By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan

The die is cast. President Donald Trump has deployed the military against protesters in his drive for authoritarian control. The week started with Trump’s federalization of the California National Guard, deploying 2,000 troops to Los Angeles, to quell growing protests against his attempted mass deportations and against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom. The week ends with Abrams tanks rolling through the streets of Washington, DC in the first military parade in decades, demanded by Trump at a cost to taxpayers estimated as high as $100 million. While the parade officially falls on the US Army’s 250th anniversary, they had not planned on a parade. Trump ordered there be one on June 14th – his 79th birthday.

Amidst this, Trump gave what may have been his most ominous speech ever, speaking Tuesday at the US Army’s Fort Bragg. The speech included the usual boasts, lies, insults, threats, endlessly rehashed grievances like the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen, and so on, along with his usual and disgraceful attack on the press. What stood out at Fort Bragg, though, was his backdrop: several rows of US Army soldiers. That imagery in itself is not particularly noteworthy; every president in recent decades has used troops as political props. What stood out this time was the behavior of the troops.

As Trump lambasted California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the troops booed in support of him. According to Military.com, the troops behind him were vetted for allegiance and appearance. This partisan, political rallying of soldiers signals a dangerous development. If Trump succeeds in bending the armed forces to his will, US democracy, with all its imperfections, will truly be in peril.

“In Los Angeles, the governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles. They’re incompetent,” Trump said at Fort Bragg, as the troops responded with boos.

Trump also ordered Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to ready troops for deployment on US soil, a clear violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the use of military domestically. By Wednesday, 700 US Marines from Fort Pendleton in California had been deployed to Los Angeles.

In touting his Washington, DC, military parade, Trump threatened, “For those people who want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force…with very heavy force.” Trump didn’t say which police or military entity would be using the force, but thousands of troops are being brought into DC for the parade. As the Brennan Center for Justice noted in an explainer, there is a loophole in the Posse Comitatus Act that essentially allows presidents to use the District of Columbia National Guard for law enforcement “whenever they choose.”

“He’s inflaming tensions. He’s provoking a situation,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta explained on the Democracy Now! news hour, after filing suit to block Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and the Marines to LA. “Unfortunately, I think he wants conflict. He wants something to erupt so that that provides the basis for him to try to grasp and seize additional power. His throughline and his modus operandi is to just seek more power. That’s why he calls everything that’s not an emergency an emergency. He calls things that aren’t an invasion an invasion. He uses that language very specifically, because those are the triggers to give him more authority.”

Mayor Karen Bass declared a second night of curfew on Wednesday as anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) protests continued there, and spread rapidly around the country.

US Congressmember Delia Ramirez, a Democrat from Chicago and the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, also spoke on Democracy Now! against Trump’s tactics:

“What you are seeing is the beginning of fascism, point blank. He is sending the military to the cities that would dare to have dissent and resistance…What he is about is control, suppressing dissent in order to dismantle resistance. The threats of sending these special ICE teams to Chicago, to Seattle and other cities is about making sure that he can dismantle any organizing.”

Any efforts by Trump and his followers to disrupt or dismantle grassroots organizing appear to be failing. While organic protests continue to spring up nationwide, often led by immigrants themselves, Indivisible and other groups declared June 14th “No Kings Day,” and have organized at least 1,800 protests around the country to challenge Trump’s authoritarian power grab.

As the summer heats up and with US democracy increasingly at risk, two fundamental truths must remain front and center: people have a First Amendment right to protest, and US soldiers have an obligation to disobey unlawful orders.