Newly elected US President Donald Trump may order the deployment of military personnel and the dismissal of a large number of non-political officials to protect internal law and order after taking office. Pentagon officials are discussing how to deal with such a situation.
Ahead of the informal meeting with US defense officials, Trump hinted at using "active-duty" members to maintain domestic law and order and to deport illegal immigrants en masse.
At the same time, he hinted at massive recruitment of loyalists in the central government and removal of 'corrupt' officials from the national security agencies.
Many senior military officials had an adversarial relationship with Trump during his first term as president.
One of them is retired General Mark Mille. While chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Mille limited Trump's ability to use nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Trump has called US military leaders 'weak' and 'incompetent'.
Preparations are underway to revamp the Pentagon, the US defense headquarters, after Trump was elected for a second term as president. A Defense Department official said, "We are preparing and planning for the worst-case scenario." But how these things will be (effective), we don't know yet.
Trump's election has also raised questions within the Pentagon about what will happen if he issues illegal orders, especially if the political leaders he appoints to the department do not back down.
In this regard, another defense official said, "The law has the right to disobey the illegal orders of the army." But the question is, what will happen next? Will we see senior military leaders resign?'
It is not yet clear who Trump will appoint to lead the Pentagon. Yet officials expect Trump and his appointees to try to avoid "hostile" relationships with military leaders; As the relationship was seen in his first term.
A former defense official who served in Trump's first administration said, "The relationship between the White House and the Department of Defense was really bad during Trump's first administration. So I know, now how the Trump administration will be recruiting for the Department of Defense. This is the biggest concern of Pentagon officials."
Defense officials are trying to figure out which civilian employees of the Biden administration could be affected if Trump reinstates the Schedule F executive order. That executive order was first issued in 2020.
If the order goes into effect, a large number of non-political government employees across the country will come under administrative reshuffle; So that they can be fired very easily.
'Enemy Within'
A major concern for many defense officials right now is how Trump uses US military power domestically.
Last month, Trump said the military should be used to fight "domestic enemies" and "extremist leftists".
Pointing to possible opposition protests on election day, Trump also said, "I think the protests could easily be stopped with the National Guard if needed or the military if really needed."
Several senior military officials who served under Trump's previous administration have voiced warnings over the past few years about his authoritarian spirit or tendencies. Among those officials is Mark Mille, Trump's former White House chief of staff to Gen. (ret.) John Kelly.
Before the election, Kelly said Trump fell into the "common definition of a fascist." He spoke of the loyalty of Hitler's Nazi generals.
There is little the Pentagon can do in advance to protect the military from potential abuses of power by a commander in chief (President Trump).
Defense counsel could make recommendations to military leaders about the validity of Trump's order in that case. But there are no real legal safeguards that would prevent Trump from deploying troops on the streets.
In this context, a Defense Department official who worked in the Trump administration said, he believes, Trump will probably use additional 'active-duty' forces in the south of the country for customs and border protection.
Several thousand members of the National Guard and Reserve forces have already been deployed along the US border with 'active-duty'. The Biden administration sent 1,500 active-duty personnel to the border last year. Later hundreds of other members joined them.
The former defense official said that it is not impossible to send these troops to various cities in the United States in the future to implement Trump's plan to expel immigrants en masse. It is not something to be taken lightly when the army is put on the streets of city after city in the United States.
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