Among those being mentioned for Trump\u2019s defense secretary are Christopher Miller, who served temporarily during his administration, Michael Flynn and Mike Pompeo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 Donald Trump is sparking fears among those who understand the inner workings of the Pentagon that he would convert the nonpartisan U.S. military into the muscular arm of his political agenda as he makes comments about dictatorship and devalues the checks and balances<\/a> that underpin the nation\u2019s two-century-old democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A circle of appointees independent of Trump\u2019s political operation steered him away from ideas that would have pushed the limits of presidential power in his last term, according to books they\u2019ve written and testimony given to Congress. Most were gone by the end. In a new term, many former officials worry that Trump would instead surround himself with loyalists unwilling to say no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump has raised fresh questions about his intentions if he regains power by putting forward a legal theory<\/a> that a president would be free to do nearly anything<\/a> with impunity \u2014 including assassinate political rivals \u2014 so long as Congress can\u2019t muster the votes to impeach him and throw him out of office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, bracing for Trump\u2019s potential return, a loose-knit network of public interest groups and lawmakers is quietly devising plans to try to foil any efforts to expand presidential power, which could include pressuring the military to cater to his political needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those taking part in the effort told NBC News they are studying Trump\u2019s past actions and 2024 policy positions so that they will be ready if he wins in November. That involves preparing to take legal action and send letters to Trump appointees spelling out consequences they\u2019d face if they undermine constitutional norms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re already starting to put together a team to think through the most damaging types of things that he [Trump] might do so that we\u2019re ready to bring lawsuits if we have to,\u201d said Mary McCord, executive director of the Institution for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of the aim is to identify like-minded organizations and create a coalition to challenge Trump from day one, those taking part in the discussions said. Some participants are combing through policy papers being crafted <\/strong>for a future conservative administration. They\u2019re also watching the interviews that Trump allies are giving to the press for clues to how a Trump sequel would look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other participants include Democracy Forward, an organization that took the Trump administration to court more than 100 times during his administration, and Protect Democracy, an anti-authoritarian group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe are preparing for litigation and preparing to use every tool in the toolbox that our democracy provides to provide the American people an ability to fight back,\u201d said Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward. \u201cWe believe this is an existential moment for American democracy and it\u2019s incumbent on everybody to do their part.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n America\u2019s commander-in-chief has vast powers at his disposal \u2014 some well-known, others not so much. Some lawmakers and pro-democracy advocates worry there may be nothing stopping a president from mobilizing the military to intervene in elections, police American streets or quash domestic protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wary of Trump\u2019s staying power \u2014 he is running about even with President Joe Biden in the polls \u2014 Democratic lawmakers already known to be adversarial to Trump are working on a parallel track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the least-understood tools available to a president is the Insurrection Act. Vaguely worded, it gives a president considerable discretion in deciding what constitutes an uprising and when it is OK to deploy active-duty military in response, experts say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill worry that Trump might invoke the act to involve the armed forces in the face of domestic protests or if the midterm elections don\u2019t go his way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is crafting a bill that would clarify the act and give Congress and the courts some say in its use. Its chances of passage are slim given that Republicans control the House and are largely loyal to Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are an array of horrors that could result from Donald Trump\u2019s unrestricted use of the Insurrection Act,\u201d Blumenthal said in an interview. \u201cA malignantly motivated president could use it in a vast variety of dictatorial ways unless at some point the military itself resisted what they deemed to be an unlawful order. But that places a very heavy burden on the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s vow to seek \u201cretribution\u201d on behalf of those he says have been \u201cwronged\u201d and \u201cbetrayed\u201d<\/a> has sparked fears that he would use presidential powers more broadly as a cudgel against political foes. Compounding the anxiety, he remarked at a\u2002Fox News town hall<\/a> last month that he would be a \u201cdictator\u201d \u2014 though only on his first day in office for the purposes of closing the border and drilling for oil. He later posted on his social media site that he had made that remark\u2002\u201cin a joking manner.