It’s becoming increasingly obvious that Donald Trump not only plans on winning the GOP primary next year, but he’s already measuring the drapes to restore the Oval Office to the way he preferred it. He probably has even more reasons to be confident given the massive lead he continues to maintain in the primary polls and some recent national polling showing him opening up a lead in a rematch with Joe Biden in November. He’s back on the campaign trail in Iowa this week and he’s revealing some of the plans he’s making should he return to office. One of them involves a much more aggressive use of the American military to restore order in the country. This has left the Associated Press fretting nervously and worrying about what he might do with that sort of military muscle.

Campaigning in Iowa this year, Donald Trump said he was prevented during his presidency from using the military to quell violence in primarily Democratic cities and states.

Calling New York City and Chicago “crime dens,” the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination told his audience, “The next time, I’m not waiting. One of the things I did was let them run it and we’re going to show how bad a job they do,” he said. “Well, we did that. We don’t have to wait any longer.”

Trump has not spelled out precisely how he might use the military during a second term, although he and his advisers have suggested they would have wide latitude to call up units.

What seems to alarm the people at the AP more than anything else is the fact that Trump could actually do this and nobody would really have the power to stop him. Under the auspices of the Insurrection Act, the President can call up military units for domestic purposes, though this has only rarely been done in modern history. The military can’t actually engage in law enforcement activity because of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 except under extraordinarily limited circumstances. Riot control certainly could be considered a law enforcement activity, but this would be one of those exceptions. The President could deploy them for other reasons as well, directing them to assist in the mass deportation of illegal aliens, or freeing up civilian law enforcement officials to do their jobs by relieving them of other duties.

In terms of breaking up riots, I will admit that it seems like a bit of a stretch to declare a riot an “insurrection.” (Insert your own quip about January 6 here.) But that doesn’t really matter. The decision by the President to invoke the Insurrection Act is not reviewable by the courts or Congress. In fact, the only requirement is that the troops first ask the participants to disperse. If they fail to do so, all bets are basically off.

Of course, any actions like this would rely on the military going along with the plan and following orders. That likely won’t be much of an issue, however. As the linked report notes, Donald Trump remains wildly popular among military members and veterans. In 2020, 59% of veterans voted for Trump and in the 2022 midterms, 57% voted for Republicans. If Trump sends them to Portland instead of Syria, I’m confident they will happily go and do as they are ordered. On top of that, your average Antifa rioter is going to put up far less of a fight than a Huthi rebel and likely be less well-armed to boot.

So, in the event that he winds up being elected, is this something Trump really should do? In response, I would ask if you’ve been watching the news lately. If things don’t improve significantly between now and then, something will need to be done. We’re looking at nothing less than the potential for societal collapse at this point. Order has to be restored and crime must be brought under control. There is an army of illegal migrants in our midst, almost certainly including a number of potential domestic terrorists waiting to answer the call to jihad. It will take a staggering amount of work to straighten this mess out even if you do employ the military. And given the way things are going in the world at the moment, I would far rather see our men and women in uniform serving at home rather than “over there.”