Updated August 27, 2025 at 1:01 PM EDT
In another sign of how he intends to expand the military's role in domestic affairs, President Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing the secretary of defense to create a "quick reaction force" within the National Guard that could be deployed anywhere in the U.S. in response to "civil disturbances."
The order also calls for the creation of an online portal where Americans with law enforcement or other relevant backgrounds and experience can apply to join federal entities tasked with "ensuring public safety and order" in Washington, D.C., and other cities "where public safety and order has been lost." The order does not specify who would command those forces or what form such a "specialized unit" would take.
National Guard members are under the control of individual states' governors, and a president cannot deploy them unilaterally. The exception is Washington, D.C., which is not a state and does not have a governor. The president commands the D.C. National Guard.
"The way that the laws around military and policing work is that federalized troops cannot be used for law enforcement," Army National Guard veteran Christopher Purdy told Morning Edition. "But since the D.C. National Guard is technically not federalized, but controlled by the president, that would be a workaround around this issue."
Purdy served in the Army National Guard for eight years and was deployed on a special mission in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He is now the CEO of the Chamberlain Network, a veteran advocacy group that describes itself as "dedicated to protecting democracy." In a conversation with NPR's A Martínez, Purdy discussed Trump's executive order and what it will mean for the Guard and the cities they might police.
This interview is lightly edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
A Martínez: Christopher, past presidents have assembled specialized National Guard units to carry out particular missions, and you were part of one after the 9/11 attacks. How would you say the scope of this unit compares to the one you served in?
Christopher Purdy: So, there's still much we don't know about this order, how it's going to be implemented. The unit that I served in was about the size of 300 to 400 people. And this was composed of elements from the Air Force and Army National Guard from different states. And this was really designed to be a quick reaction force. So states would volunteer either company or platoon size elements, about 100 or so troops for this particular mission. But we don't know if we're looking at an element that size, a smaller element, which means that people could potentially volunteer into this, or a larger battalion size element, 700 to 1,000 troops or so. So there's still lots up in the air about this plan. It's not entirely clear if this is one unit that's being discussed in this executive order or multiple.
Martínez: And back then, is it fair to say that the mission for you was to save Americans from terrorism back then? What does the mission appear to be here?
Purdy: Yeah, that's right. So, in the mid-2000s, I was a combat engineer and this was right after 9/11. And we were out there training on disaster recovery, search and rescue, medical services, things like that. The scope of this mission is quite dangerous. And what this does is it will bring National Guard troops more into law enforcement roles, which your previous guest talked about the dangers of that [and] the laws around that are really confusing and complex. So, sending troops nestled under a D.C. National Guard out to communities in Idaho or Illinois or Texas to do law enforcement really kind of flies in the face of the principles that we have in this democracy of civilian control of the military.
Martínez: If this was you, Christopher, and say you're going to be sent out. How would you approach this job or this mission?
Purdy: That's really difficult. I don't feel like I would be comfortable participating in a mission that has me as a quick reaction force, for example, to police my community members for First Amendment speech violations. We know that this president does not like protests. And in the wake of the 2020 protests, he tried to send the National Guard in to really crack down. I would feel really uncomfortable using my presence as a member of the military to participate in that.
Martínez: If you would feel uncomfortable, there would be at least one or two others that are serving now that might also feel uncomfortable?
Purdy: Yeah. And so we're speaking to members of the National Guard right now who have been deployed and are at risk of being called up. And there is real worry within the Guard that they will be misused against American citizens. And so really trying to determine what are the rules that Guard members are going to be asked to implement.
Martínez: Based on what you've seen or heard from the president's executive order, is it clear to you how the chain of command would work here, especially if a governor doesn't want their state guard to be used this way?
Purdy: That's really the key issue for me. So the way that I interpret this executive order is that states would send their troops to be nestled under the D.C. National Guard, which is controlled by the president. And the way that the laws around military and policing work is that federalized troops cannot be used for law enforcement. But since the D.C. National Guard is technically not federalized, but controlled by the president, that would be a workaround around this issue. And so we think that that's quite dangerous. And we would really urge courts to reject this theory, because it fundamentally undercuts The Posse Comitatus Act, which ensures the president can't use the military's domestic police force.
Martínez: Well, I was going to ask about broader implications in terms of the president's use of executive power.
Purdy: What this does is it retools both the National Guard and some federal agencies into a new type of law enforcement arm. We haven't discussed the other part of this executive order. On the executive branch side of things, it converts agencies that typically don't do a lot of public policing, like the Park Service, Department of Transportation, even the Department of Housing and Urban Development into agencies that would have more of a law enforcement role. So this order is quite expansive and quite dangerous.
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