F
or several months, the sound of marching boots has grown ever louder in the United States. After Los Angeles and Washington, Donald Trump plans to expand the deployment of the National Guard to other predominantly Democratic cities, such as Chicago or Portland. These decisions have been justified in turn by the rise in crime or the presence of unhoused people and migrants.
The speech Trump delivered at the end of September to a group of general officers at the Quantico base cast this strategy in a very different light. The president promised to defend America against an "invasion" led by "the enemy from within," reviving the rhetoric of a domestic war against the progressive left. He also suggested using American cities as "training grounds" for the military.
In doing so, Trump was merely amplifying arguments already put forth by some of his closest supporters after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a central figure in the MAGA movement. Although Kirk's killer appears to have acted alone, the president and his allies immediately exploited the tragedy to reinforce the narrative that the left was responsible for a climate of hatred and intolerance pushing the country to the brink of civil war.