\u201d<\/a> More recently, Trump told a Fox News town hall in Iowa that \u201cI\u2019m not going to have time for retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Detractors aren\u2019t buying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s a clear and present danger to our democracy,\u201d said William Cohen, a former Republican senator from Maine and defense secretary in the Clinton administration who is not involved in the loose-knit network. \u201cHis support is solid. And I don\u2019t think people understand what living in a dictatorship would mean.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sent a list of questions about the fears recounted in this article, Trump\u2019s campaign did not respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s legal troubles offer new insights into his vision of a presidency that has shed restraints. Not even bribery or murder could land a president in jail so long as Congress didn\u2019t first impeach and convict him, under a legal theory his lawyers advanced in a federal appeals court hearing Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump is facing charges for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. In his defense, his legal team contends that in trying to reverse Biden\u2019s victory, Trump fell within the \u201couter perimeter\u201d of his official duties and is thus shielded from prosecution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where does such reasoning lead? In the hearing, which Trump attended, one judge sketched ominous scenarios about what a president might do under that notion of broad presidential immunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Judge Florence Pan\u2002asked one of Trump\u2019s lawyers<\/a> whether a president could, for example, sell military secrets or order the elite SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival with impunity under the legal argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe would have to be impeached and convicted first,\u201d replied Trump\u2019s lawyer, Dean John Sauer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In an interview, Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said of Trump: \u201cHe\u2019s going to be one creative motherf—– when it comes to trying to figure out how to abuse it [power]. Whatever your guess is, open up your imagination a little more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the last term, Trump\u2019s generals and civilian advisers proved to be a restraining influence: They\u2019d tell him when he had a bad idea. And for a while, Trump seemed to take seriously the advice coming from aides with a military pedigree. \u201cMy generals,\u201d he called them. Relations soured as time passed. One by one, most quit or were fired. A new team may not be so quick to cross him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe same lesson Lincoln learned in his first two or three years are the lessons that President Trump learned: Just because a guy has a title and uniform doesn\u2019t mean anything,\u201d Steve Bannon, a Trump ally and former senior White House official, said in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after the 2020 election, as Trump was refusing to concede defeat, he upended the Pentagon leadership, firing Defense Secretary Mark Esper even though at that point he was a lame duck with just over two months left in the term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The upheaval was jarring, recalled Mark Milley, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an interview with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In its final\u2002written report<\/a>, the committee wrote that \u201csome at the [Defense] Department had genuine concerns, counseling caution, that President Trump might give an illegal order to use the military in support of his efforts to overturn the election.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plenty of rank-and-file members of the armed forces appear sympathetic to Trump\u2019s cause. George Washington University\u2019s program on extremism found that more than 150 of the nearly 1,200 people who were charged with crimes for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol came from a military background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe military is hundreds of thousands of people strong, and ultimately Trump will find people to follow his legal orders no matter what,\u201d said a former senior official who served in the Trump administration, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk freely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Insurrection Act is a legal order, and if he orders it there will be military officers, especially younger men and women, who will follow that legal order,\u201d the former official added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In policy videos posted to his website, Trump said he would provide \u201crecord funding for our military<\/a>.\u201d He faulted Biden for enacting \u201cwoke policies\u201d that are hampering military recruitment and said he would flush out what he called \u201cMarxism,\u201d \u201ccommunism\u201d and \u201cfascists.