The Language of Occupation

“Battlespace” and the Insurrection Act

The Playbook of Domestic Despotism

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When the Warrior Class Turned on the Coward-in-Chief

It was June 1, 2020. The air in Washington, D.C., reeked of smoke, gas, and hypocrisy. Protesters had gathered outside the White House in Lafayette Square, furious, brokenhearted, but peaceful. They were there to grieve George Floyd, to demand justice, to scream into the hollowed-out corpse of American promises. They had every goddamn right to be there.

But Donald Trump didn’t see Americans exercising their rights. He saw a stage to sell fascism. So he did what authoritarians do. He sent in the troops.

Let me say that again for the willfully blind: the President of the United States used federal officers and military police to assault civilians for a staged Bible photo op. Tear gas. Rubber bullets. Mounted officers. Low-flying helicopters. All to clear a path so the twice-impeached draft-dodger could shuffle to St. John’s Church, hold up a Bible like a blunt object, and pretend to be the anointed protector of the nation while democracy bled out at his feet.

That was the fucking line.

And that day, Marine General James "Mad Dog" Mattis, retired, respected, and officially done with Trump’s bullshit, broke his silence. He released a statement that should have detonated across every red-hat echo chamber in the country: "Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people, does not even pretend to try."

Mattis didn’t mince words. He delivered an indictment. A decorated four-star general had just declared the commander-in-chief a domestic threat. When the warrior class publicly turns on the executive, we’re not in a democracy anymore, we’re in a slow-motion coup, and the alarm is blaring.

Trump is back and this time, the threats aren't theoretical

In recent speeches, Trump has openly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act again, this time to crack down on what he calls “domestic enemies,” “Marxist radicals,” and “election saboteurs.” He’s used those exact words, testing the same playbook he dusted off in 2020. Only now, the warning signs have metastasized into open declarations. In an April 2025 rally in Pennsylvania, Trump said:

“This time, we won’t wait for chaos, we’ll take care of it on Day One. The military will restore order. Period.”

Let that sink in. He’s threatening to preemptively use the Insurrection Act to enforce political order. That’s not crowd control. That’s Martial Law in all but name.

Make no mistake: this isn’t a recycled scare tactic, it’s a real and present threat. The Insurrection Act, passed in 1807, gives the president vast authority to deploy active-duty troops on American soil. It’s supposed to be used in extreme emergencies, civil war, massive insurrection, overwhelming lawlessness. Trump wants to use it against protests, dissent, maybe even journalists.

And let’s not pretend this is about national security. This is about optics and domination. He’s shown us the blueprint before. Lafayette Square was the dry run.

The military isn’t supposed to serve a man. It serves the Constitution. That sacred trust was torched the moment troops were deployed against Americans in Washington, D.C. And it’s about to be torched again if this administration moves forward with what it's threatening: a standing domestic occupation force under the pretense of “law and order.”

Trump loved the aesthetics of power. He worshipped military pageantry but loathed actual service. He dodged the Vietnam draft multiple times with bogus medical deferments, then spent years ridiculing veterans and POWs. John McCain, a prisoner of war for five years in Vietnam, was dismissed by Trump because he got captured. And the GOP lapped it up. They didn’t just excuse it, they normalized it.

Now they’ve evolved from enablers to engineers. Trump has purged dissenting officials. He installed loyalists at the Pentagon. He’s floated reactivating retired generals who “understand American strength.” And you can bet your ass those aren’t the ones quoting the Federalist Papers.

This isn’t some hypothetical dystopia. It’s unfolding in real time.

In his 2020 statement, Mattis wrote:

“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a ‘battlespace’ that our uniformed military is called upon to ‘dominate.’”

But now, in 2025, “battlespace” has returned to official vocabulary. It’s been spotted in leaked internal documents obtained by investigative reporters from ProPublica and The Intercept, outlining proposed “urban security initiatives” for 2025-2026. One chilling slide reads:

“Doctrinal integration of federal forces in priority zones of unrest.”

That’s sanitized jargon for boots on civilian streets.

This isn’t law enforcement. This is authoritarian muscle wrapped in flag and uniform. This is Caesar at the Rubicon, daring the people to say no.

Let’s talk about the human cost, again

It wasn’t just symbolic back in 2020. It was bone-breaking, lung-choking violence. Tiana Wells, a nurse and Iraq War veteran, stood in Lafayette Square with a sign that said “We the People.” She was shot in the chest with a rubber bullet. Ribs shattered. Lungs bruised. “It felt like being shot by my own,” she said. Because it was.

Now, under Trump 2.0, new protest restrictions are already being drafted. Permits denied. Civil disobedience reclassified under “national threat” language. And yes, insider sources from the Department of Homeland Security confirm that deployments under the Insurrection Act are “on the table.” Not in reaction. In anticipation.

And what does that tell you?

It tells you that dissent isn’t just under threat. It’s being strategically redefined as sedition.

And where the hell is the GOP?

Cheering him on. They’re not just enabling authoritarianism, they’re institutionalizing it. Matt Gaetz, J.D. Vance, Marjorie Taylor Greene, they’ve all echoed calls for using “federal force” against protestors, and pushing to “reclaim lawless cities.” These people aren’t anomalies, they’re the goddamn bench.

There is no moderate wing left. There is no loyal opposition. There is only a chorus of bootlickers who think using the military against the people is a show of strength.

But it’s not strength. It’s cowardice. It’s a fucking betrayal of everything this country is supposed to stand for.

So what now?

We listen to the Mattises, the McChrystals, the Milleys who, despite previous complicity, have begun warning the public that the armed forces are not political weapons.

We drag this truth into the light: Trump wants to end the era of civilian oversight.

When a sitting president actively threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act to silence dissent before it even happens, it’s not a red flag. It’s a fucking siren. The same playbook that led to Lafayette Square is now being dusted off and reinforced with legal fig leaves and propagandistic fervor.

The next time might not end with rubber bullets and gas. It could end in blood. And if we don’t stop it, that blood is on all our hands.