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Trump directs Hegseth, Bondi to determine how military can be used in domestic law enforcement

April 29, 2025 | | Print Article

President Donald Trump’s promise to restore law and order brought a new directive for the Justice and Defense Departments to involve “military and national security assets in local jurisdictions.”

Ahead of the 100th day of his second administration, the president hosted a group of law enforcement officials from around the country as he signed a new executive order with special instructions for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Specifically, the officials were given a few months to determine how best to use U.S. military resources toward shoring up the fight against crime.

Titled “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Civilians,” the executive order signed Monday expected that within 90 days Bondi and Hegseth, “working with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “and the heads of agencies as appropriate, shall increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions to assist state and local law enforcement.”

As the White House emphasized the practical use toward “cracking down on Sanctuary Cities,” the order also stated that, “Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Attorney General, shall determine how military and national security assets, training, non-lethal capabilities, and personnel can most effectively be utilized to prevent crime.”

Within the order, Trump called out feckless local leaders who “demonize law enforcement and impose legal and political handcuffs that make aggressively enforcing the law impossible, crime thrives, and innocent citizens and small business owners suffer.”

Toward that end, the order instructed the attorney general to “pursue all necessary legal remedies and enforcement measures” particularly as it pertained to officials who “willfully and unlawfully direct the obstruction of criminal law, including by directly and unlawfully prohibiting law enforcement officials from carrying out duties necessary for public safety and law enforcement,” or, those that used DEI initiatives to “unlawfully engage in discrimination or civil-rights violations … that restrict law enforcement activity or endanger citizens.”

As it happened, over the weekend members of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division participated in a multi-agency operation with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain Division to help the Department of Homeland Security take more than 100 illegal aliens into custody during a raid on a club frequented by Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members.

Army CID was investigating the “more than a dozen active duty military” present at the club, which DEA detailed “were patrons or security guards.”

Of course, rather than question why leftist leaders at the state and local levels were hamstringing their own law enforcement officials with soft-on-crime policies and worse, fearmongers set to work claiming that the president was taking a “dangerous step toward fascism and a police state” where supporters saw relief after four years of “nothing but silence” from the Biden-Harris administration.

Kevin Haggerty
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