Duckworth Condemns Trump’s Dangerous, Unconstitutional Deployments of Troops into American Cities

Duckworth Condemns Trump's Dangerous, Unconstitutional Deployments of Troops into American Cities

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) on the Senate floor today condemned Donald Trump's unconstitutional and dangerous deployment of National Guard troops into American cities without request from state and local leaders. In her remarks, the Senator warned that Trump's egregious abuse of our military violates the rights of sovereign states, distracts our troops from their core missions, intimidates Americans in their own neighborhoods and does nothing to actually make our streets safer. Video of Duckworth's full remarks can be found on the Senator's YouTube, Twitter/X and Facebook.

Key quotes:

• "At Quantico last week, Trump told top military leaders that he wants American servicemembers to 'train' against the same citizens they swear an oath to protect. He essentially declared war on Chicago, one of the largest cities in the country he leads, with a meme last month. And this week, he made good on his threats, forcing hundreds of National Guardsmen into our city. For months, Trump has fabricated claims of chaos and crime on American streets to justify false claims that there is a 'need' to deploy troops into our cities against local officials' wishes."

• "In the last few weeks in Chicago, we've seen Trump's agents detain innocent Americans, deny citizens their right to legal representation, point weapons at civilians, zip-tie children, arrest elected officials, ransack apartment buildings and injure journalists. They've even shot two people, leaving one-a father of two young children-dead, making dubious and unsubstantiated claims in their attempt to justify their use of lethal force. It's obvious what Trump is doing. He's targeting and punishing the cities who dare push back against his abuse of power."

• "We know Trump's actions aren't about 'law and order,' because if he cared about law and order, he wouldn't gleefully refuse to coordinate with state and local officials. He wouldn't have literally defunded our police by freezing and slashing federal dollars that help hire, train and equip law enforcement. He wouldn't be diverting federal resources and agents away from operations that investigate drug cartels and gun traffickers…But he is. And instead of supporting and expanding proven violence and crime prevention strategies, he's wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to terrorize law-abiding citizens who are exercising their First Amendment rights."

Duckworth's opening remarks as prepared below:

One of the proudest moments of my life was the first time I ever laced up my boots, put on my uniform and raised my right hand to swear my oath to the Constitution as a member of the Illinois Army National Guard.

I cherished every day that I got to wake up and call myself a Soldier. And it's because I love our military so deeply, I refuse to let a five-time draft-dodging coward abuse it for his own gain.

At Quantico last week, Trump told top military leaders that he wants American servicemembers to "train" against the same citizens they swear an oath to protect.

He essentially declared war on Chicago, one of the largest cities in the country he leads, with a meme last month. And this week, he made good on his threats, forcing hundreds of National Guardsmen into our city.

For months, Trump has fabricated claims of chaos and crime on American streets to justify false claims that there is a "need" to deploy troops into our cities against local officials' wishes.

First to LA, then DC, and he isn't stopping there. He's also attempting to deploy troops to Portland, though a federal judge he appointed blocked his efforts there-twice-because, in his own handpicked appointee's words, Trump's claims about why they are needed were "untethered to facts."

Another way to put that is that he's lying.

In the last few weeks in Chicago, we've seen Trump's agents detain innocent Americans, deny citizens their right to legal representation, point weapons at civilians, zip-tie children, arrest elected officials, ransack apartment buildings and injure journalists.

They've even shot two people, leaving one-a father of two young children-dead, making dubious and unsubstantiated claims in their attempt to justify their use of lethal force.

It's obvious what Trump is doing. He's targeting and punishing the cities who dare push back against his abuse of power.

And while he's currently targeting blue cities with his lies, if these deployments are not stopped there will be nothing to stop him-or any future president-from doing this to anyone, anywhere, for any made-up reason.

Let's be clear: Ordering our troops to intimidate Americans in their own communities doesn't make our nation safer. Policing Americans in their own communities is not the National Guard's job. They can't make arrests, and they're not adequately trained to carry out police duties in urban environments.

These deployments are yet another Trump move straight out of the Authoritarian 101 textbook. They further jeopardize civil rights while distracting our troops from executing their core mission of keeping Americans safe from the real adversaries who wish us harm.

We know Trump's actions aren't about "law and order," because if he cared about law and order, he wouldn't gleefully refuse to coordinate with state and local officials.

He wouldn't have literally defunded our police by freezing and slashing federal dollars that help hire, train and equip law enforcement.

He wouldn't be diverting federal resources and agents away from operations that investigate drug cartels and gun traffickers, from missions that identify and disrupt terrorist plots and from actions that protect our families from cyber-attacks to do it.

But he is.

And instead of supporting and expanding proven violence and crime prevention strategies, he's wasting millions of taxpayer dollars to terrorize law-abiding citizens who are exercising their First Amendment rights.

With these deployments, Trump is taking our troops away from their training missions just to do his personal bidding, forcing them to pick up trash instead of using their time preparing to protect our nation in case of future conflict.

I drove past some of them on the way to work today, and I felt for them. Because they didn't sign up for this.

They signed up to defend Americans' right to free speech-not to intimidate Americans from exercising that right.

They were willing to die to defend this country-not to defend one man's ego.

Los Angeles did not ask for this. Washington, D.C., did not ask for this. Portland did not ask for this. Chicago did not ask for this. Our servicemembers do not deserve this.

I refuse to stay silent as our military and our servicemembers sacrifices are disrespected and abused by a man who was never brave enough to serve himself. I cannot let him keep giving our troops the middle finger while eroding the hard-won trust and confidence they've earned from the American public over generations of service.

These days, I may no longer be wearing my Army uniform, but it still hangs proudly in my Senate office.

Now, I spend a lot of my time seated on the Senate floor rather than beneath my Black Hawk's main rotors.

But my core mission is still the same as when I was in the National Guard: to keep America as strong and safe as she should be.

If only Donald Trump cared about doing the same.

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