TRUMP CALLS FOR MILITARY TO BE USED ON HIS “ENEMIES WITHIN” ON U.S. SOIL; HIS JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF CHAIRMAN CALLS TRUMP “FASCIST” AND “MOST DANGEROUS PERSON TO THIS COUNTRY”

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left:  Screenshot of Trump at rally in Aurora,Colorado Friday where he threatened violence and military retribution against his enemies in America

October 16, 2024 – Alarm bells are being sounded by former generals who served under Trump, who warn that his increasing threats of violence and retribution against political enemies and journalists are “fascist,”  as is his stated admiration for Adolf Hitler's generals.

Trump told Fox News this week that he would order the National Guard and “if really necessary, the military” to go after “enemies within” on American soil if he is reelected, ABC reports.

He has frequently used the “enemies within” description for his political opponents such as Rep. Adam Schiff, who led the impeachment hearing against Trump. Trump has repeatedly threatened retribution against his political enemies, including charging retired generals who have criticized him with treason.

In addition, he has threatened journalists and major news outlets, called for arrest by the military of anyone he deems “radical left lunatics,” aims to build camps to detain tens of millions of immigrants. He has also called for a “single day of violence” to curtail crime, said he would use force to quell protests against him if he wins the election and said Jews will be to blame if he loses.

Retired Army General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs during Trump’s first term as president, now says Trump is “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country,” according to an interview Milley gave to journalism Bob Woodward for Woodward’s new book, War. 

Milley said President Trump wanted to revenge or court martial retired Admiral William McRaven merely because Raven criticized Trump.  Admiral McRaven led the 2011 mission that resulted in the capture and killing of Osama bin Ladin, mastermind behind the 9-11 attacks on New York and Washington D.C.  Milley diverted Trump from such action by promising to “take care” of the situation, then privately warned other former military commanders to avoid publicly criticizing Trump for fear of retaliation, the Washington Post reports.

Woodward, the Washington Post reporter who exposed the Watergate scandal, has covered every president since Nixon over the past half century.  In his book, he calls Trump “unfit to leader the country,” stating, “Trump was far worse than Richard Nixon, the provably criminal president. … Trump was the most reckless and impulsive president in American history.”

Retired Marine General John Kelly, Trump’s former chief of staff, told the Guardian  newspaper in London that Trump insisted generals should be “like the German generals” under Adolf Hitler, who were “totally loyal” even as Hitler orchestrated the mass murder of Jews and others in concentration camps during the Holocaust as well as the invasion of sovereign nations across Europe and beyond.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, during her own rally played a clip from Trump’s Friday rally in Aurora, Colorado, where he repeated the “enemy from within” rhetoric and threats to use the military against U.S. citizens on American soil, calling him “unhinged” and seeking “unchecked power.” Trump has quipped he would be a “dictator on day one,” CNN reports.

Tim Walz, Harris’ vice presidential running mate, went further. A former National Guardsman, Walz denounced Trump’s statements and said using the military or National Guard against his domestic enemies made Walz “sick to his stomach” and could even amount to treason.

Top supporters of Trump whom he has pledged to serve on his team if elected, including people with criminal records, have signaled support for Trump even in the most extreme actions including political executions and unleashing “gates of hell,” among other disturbing remarks.

Michael Flynn, national security during Trump’s first administration and a former Army lieutenant, pleaded guilty of lying to the FBI but was pardoned by Trump. Trump says Flynn would serve in his administration again if Trump wins the election.

Flynn spoke at a far-right, Christian National “Rod of Iron Freedom Festival” in Pennsylvania recently.  Video reveals that when asked at the event if he would “sit at the head of military tribunal to not only drain the swamp,but imprison the swamp” and even “execute the swamp,” Flynn replied that he supports accountability, adding darkly, “We gotta win first, and then Katie bar the door. Believe me, the gates of hell, my hell will be unleashed," MSNBC reports.

Steve Bannon, conservative media host and former White House strategist for Trump, is currently in prison for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena.  Natalie Winters, co-host of Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, recently said this during her broadcast, Meidas  Touch News reports:  “If you want a definition of what justice or retribution looks like, it's going to look like Steven K. Bannon sitting in this chair providing live commentary during the trials and eventual prison sentences of people like....Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Hunter Biden ... we'll throw (special prosecutor) Jack Smith in there too...Opening bid is treason, but I'm sure we will find a lot more."

Beyond attacking political opponents and immigrants as “vermin” and worse, Trump has recently turned his vitriol on Jews.  He has told his rally goers that “The Jewish people would have a lot to do with a 2024 loss,” a chilling and unsubstantiated remark coupled with his direct use of Hitler’s rhetoric and tactics.  It is worth mentioning that one of Trump’s ex-wives,IvankaTrump, stated during their divorce proceedings that Trump kept a book of Hitler’s speeches at his bedside and read from it every night, CNN reported. Trump has also repeatedly praised dictators such as Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Trump has also taken a page out of fascist dictators’ playbooks in attacking the media. He has called for the Federal Communications Commission  (FCC) to yank the broadcast licenses of ABC and CBS, simply because he disliked questions ABC’s moderator asked during the debate and because CBS interviewed Harris on its “60 Minutes” show. Trump was invited to be interviewed on the program, but declined.

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel sharply criticized Trump’s threats in a statement to The Hill. “While repeated attacks against broadcast stations by the former President may now be familiar, these threats against free speech are serious and should not be ignored,” she warned.” “As I’ve said before, the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy,” she said. “The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”

But that could change if Trump is elected and stacks agencies with political appointees loyal to him, as Project 2025 provides a blueprint for him to do in a second term.

Perhaps it has taken threats against media and calls to imprison or execute those he perceives as enemies from within, but the mainstream media has finally taken notice of Trump’s increasingly fascist statements.

CNN ran an image of the Merriam Webster dictionary definition of fascism in an article headlined “Trump ramps up  anti-immigrant, authoritarian rhetoric.”  That dictionary definition notes that a fascist “exalts nation and often race above the individual, that is associated with a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader” including “forcible suppression of opposition."

Trump has surrounded himself with people with neo-Nazi and white-supremacist sympathies.His former White House adviser Stephen Miller, a proponent of the “Great Replacement theory,” described by the Anti-Defamation League as a philosophy of “fear that whites will become a powerless minority in the face of changing demographics,” was found to have recommended white nationalist websites and literature in private emails uncovered by the Southern Poverty Law Center.Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House chief strategist and campaign head, ttold a French far-right crowd in 2018 that they should wear the “racist” label proudly. During his time in the White House, he also pushed an agenda of “economic nationalism,” Voice of America reported. 

Trump's "America First" slogan has been touted historically by racist and anti-Semitic movements from the Ku Klux Klan to Nazi supporters, according to a report by Foreign Policy in Focus.

Historians are also taking note.  Robert Paxton, one of the top scholars on fascism and a professor emeritus at Columbia University, has said that Trump’s open incitement of civic violence that encouraged his supporters to violently storm the capitol on January 6, 2020 crossed the line into fascism, Newsweek reports. That, coupled with Trump's threats against his political enemies, efforts to stoke division agaisnt minority groups and emulation of dictators such as Mussolini and Hitler,  has led the fascism scholar to now conclude, “The label now seems not just acceptable, but necessary."