The Donald Trump administration is executing not merely a restructuring but a fundamental redefinition of American military purpose. The clearest evidence emerged in June, when the US president deployed 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles alongside 4,000 federalised National Guard troops to confront immigration enforcement protests – without California Governor Gavin Newsom’s consent.
A federal judge subsequently ruled that this deployment violated the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, which generally prohibits using the military as domestic law enforcement. Yet the administration persisted, revealing Trump’s solution to American strategic decline: when you cannot project power globally, redirect military force towards domestic political control.
This represents the first presidential federalisation of the National Guard against a governor’s wishes since 1965, fundamentally challenging federalism principles. More significantly, the deployment explicitly integrated military forces with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, collapsing institutional boundaries that have anchored American constitutional order. While National Guard units could be deployed as component military forces under Title 10 authority, as some were to Afghanistan and Iraq in the 2000s, they possess no arrest authority domestically.
Unlike police or ICE agents operating under civilian law enforcement protocols, Marines and National Guard troops lack the legal power to detain civilians. Yet Marines – trained for amphibious warfare, not crowd control – reportedly detained a civilian with zip ties during the Los Angeles operation, performing law enforcement functions they constitutionally cannot execute.
This transformation occurs against stark strategic realities. A recent Congressional Research Service report documents that China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy operates the world’s largest naval force by hull count, with over 370 ships, while the US Navy maintained 296 battle force ships as of January. Moreover, China’s shipbuilding capacity vastly exceeds American yards’ output. Defence analysts increasingly warn that the US Pacific Fleet is facing numerically superior opponents operating in home waters.
PLA vessels welcome thousands aboard in Hong Kong
PLA vessels welcome thousands aboard in Hong Kong
Trump’s solution weaponises this contradiction through operational reorientation. Rather than contest unwinnable naval competition, the administration redirects military resources towards Western Hemisphere operations and domestic deployments. Trump’s secret directive authorising Pentagon military action against Latin American drug cartels designated as terrorist organisations, combined with US military strikes off Venezuela’s coast reportedly killing at least 27, signals a focus diverging from the country’s 2018 National Defence Strategy framework designating China as a “strategic competitor”.
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