Donald Trump sending in the military to quell protests in Los Angeles and threatening to do the same in other American cities is an “unprecedented” use of presidential power that will have a “chilling” effect on free speech and protest, legal and political experts have warned.
“They’re soldiers, and soldiers are trained to fight wars, not to enforce civilian laws. They’re not trained to protect the civil liberties of the people and to respect protests,” William C. Banks, a legal professor at Syracuse University, told The Independent.
Scott R. Anderson, a Brookings Institution fellow in governance studies, said the administration was “trying to use the threat of the military to deter free speech and protest, which is something that Americans hold in deep regard — it is really built into our political culture and constitutional system.”
The president’s decision to place 4,000 National Guard troops under federal command and send another 700 U.S. Marines in response to several days of protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles has prompted anger from local law enforcement, Angelenos, and Democrats — and warnings from experts about democratic norms being trampled.
“It’s quite unprecedented for him to call in the Marines, and the authority that he used to federalize the guard is one that hasn’t been used in 60 years,” Banks, an expert on the role of the military in domestic affairs, added.
The National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles initially had limited engagement with protesters. After a few days they began detaining protesters, and they are now accompanying Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on raids in the city. The 700 Marines were expected to arrive in the city on Friday after undergoing several days of training in nonlethal weapons and the use of force.
“We have a very strong political value and norm against the domestic use of the military, which is very real and has been with us since the framing, and it certainly informed the Constitution,” said Anderson, a former diplomat and government attorney.
“I think this is probably one of the biggest tests of those norms in recent memory,” he added, noting the use of troops against American civilians has “a chilling effect on speech.”
Experts say it is up for debate whether Trump is acting within the current limits of the law by restricting troops to protecting federal property and employees, but his language in recent days has suggested he sees his powers over how to use the military in a domestic setting to be much broader.
When asked Sunday if he planned to send U.S. troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied: “We’re gonna have troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.”
That has prompted alarm from legal experts who say Trump appears to be laying the groundwork for deploying troops whenever and wherever there are protests against federal immigration agents.
“Trump has authorized the deployment of troops anywhere in the country where protests against ICE activity might occur. That is a huge red flag for democracy in the United States,” wrote Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, in a thread on X.
Goitein added that “no president has ever federalized the National Guard for purposes of responding to potential future civil unrest anywhere in the country,” and that to do so “would be a shocking abuse of power and the law.”
Even if he is staying within the law for now, Trump is radically altering the relationship between the presidency and the military. This week he held a politically charged rally at Fort Bragg where he encouraged cheers and boos from soldiers and announced the renaming of military bases after Confederate generals. This weekend, he will hold an unprecedented military parade for the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday — the type of event usually reserved for authoritarian regimes.
His deployment of the military for domestic aims comes in that context.
The troops currently deployed are somewhat restricted in what activities they can engage in under the current rules. They cannot arrest people or engage in law enforcement activities.
That could change if Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, a move that would give the president extreme power over how to use the military domestically, and which many experts say would prompt grave concern about the state of American democracy.
“Then, all of a sudden, the president can use soldiers to enforce federal law and for law enforcement functions, to arrest people, detain people. The President has not taken that step,” Anderson said.
“The one thing to bear in mind about all of this, of course, is that this is what it says on paper. The real test is what happens on the ground. Will Secretary of Defense [Pete] Hegseth push them to do things beyond what the protective power has traditionally been understood to authorize? If he does, then that raises a whole slew of legal questions, including constitutional questions,” he added.