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s allies say there is little doubt that he would make the military a particular focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Pentagon is going to be a super high priority, and they have to understand there will be a new sheriff in town,\u201d Bannon said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to see a massive housecleaning at the Pentagon. President Trump wants to put in a philosophy of how to win wars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As president, Trump was both fascinated by the military\u2019s capabilities and frustrated by advisers who tried to dissuade him from carrying out plans they deemed ill-advised. Esper wrote in his memoir, \u201cA Sacred Oath,\u201d that in an Oval Office meeting, Trump inquired about having U.S. soldiers shoot domestic protesters in the legs. Esper wrote that his reaction to Trump\u2019s suggestion was one of \u201cutter disgust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A couple of times in 2020, Esper wrote, Trump broached the idea of firing missiles into Mexico to destroy illegal drug labs. Esper told Trump that would be an act of war; Trump replied that the U.S. would deny involvement, Esper wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy sense was that Trump always came to the Defense Department to solve his toughest problems, such as building a wall on the border, handling protesters in America\u2019s streets, and dealing with Covid,\u201d Esper said in an interview. \u201cHe kept coming back to DOD because it is seen as an institution that gets things done. But in some situations, this can end up politicizing DOD if the military is asked to do things it shouldn\u2019t be doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawmakers like Blumenthal are taking steps akin to placing sandbags around a building before a hurricane hits. They\u2019ve made it tougher for a president to pull out of the NATO military alliance, for example. Unhappy that many NATO countries weren\u2019t ponying up enough for defense, Trump had considered dropping out of the post-World War II alliance, his former national security adviser John Bolton wrote in his book, \u201cThe Room Where It Happened.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trying to pull out of NATO won\u2019t be so easy next time around. Last month, Biden signed a $886 billion defense bill that bars a president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO, a move that could stymie Trump\u2019s 2024\u2002campaign pledge<\/a> to \u201cfundamentally\u201d reevaluate \u201cNATO\u2019s purpose and NATO\u2019s mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA second Trump term would be day after day of constitutional crisis \u2014 the Justice Department one day, the Pentagon the next and Homeland Security the next,\u201d Bolton said in an interview. \u201cIt would be unremitting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The military\u2019s role is unique in that soldiers and sailors are trained to obey the commander-in-chief but are told not to follow illegal orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Things get murky when an order comes down in the category of \u201clawful but awful,\u201d as some military experts describe it. There were a few of those in the last term, former Trump appointees say, that they managed to beat back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Trump never invoked the Insurrection Act, he believed the protests in the summer of 2020 surrounding the George Floyd killing made the U.S. look \u201cweak\u201d and wanted the military to quash the demonstrations, former appointees said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sending troops into American streets is often a bad idea, military experts say, pointing to the sort of tragedy that unfolded at Kent State University in 1970 when National Guardsmen shot and killed four students protesting the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his appearance before the congressional\u2002Jan. 6 committee,<\/a> Milley said that there was \u201csignificant pressure on Secretary Esper to deploy forces\u201d to deal with the 2020 racial justice protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump\u2019s subordinates deflected such demands from the president. But in a new term, critics expect he\u2019ll surround himself with loyalists determined to carry out his commands, whatever their merit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLike any good dictator, he\u2019s going to try to use the military to basically perform his will,\u201d said Leon Panetta, former defense secretary and CIA director in the Obama administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Defense secretaries under Trump didn\u2019t enjoy much job security. Five came and went over the four years. But there is likely to be no shortage of candidates should Trump return to office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One possible nominee is Keith Kellogg, a former senior national security official. Trump recently praised Kellogg\u2019s television appearances on Fox News and continues to value his advice, according to a person with direct knowledge about the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Retired Gen. Michael Flynn, who served briefly as Trump\u2019s national security adviser, would be \u201cat the top of the list to be taken care of,\u201d said another person familiar with Trump\u2019s thinking. Flynn\u2019s role in a second Trump administration could be \u201cwhatever he wants,\u201d this person said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A barrier for Flynn might be Senate confirmation. Flynn\u2002pleaded guilty<\/a> to lying to the FBI. Trump later pardoned him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI definitely think that Gen. Flynn would be interested in helping his friend Donald Trump in his next administration,\u201d Flynn\u2019s brother Joseph Flynn said in an interview. He added, though, that \u201cDOD secretary is a role that requires congressional approval. That\u2019s a lot more challenging for someone as much of a lightning rod as Gen. Flynn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n