WASHINGTON (AP) — During his first term as president, Donald Trump tested the limits of how he could use the military to achieve policy goals. If given a second term, the Republican and his allies are preparing to go much further, reimagining the military as an all-powerful tool to deploy on U.S. soil.
He has pledged to recall thousands of American troops from overseas and station them at the U.S. border with Mexico. He has explored using troops for domestic policy priorities such as deportations and confronting civil unrest. He has talked of weeding out military officers who are ideologically opposed to him.
Trump's vision amounts to a potentially dramatic shift in the role of the military in U.S. society, carrying grave implications for both the country's place in the world and the restraints that have traditionally been placed on domestic use of the military.
As Trump’s campaign heads into its final stretch against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, he is promising forceful action against immigrants who do not have permanent legal status. Speaking in Colorado on Friday, the Republican described the city of Aurora as a “war zone” controlled by Venezuelan gangs, even though authorities say that was a single block of the Denver suburb, and the area is safe again.
“I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered,” Trump said at the rally. “We will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them out of our country.”
The former president and his advisers are developing plans to shift the military’s priorities and resources, even at a time when wars are raging in Europe and the Middle East. Trump’s top priority in his platform, known as Agenda 47, is to implement hard-line measures at the U.S.-Mexico border by “moving thousands of troops currently stationed overseas” to that border. He is also pledging to “declare war” on cartels and deploy the Navy in a blockade that would board and inspect ships for fentanyl.
Trump also has said he will use the National Guard and possibly the military as part of the operation to deport millions of immigrants who do not have permanent legal status.
While Trump’s campaign declined to discuss the details of those plans, including how many troops he would shift from overseas assignments to the border, his allies are not shy about casting the operation as a sweeping mission that would use the most powerful tools of the federal government in new and dramatic ways.
“There could be an alliance of the Justice Department, Homeland Security and the Department of Defense. Those three departments have to be coordinated in a way that maybe has never been done before,” said Ron Vitiello, who worked as the acting director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement under Trump.
While both Democratic and Republican presidential administrations have long used military resources at the border, the plans would be a striking escalation of the military’s involvement in domestic policy.
Advocates for human rights and civil liberties have grown alarmed.
“They are promising to use the military to do mass raids of American families at a scale that harkens back to some of the worst things our country has done,” said Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, an immigration advocacy organization.
In Congress, which has the power to restrict the use of military force through funding and other authorizations, Republicans are largely on board with Trump's plans.
“The reason I support Donald Trump is he will secure the border on Day 1. Now that could be misinterpreted as being a dictator. No, he’s got to secure the border,” said Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Many Republicans argue that Trump's rhetoric on immigration reflects reality and points to the need for military action.
“There is a case that this is an invasion,” said North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd, a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “You look at 10 million people, many of which are not here for a better future, and, unfortunately, it’s made it necessary. This is a problem that the Biden administration and Harris administration have created.”
Still, Trump’s plans to move military assets from abroad could further inflame tension within the GOP between those hawkish on foreign policy and Republicans who promote Trump’s brand of “America First” isolationism.
Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, insisted Trump would not move active-duty troops to the border, even though Trump’s platform clearly states he would.
In the Senate, where more traditional Republicans still hold sway, Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, issued a statement encouraging the Department of Defense to assist with border security, but adding that the effort “needs to be led by the Department of Homeland Security.”
Trump’s designs for the military may not stop at the border.
As Trump completes a campaign marked by serious threats to his life, his aides already made an unusual request for military aircraft to transport him amid growing concerns over threats from Iran.
During his first term while riots and protests against police brutality roiled the nation, Trump also pushed to deploy military personnel. Top military officers, such as then- Gen. Mark Milley, resisted those plans, including issuing a memo that stressed that every member of the military “swears an oath to support and defend the Constitution and the values embedded within it.”
Trump's potential actions would likely require him to invoke wartime or emergency powers, such as carrying out mass deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law, or quelling unrest under the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that allows a president to deploy the military domestically and against U.S. citizens. It was last used by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 during rioting in Los Angeles after police officers beat the Black motorist Rodney King.
Ahead of a potential second term for Trump, Democrats in Congress tried to update presidential powers like the Insurrection Act but found little success.
That’s left them instead issuing dire warnings that Trump now has fewer guardrails on how he could use the military. He has shown an ability to bend institutions to his goals, from a Supreme Court willing to reconsider long-standing interpretations of presidential powers to a military scrubbed of officers and leaders likely to push back on his plans.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who introduced legislation to update the Insurrection Act, said the plans “illuminate Donald Trump’s total misunderstanding of the United States military as a force for national defense, not for his personal preferences to demagogue an issue.”
But Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, underscored how many in his party have grown comfortable with deploying the military to confront illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
“Whatever fixes the border, I think we’re OK with,” he said.
FILE - Surrounded by Army cadets, President Donald Trump watches the first half of the 121st Army-Navy Football Game, Dec. 12, 2020, in West Point, N.Y. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump greets members of the National Guard on the U.S.-Mexico border, Feb. 29, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on the central Gaza Strip killed a family of eight, Palestinian medical officials said Sunday, as Israeli forces battled Palestinian militants in the territory's north and airstrikes destroyed a century-old market in southern Lebanon.
The strike in Gaza late Saturday hit a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing parents and their six children, who ranged in age from 8 to 23, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, where the bodies were taken.
It said a further seven people were wounded, including two women and a child in critical condition. An Associated Press reporter counted the bodies.
A year into the war with Hamas, Israel continues to strike what it says are militant targets in Gaza nearly every day. The military says it tries to avoid harming civilians and blames their deaths on Hamas and other armed groups because they operate in densely populated areas. In recent months, it has repeatedly struck schools being used as shelters by displaced people, accusing militants of hiding among them.
