“If they can do it to me, I can do it to them,” former President Donald Trump has said about what he perceives — or says he perceives — to be the “weaponization” of government agencies against him, including the Department of Justice under Merrick Garland and the FBI under Christopher Wray, whom Trump himself appointed to the post.
But the above quote about payback isn’t just theoretical according to a report published by The Washington Post and amplified by MSNBC star Rachel Maddow. The Post article — by Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey and Devlin Barrett — describes how a second Trump presidency would seek to control the DOJ to target his political enemies, including not just Democrats but prodigal sons like former Attorney General William Barr and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who were with Trump before they were against him.
"Dubbed “Project 2025,” the group is developing a plan, to include draft executive orders, that would deploy the military domestically under the Insurrection Act…"https://t.co/8jiVzyd5h2
— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) November 7, 2023
Maddow chooses to emphasize an even more grave aspect of Trump’s alleged plan for when — and if — he regains the Oval Office, quoting an assertion that the Trump 2025 strategy, outsourced to MAGA-friendly think thanks, is “developing a plan, to include draft executive orders, that would deploy the military domestically under the Insurrection Act…”
Having missed his opportunity to deploy the military domestically during the Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police, Trump is said to regret his reserve.
The Insurrection Act, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, “authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations. The statute implements Congress’s authority under the Constitution to “provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” It is the primary exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, under which federal military forces are generally barred from participating in civilian law enforcement activities.”
The Post writes that the “discussions underway reflect Trump’s determination to harness the power of the presidency to exact revenge on those who have challenged or criticized him if he returns to the White House.” In sharing and quoting from the story, Maddow is asking her 10 million followers on X to be aware — and wary — of the plans.
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