National Guard members and Marines, called to Los Angeles by President Trump to prevent violent protests, can otherwise only serve in support roles.
“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We will see,” he said.
We have not even seen “actual military violence” at this point. Keep that in mind when you argue that it doesn’t matter if this escalates further bc what else could Trump do, the answer is this.
Not always, he chickens out when the cost of doing something is less than the gain. For this? Invoking total control of the US to crush dissent and his political opponents, and to push his agenda and further strip the US to the bone? Very likely worth it.
This assumes success. It takes more than words to pull off martial law. I’m not confident he wouldn’t succeed, but if he could just declare “I am a dictator” and it would work, he’d have done it already.
Why’s he actively picking fights here, and stirring the pot? To further excite the populous to open ‘rebellion’, and to ‘justify’ martial law.