What Has He Done?

Reports coming out of the military shows the harm that Trump has caused in the National Guard!

Internal National Guard documents show top brass knows mission is unpopular

NPR Heard on All Things Considered

By  Juana Summers, Mallory Yu & Sarah Handel

September 10, 2025

UANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Picking up trash, mulching gardens, patrolling Metro stations - by now, we know quite a bit about what the National Guard has been up to here in Washington, D.C. What's less clear is how the armed forces writ large feel about this assignment.

Now we can get a sense. Last week, internal documents from the National Guard were inadvertently shared with The Washington Post. They included assessments of public sentiment about President Trump's federal takeover of Washington, D.C. Alex Horton covers national security for The Post and joins us now to talk about this. Hi there.

ALEX HORTON: Thanks for having me.

SUMMERS: Alex, just start by telling us, what are these documents that you reviewed, and who are they typically for?

HORTON: So this is a daily assessment prepared by National Guard Public Affairs. They measure what news reports are saying about their deployment to Washington, D.C., and they're also gauging the public sentiment about what's being said on social media. And what they are designed for is to gather up the information, summarize it for leaders, just so they have a better understanding of how their mission's being perceived out there by the public.

[...]

HORTON: There's nothing surprising in here, but what's interesting about these documents is it shows how the National Guard is well aware of these discussions that are happening out there. One of the summary slides we got ahold of says, trending videos show residents reacting with alarm and indignation. One segment features locals describing the guard's presence as leveraging fear, not security, highlighting widespread discomfort with what many perceive as a show of force.

Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes! 

The Daily Beast writes...

Veterans and troops view the deployment “with shame and alarm,” the documents read.

A Guard official acknowledged the assessment’s authenticity and said it was inadvertently emailed to the Post. It is unclear how many others received it.

The analysis found that social posts about the deployment were 53 percent negative, 45 percent neutral, and 2 percent positive.

So what does the Washington Post have to say?

National Guard documents show public ‘fear,’ veterans’ ‘shame’ over D.C. presence

Internal documents reviewed by The Post show how domestic missions rooted in politics risk damaging Americans’ trust in the military.

September 10, 2025

By Alex Horton

The National Guard, in measuring public sentiment about President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C., has assessed that its mission is perceived as “leveraging fear,” driving a “wedge between citizens and the military,” and promoting a sense of “shame” among some troops and veterans, according to internal documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

The assessments, which have not been previously reported, underscore how domestic mobilizations that are rooted in politics risk damaging Americans’ confidence in the men and women who serve their communities in times of crisis. The documents reveal, too, with a rare candor in some cases, that military officials have been kept apprised that their mission is viewed by a segment of society as wasteful, counterproductive and a threat to long-standing precedent stipulating that U.S. soldiers — with rare exception — are to be kept out of domestic law enforcement matters.

But it is not just the Guard that the public shows their displeasure, it Trump's creating a "Quick Reaction Force"

Trump has since signed an executive order directing formation of the quick reaction force.

In examining public opinions online, Guard officials last week highlighted the sentiments shared by people who self-identified as veterans and active-duty troops, who, the documents show, say they viewed the deployment “with shame and alarm.” The assessment also homed in on how people are reacting to various court cases challenging Trump’s domestic military deployments.

The citizens are worried and the guard troops are worried. And I want to point out another think as the NPR points out... pay.

Let's say you've been on active duty. You already have those benefits. You know, you're in the Mississippi National Guard and you're making five figures or six figures at your job, and now you're making $1,500 a month because you're using enlisted pay. That could start to wear on you a little bit. You can see how that could create challenges for families who need child care. That can create challenges economically for people who have to stay away from their jobs.

Where I worked before I retired, the company paid the difference between military pay and work pay. But not all businesses do that that and I imagine those that do are having second thought on paying their employees to pick up trash in DC.