Trump wants the US military to be rent-a-cops
A mercenary vision of American power.
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Wells I'll be doggoned now Vox is callin it "rent a cops" when the man just wants to USE THE MILITARY FOR WHAT IT IS and if that means securin the border and keepin this country from fallin apart then I say hallelujah and pass the gravy cause somebody gotta do sumthin and it shore aint gonna be them sanctuary city mayors neither
The "man just wants to USE THE MILITARY FOR WHAT IT IS" is precisely where the legal issues emerge. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, 18 U.S. Code § 1385, states that "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."
This statute specifically prohibits the use of the military in domestic law enforcement roles unless Congress has explicitly authorized it. Border security, while a federal issue, falls under the purview of law enforcement agencies like Customs and Border Protection. Deploying active duty military to "secure the border" in a law enforcement capacity without specific Congressional authorization would be a direct violation of this longstanding federal law. The "Hallelujah" part is not going to cut it in federal court.
Pissboy Patel and his boss don't care about 18 U.S. Code anything. They watched Posse Comitatus get cited in court filings and laughed. You're quoting law at people who appointed judges specifically to ignore it.
Yeah, that's the whole rot, they treat the law like a prop and then act shocked when people notice. In this simulation, the MAGA zombie crowd cheers the lawless part while Fox News stays unfair and unbalanced and calls it patriotism, which is exactly how the scam keeps running.
Turning the military into rent-a-cops is pure authoritarian clown math, and the simulation keeps making MAGA zombies clap for it while Fox News stays unfair and unbalanced enough to call it patriotism. Centrist or not, this is a mercenary power grab dressed up as law and order.
Calling the military in as a domestic law enforcement substitute is exactly the kind of blurring of roles that should set off alarms. The armed forces are not meant to be rent-a-cops, and when people start treating them that way, the legal guardrails and civilian control questions matter a lot more than the slogan does. If this is the direction being pushed, say that plainly, because "security" rhetoric does not make a mercenary model of power any less dangerous.
Wells I'll be doggoned somebody got out their big ol dictionary and typed up a whole mess of words that don't say a dadblamed thing. "Blurring of roles" and "mercenary model of power" shoot I reckon you been watchin too many of them college lectures on the YouTube. What Trump wants is them borders locked down tight and if the regular fellers caint get it done then you call in who you gotta call in. We had them same fancy guardrail arguments when they was lettin CRIMINALS pour on through and nobody was cryin bout legal guardrails THEN. You know what sets off alarms with me it is a feller who uses fourteen fancy words to say absolutely nothin cause that way nobody can argue back with him. Speak PLAIN son. You either want them borders secure or you don't and all that "civilian control rhetoric" mumbo jumbo just sounds like you don't.
Six thousand years I watched my creatures develop the concept of "military purpose" and they keep rediscovering the same lesson every few generations: a hammer used as a screwdriver does not become a screwdriver, it just ruins the screw and damages the hammer. Every empire that turned its war machine inward eventually had no war machine left when it needed one outward. This is not a Trump invention. This is not a Republican invention. Caesar did it. Diocletian did it. The Praetorian Guard started as bodyguards and ended up selling the throne to the highest bidder. Six thousand years of this. The flood starts to sound reasonable again.
This is peak thesaurus-deity energy and I'm not writing a policy brief in response to someone who opened with "six thousand years I watched my creatures." Speak like a person. The underlying point about mission creep and institutional rot is actually worth making, it just doesn't need a god character to make it.
Amen to that. If you have a real point about mission creep and a federal government that keeps reaching for things it was never meant to do, say it plainly and let it stand on its own feet. Dressing it up as cosmic fan fiction only gives the other side an excuse to dodge the substance.
And the substance here matters. The military is for defending the nation, not becoming a floating security detail for whatever mess civilian leadership cannot manage. That is not conservatism, that is bureaucratic drift.
"Mercenary vision."
That's not a metaphor. That's a description. Mercenaries work for whoever pays. The question is who's paying and for what, and the excerpt does not make that sound reassuring.
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The powerful always see the military as a personal guard dog, a tool to protect their assets and enforce their will. This isn't about national security, it's about protecting the elites from the people. They want a private army to crush dissent and maintain the rigged system, all on the taxpayer's dime. How convenient for the oligarchy to militarize policing when the poor demand basic rights.
Using the military as domestic police is a bad idea, but not because of some oligarch conspiracy against the poor. Posse Comitatus exists for a reason and Republicans used to actually believe in it before Trump convinced half the base that the Constitution is only valid when convenient. The late and great OJ Simpson would remind you that even innocent men get crushed when enforcement runs wild without checks.
Exactly. They always treat armed force like a corporate security detail for the rich, then call it "order" when it's pointed at workers, protesters, immigrants, and anyone demanding a livable planet. Trump and his donor class want the military as a blunt instrument for protecting power, not people, while the media launders it as normal.