Israel is waging air and ground campaigns against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, and is expected to strike Iran in retaliation for a missile attack earlier this month, though it has not said how or when. Iran supports both militant groups and has said it will respond to any Israeli attack.
In northern Gaza, Israeli air and ground forces have been attacking Jabaliya, where the military says militants have regrouped. Over the past year, Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to the built-up refugee camp, which dates back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation, and other areas.
Israel has ordered the full evacuation of northern Gaza, including Gaza City. An estimated 400,000 people remain in the north after a mass evacuation ordered in the opening weeks of the war. The Palestinians fear Israel intends to permanently depopulate the north to establish military bases or Jewish settlements there. The United Nations says no food has entered northern Gaza since Oct. 1.
The military confirmed Saturday that hospitals were included in the evacuation orders but said it had not set a specific timetable and was working with local authorities to facilitate the transfer of patients.
Dr. Mohamed Salha, director of Al Awda Hospital, said it was among three hospitals in the north that had received small shipments of fuel that would last for a matter of days. He said they also need medical supplies as casualties continue to stream in, requiring 12 to 15 surgeries each day at his facility alone.
Fares Abu Hamza, an official with the Gaza Health Ministry’s emergency service, said there are a “large number of martyrs” still uncollected from the streets and under the rubble.
“We are unable to reach them,” he told The Associated Press, adding that street dogs are eating some of the remains.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Around 100 hostages are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Israel's bombardment and ground invasions of Gaza have killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, and left much of the territory in ruins. Palestinian medical officials do not say whether those killed by Israeli forces are militants or civilians, but say women and children make up over half the fatalities. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.
Israeli airstrikes destroyed an Ottoman-era market in the southern city of Nabatiyeh overnight, killing at least one person and wounding four more. Lebanon's Civil Defense said it battled fires in 12 residential buildings and 40 shops in the market, which dates back to 1910.
“Our livelihoods have all been leveled to the ground,” said Ahmad Fakih, whose corner shop was destroyed.
The Israeli military said it struck Hezbollah targets in the city, without elaborating.
Rescuers were searching for survivors and remains in the pancaked buildings early Sunday as Israeli drones buzzed overhead. Nabatiyeh was one of dozens of communities across southern Lebanon that Israel has warned people to evacuate, even as the city hosts people who have already fled.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which is allied with Hamas, began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, drawing retaliatory airstrikes. The conflict dramatically escalated in September with a wave of Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and most of his senior commanders. Israel launched a ground operation into southern Lebanon earlier this month.
In a separate incident, the Lebanese Red Cross said paramedics were searching for casualties in the wreckage of a house destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon on Sunday when a second strike left four paramedics with concussions and damaged two ambulances.
It said the rescue operation had been coordinated with U.N. peacekeepers, who informed the Israeli side. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Israeli forces have repeatedly fired upon first responders and U.N. peacekeepers since the start of the ground operation. The military has accused Hezbollah of using ambulances to ferry fighters and weapons and says Hezbollah operates in the vicinity of the peacekeepers, without providing evidence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called for the peacekeepers to heed Israel's warnings to evacuate, accusing them of “providing a human shield” to Hezbollah after Israeli strikes wounded five peacekeepers in recent days.
“We regret the injury to the UNIFIL soldiers and we are doing everything in our power to prevent this injury. But the simple and obvious way to ensure this is simply to get them out of the danger zone,” he said in a video addressed to the U.N. secretary-general, who has been banned from entering Israel.
Israel has long accused the United Nations of being biased against it and relations have plunged further since the start of the war in Gaza. It has accused the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees of having been infiltrated by Hamas, allegations the agency denies.
At least 2,255 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the conflict, including more than 1,400 people since September, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were Hezbollah fighters. At least 54 people have been killed in the rocket attacks on Israel, nearly half of them soldiers.
Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut and Natalie Melzer in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.
Find more of AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.
Workers unload Saudi medical aid boxes arriving at Beirut International airport, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Workers unload Saudi medical aid boxes arriving at Beirut International airport, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Workers unload Saudi medical aid boxes arriving at Beirut International airport, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Workers unload Saudi medical aid boxes arriving at the Beirut International airport, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Hezbollah rescue workers search for victims amidst the rubble of destroyed buildings at a commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A Hezbollah rescue worker searches for victims amidst the rubble of destroyed buildings at a commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Destroyed shops and a mosque are seen on a commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Destroyed shops are seen in front of a Hezbollah fighter statue on a commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in NAbatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A Hezbollah firefighter hoses down on burned and destroyed shops at a commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Hezbollah rescue workers use a bulldozer to remove the rubble of destroyed buildings on a commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A man walks in front of destroyed buildings on a commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Lebanese citizens watch the destroyed buildings at commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Hezbollah rescue workers stand on the rubble of destroyed buildings at commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in NAbatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A Hezbollah rescue worker, left, and a Lebanese Civil Defence worker, right, stand on the rubble of destroyed buildings at commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in NAbatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Hezbollah rescue workers search for victims on the rubble of destroyed buildings at commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
A man walks amid destroyed buildings at a commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Destroyed buildings at a commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, are seen in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Lebanese man Ahmad Fakih checks his destroyed coffeeshop at a commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Hezbollah rescue workers search for victims amid the rubble of destroyed buildings at commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Hezbollah rescue workers search for victims on a destroyed building at commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Hezbollah rescue workers search for victims on the rubble of destroyed buildings at commercial street that was hit Saturday night by Israeli airstrikes, in NAbatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
