Could Milwaukee Get Federal Troops?

Donald Trump. Photo from whitehouse.gov.

The Trump administration is preparing to roll out a plan to send the kind of military-style federal assaults used in Portland, Oregon into other Democratic-run cities, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told Fox News on Sunday.

Attorney General William Barr “is weighing in on that” with Homeland Secretary Chad Wolf, Meadows said, “and you’ll see something rolled out this week as we start to go in and make sure the communities, whether it’s Chicago, or Portland, or Milwaukee, or someplace across the heartland of the country — we need to make sure that our communities are safe.”

In an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, President Donald Trump said federal squads would likely target cities run by the party that opposes him, noting that “violence” was on the increase in “Democrat-run cities.”

“They are liberally run, they are stupidly run,” the president added.

On Sunday Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler told National Public Radio that the protest situation in his city had been quieting — until the federal squads moved in and “blew the lid off the whole thing.” He said city and state officials tried to reason with Wolf, but were told to “stuff it.”

The use of federal troops in Portland has triggered protests and legal action. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed suit in U.S. District Court on Friday, seeking an injunction to stop the uninvited squads’ “kidnap and false arrest” of citizens, charging this “violated constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure and loss of liberty,” as the Huffington Post reported.

The American Civil Liberties Union also sued DHS, and U.S. lawmakers have called for an investigation. Democratic Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has called the federal crackdown “political theater” to provoke violence and help the Trump campaign by distract attention from his handling of the coronavirus response.

As justification for their presence in Portland, federal authorities have cited a June 26 executive order by Trump directing them to protect federal monuments and buildings.

“But Meadows suggested the Trump administration wants to broaden its legal justification” for the use of federal troops, Mother Jones reported. “Notably he cited Chicago, where the issue drawing national attention is gun violence, not political unrest. Trump has previously threatened to ‘send in the Feds’ if Chicago ‘doesn’t fix the horrible ‘carnage’ going on.’”

Update July 21: On Monday Trump told the press he may consider sending troops to a number of cities “run by liberal Democrats,” including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore and Oakland. He did not mention Milwaukee. His administration “now plans to send about 150 Homeland Security Investigations special agents to Chicago in the coming days,” the New York Times reported. Meanwhile the Trump campaign has released an ad showing an elderly lady calling the police only to be put on hold because the police have been defunded. “You won’t se safe in Joe Biden’s America,” the ad warns.

Also on Monday Milwaukee Common Council President Cavalier Johnson released a statement opposing any federal troops being sent to Milwaukee, calling it  “truly an un-American act that is stifling citizens’ First Amendment rights” and “would only cause a deeper divide and heightened conflict.”