Air National Guard airmen work clearing leaves and debris from McPherson Square Park in Washington, D.C., Aug. 28, 2025. (Andrew Leyden/Getty Images)
Back in August, a publication written by and for US military members groused about the danger of National Guard troops performing lawn care in the nation’s capital.
Credibly ranked as having no political bias, The Military Times observed that the real threat to 2,300 troops deployed to DC wasn’t Trump’s imaginary ‘magnitude of violent crime’ in war-torn domestic environs, but domestic assignments that rendered them sitting ducks.
Military analysists had warned for months that such deployments presented a “heightened threat environment” that was both hurting morale and risking the lives of enlisted soldiers.
Uniformed troops gardening in the US capital also contradicted Defense Secretary Hegseth’s focus on ‘lethality’ and his “warfighting ethos.” After Hegseth announced that any activities that distract from lethality “shouldn’t be happening,” his rake-wielding fighters were mocked by foreign media outlets as “Trump’s lethal landscapers.”
The US military is legally and functionally different from law enforcement
For over 150 years, for reasons easily traced back to the founding era, using military troops for domestic law enforcement has been illegal under the Posse Comitatus Act. Unless there’s an insurrection or rebellion, two specific words denoting specific conditions on the ground, a president cannot deploy the US military to enforce federal, state, or local law. The Insurrection Act, widely understood to be an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act, also requires specific conditions on the ground such as rebellion or an extreme level of violence necessitating military assistance.
Despite the clarity of federal law, Trump has sent military troops to US cities in the absence of rebellion, insurrection, or widespread rioting, using a revolving door of justifications from “quelling violence in Democratic-controlled cities,” and “cracking down on crime,” to “supporting deportation initiatives,” which is another form of domestic law enforcement.
Whatever excuse he trots out, the US military is not allowed to be used for law enforcement, because servicemembers are trained to kill, and the public knows it.
The military’s primary mission is to defend the nation against foreign threats. Combat-ready military forces are trained to defeat adversaries through readiness and weapons training on lethality, resilience, and mission readiness in hostile environments, prioritizing skills like weapons proficiency, combat tactics, and survival. In obvious distinction, law enforcement officers exist and are trained to enforce domestic laws and protect civilian populations, which is best accomplished through de-escalation, proportionality, and the preservation of life. Simply put, domestic law enforcement and the US military differ in terms of purpose, training, and mission, and it’s highly dangerous to conflate them.
Attacking the truth
On November 20, 2025, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s deployment of the military to the nation’s capital was illegal, and ordered an end to it. On November 26, still deployed despite the Court Order, two members of the National Guard were tragically shot outside a D.C. Metro station while on foot patrol.
After one of the servicemembers died, instead of offering introspection or comfort, Trump immediately lashed out, doubled down, and blamed Biden. Trump told the press, “There was no vetting or anything. They came in unvetted. And we have a lot of others in this country, we’re going to get em out.”
A reporter then pointed out that Trump’s own DOJ Inspector General confirmed the vetting, so why, exactly, was Trump was still blaming Biden? Trump exploded, “Because they let them in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people who shouldn’t be here, and you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”
Trump obviously attacked the question because it didn’t fit his narrative: The shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was thoroughly vetted by both the CIA and the FBI because he previously worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, assisting in US combat missions.
Doubling down on lies won’t make the US safe
Military advisers have long warned that putting American military members on city streets put them in increased danger. After the DC shooting, a member of the California National Guard texted The New York Times that he “knew that this would happen.” Having served six years in the Guard, the soldier said he and his commanders worried that the assignment “increased our risk of us shooting civilians or civilians taking shots at us.”
Instead of rethinking the obvious danger of putting military troops on US street corners, Trump has decided to double down by deploying 500 more troops to DC, and stopping immigration entirely from poor nations. DHS announced further that, “The Trump Administration is also reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden Administration.” Except, as Reuters pointed out, Lakanwal wasn’t granted asylum by Biden. He was granted asylum, this year, by the Trump administration.
While Trump doubles down on sending more military into US cities against federal law, Hegseth is frothing at the mouth with orders to “kill them all,” murdering non-combatant civilians on the high seas.
Unless ranking officers and members of Congress start speaking out, pushing back on obviously illegal orders, the tragedy in DC will worsen. If Trump has his way, two people shot could escalate into dozens, hundreds, or thousands of deaths among military and civilian populations alike. At that point, we’ll look back on the events in DC and wonder why we didn’t learn from them.
Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.
