A former top military official accused President Trump of threatening to use troops to fight the American people as if they were enemies of the state.
“We have a military to fight our enemies, not our own people. And our military should never be called to fight our own people as enemies of the state. And that, quite frankly, for me really tipped it over,” Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fox News Sunday.
Mullen spoke out last week against Trump’s use of law enforcement to forcibly disperse peaceful protesters in front of the White House so he could walk to a nearby church for a photo-op.
“Whatever Trump’s goal in conducting his visit, he laid bare his disdain for the rights of peaceful protest in this country, gave succor to the leaders of other countries who take comfort in our domestic strife, and risked further politicizing the men and women of our armed forces,” Mullen, who was chairman from 2007 until 2011, wrote in a piece for the Atlantic.
Mullen said Sunday he thinks deploying troops to respond to protests could lead the public to lose trust in the military.
“That’s what’s in play right now, and you really don’t need that kind of force, the American military to turn on the American people, particularly when they are executing their right to protest, you know, that is emblazoned in the Constitution of the United States,” he said.
