Deploying active-duty soldiers to put down a domestic disturbance has been one of Trump’s long-running preoccupations: he’s got this big, bad military—why can’t he use it to show blue America who’s boss? In the summer of 2020, as largely nonviolent Black Lives Matter protests spread across the country, it was only the combined objections of Trump’s Attorney General, Defense Secretary, and chairman of the Joint Chiefs that stopped him from doing so. But Trump has continued to crave militarized displays of force against fellow-Americans. During his second term, he’s repeatedly mobilized the National Guard over the objections of local elected officials, on the thinnest of pretexts, whether it’s protests against his heavy-handed immigration forces in Los Angeles or a nonexistent crime emergency in the District of Columbia. “It’s a war from within,” Trump told a gathering of generals last fall, explaining that they should, from now on, view U.S. cities as “training grounds.”journey-inline-newsletterinline-newsletter