SALINAS, Calif. —
In an unprecedented speech to the majority of senior military leadership, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said they must "prepare for war" and that U.S. cities could be used as a "training ground" for troops.
While discussing Democratic-led cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco Trump said that "straightening them out" would be a major part for the military leaders he was speaking to.
"We are under invasion from within,” President Trump said, “no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways, because they don't wear uniforms.”
This language mirrors that of fascist leaders such as Mussolini and Hitler who both talked about internal enemies. Adolf Hitler and the head of Schutzstaffel (also known as the SS), Reinhard Heydrich, spoke about "the enemy within" and an internal enemy that undermined the Nazi state.
This comes less than a week after Trump directed Secretary Hegseth to send troops into Portland, saying that he was "authorizing Full Force." Doing so would violate the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits deploying the military for civilian law enforcement. A judge in California has already found that President Trump broke the law and violated the Posse Comitatus Act when he sent National Guard troops to Los Angeles earlier this year.
California's Governor Gavin Newsom denounced the speech in a post on X.
"This speech should terrify anyone who cares about our country. Declaring war on...
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