Trump Embraces Military As All-purpose Tool

President Donald Trump threatened to unleash a familiar tool this week when he sought to stop protests against immigration agents in Minnesota: the military.

His warning to send federal troops into the state came as administration officials debated whether to order Pentagon strikes against Iran and use troops to seize Greenland from Denmark. Faced with a domestic or international problem this term that he can’t resolve with traditional diplomacy or politicking, Trump has increasingly turned to the armed forces as an initial option rather than a last resort.

When Venezuela’s leader wouldn’t step aside, he sent special forces into the country to grab him. When he thought negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program wasn’t working, he ordered U.S. missiles to destroy their development facilities. And when he wanted to lower crime rates in Democratic cities, he deployed the National Guard.

The military is a natural choice for a president who prizes loyalty and action. As commander in chief, Trump has direct authority over the armed forces. Unlike Democratic governors or Congress, U.S. troops and their commanders are trained to follow orders from the president.

But the dramatic display of power has worried some defense officials, who fear it blurs the military’s core mission of protecting the country, overextends troops and risks acting cavalier with deadly force.

“The fact is, when you use the military, you degrade the military,” said a defense official. “Employment of forces requires reconstitution time. That's true no matter what kind of force you're talking about.”

Trump has leaned even more on hard power since the smash-and-grab operation in January to remove Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — from Thursday’s threat to invoke the Insurrection Act on protesters in Minneapolis to his demands Iranian leaders stop killing citizens or face punishment. His musings to take Greenland have led allies to send troops to protect the island. And his Navy buildup in the Caribbean, the largest since the 1960s, has sent a visible symbol to Latin America of his sway in the region.

“He’s done so much to dismantle the other elements of national power,” said a second defense official, who like others interviewed, was granted anonymity out of concerns of retribution. He believes “if he talks loudly, carries a big stick, and swings it at every minor inconvenience, people will fall in line for fear of being on the receiving end of his hard power politics.”

Even some top military brass are publicly warning — albeit cautiously — about the challenges of using the armed forces in this way.

Adm. Daryl Caudle, the chief of naval operations, said this week that he would “push back” if Trump wanted to send the aircraft carrier in the Caribbean, the USS Gerald Ford, to the Middle East to go after Iran.

“If the president needs options in the Middle East, we can go build out what that looks like for him,” Caudle told reporters. If “the Ford requires an extension [of the ship’s deployment] you know, it's going to get some pushback from the office.”

The White House insisted the president starts with diplomacy and always tries to find a solution.

"President Trump is willing to work with anyone to enact the promises he was elected to implement," said Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson. "The president wisely keeps all options on the table, but in all of these cases, he has first tried to work constructively with the parties involved. It is objectively false to suggest anything otherwise.”

The Pentagon said officials are fulfilling their duty by doing what their commander orders.

“The only worries that officials at this Department of War have are how we can best serve the president's agenda to keep Americans safe at home and abroad,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said in a statement.

Trump has stopped calling service members “my military” or referring to top officers as "my generals,” as he did in his first term. But military intervention seems to feature more prominently atop his list of options. And he appears to watch military operations, such as boat strikes, with intense interest.

The military is “100%” becoming a tool of first resort for Trump, the second official said.

Observers say the president’s use of the armed forces in this way signals the traditional guardrails that might curtail the Pentagon’s operations — such as when to use lethal force — are in flux.

“We have a situation where the administration wants to use military power in ways that are in some ways extractive and destructive,”said Max Bergmann, a former State Department official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But ”the ability to do things militarily does not mean that it's always wise to do them.”

Trump has faced only minimal resistance from his own party, although some Republican lawmakers have pushed back against the promised seizure of Greenland and the further use of military action in Venezuela.

Even as Trump promises a $1.5 trillion budget for the Pentagon next year, the pace of action could end up taking a toll. That’s especially true of some elite U.S. troops and the priciest military assets, which have spent months striking boats off the Venezuelan coast.

“He's leaning very hard,” on the Southern Command forces in the Caribbean and the Joint Special Operations Command, said the second official. “They are spectacular, but you can only do so much.”

Trump’s reliance on the military is also threatening to create some expensive logistical issues, such as bottlenecks for the Navy.

The USS Abraham Lincoln, now in the South China Sea, is the only other aircraft carrier available right now. The ship will likely head to the Middle East, according to a third official, which would leave a gap in the Pacific. The next carrier set to deploy, the USS George H.W. Bush, isn’t slated to leave port in Virginia for several weeks.

”If we’re going to keep up this kind of large-scale naval presence in the Caribbean while also going back and forth to the Middle East with carriers slated to deploy elsewhere,” the official said, “the bill is going to come due at some point.”