous than the worst neighborhoods in our most violent cities) than I am with the anger and exasperation that comes with fruitless and frustrating service.

Third, Trump could endanger national security. If he expands these operations and thousands (or tens of thousands) of soldiers are diverted to New York, Chicago, Washington and Los Angeles, he’ll start to degrade readiness for the military’s true mission: deterring our nation’s formidable foreign enemies and defeating them in combat if deterrence fails.

Internal security operations are poor preparation for combat with advanced militaries. And when a military is pulled into politics, it can create paths to promotion that put a premium on personal loyalty, not combat effectiveness.

That’s a lesson that authoritarian nations have learned on the battlefield time and again. The Russian military faced a rude surprise on Ukrainian battlefields in part because in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, professionalism is secondary to politics.

It’s alarming to see hints of Putinism in America. At the beginning of Trump’s second term, he fired a number of top generals (including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) for transparently ideological reasons. And now he is reportedly personally interviewing candidates for top military positions – a departure from past practice.

Additional Reading:

French, D. (2025, August 17). Trump’s domestic deployments are dangerous. For the military. The New York Times. Link.

Category: Donald Trump, Editorial, Military issues, Op-Ed, Society