Trump Proposes Military Training in Democratic Cities

At an abrupt Quantico gathering of roughly 800 senior military leaders called by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, President Trump declared that “America is under invasion from within,” urged using Democratic-run cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, New York and Los Angeles as “training grounds” for the military and threatened to enter Chicago “very soon.” Hegseth and Trump announced an end to “woke” policies and new directives including purported “gender‑neutral” or “male‑level” fitness standards and looser disciplinary rules for troops. The administration has federalized National Guard units and sent federal forces to cities including Portland, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and Trump touted creating quick‑reaction National Guard forces for domestic disturbances. Legal and policy experts warned the highly political speech and increased domestic troop deployments risk politicizing the military and could raise Posse Comitatus and civil‑liberties concerns, and state officials have pursued lawsuits to block some federalizations.