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GOP now is OK with president's overreach

By: Chris Brennan
USA Today

..... Texas Governor Greg Abbot expressed grave concerns about the president marching America's military into his state.
..... He wanted assurance that his state's residents' 'safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed." He sought to "ensure that Texas communities remain safe, secure and informed" well before the troops arrived.
..... U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, said he understood why his constituents were reacting with "concern and uncertainly" because, in his view, "the federal government has not demonstrated itself to be trustworthy in this administration." People in Texas just couldn't trust what was happing, he said.
..... A national poll showed that 32% of primary voters thought the federal government was about to seize control of Texas, while 40% did not believe that and 28% were unsure.
..... Alex Jones, a far-right font of conspiracy theories, called it an invasion and urged Texans to prepare. Russia's government, eager to accentuate the anxiety, used the Internet to amplify it.
..... But none of this was about crime in American cites. And it wasn't an invasion It wasn't even this year. [2025]

GOP once panicked over an Obama invasion that didn't happen

..... A decade ago, in the summer of 2015, the kind of conservative alarmists who were then congealing into President Donald Trump;s MAGA base were howling not about him but about then-President Barack Obama.
..... And it was all because the U.S. special Operations Command planned to conduct training across seven states - Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida - from July to September in an peritoneal called "Jade Helm 15."
..... Among the outlandish Jade Helm conspiracy theories then was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was building "death domes" to hold anyone who resisted, that closed Walmart locations would be sued to process detainees, and that Russia would arm rebels in Texas for civil war.
..... That right-wing panic 10 years ago is instructive, because none of those freedom-loving voices are now calling out concerns about Trump really doing what they falsely accused Obama of ding with the military.
..... It has always been easier, of course, to play to the partisan base with conspiracy theories than to base with conspiracy theories than to confront the titular head of your own political party as he leans hard into strongman tactics.

You'll notice Trump isn't 'fixing' Republican-run cities, states

..... Trump, using crime as a pretext to menace American cites with our own military, isn't sending armed forces into Republican-controlled Texas, even though Houston and San Antonio rank in the top 10 for the highest total crime rates among the country's 30 largest cities.
..... Trump instead has invaded California with Marines and National Guard members.
..... He now has armed National Guard members wandering around Washington, DC, and he keeps talking about the next targets - Chicago, new York, Baltimore.
..... conservatives, who a decade ago sued military training to cast Obama as a dictator wannabe, now cheer on trump as he pushes closer and closer to authoritarian rule.
..... Speaking at the White House on August 25, [2025] Trump mused about it this way: "A lot of people are saying maybe we'd like a dictator." He also said he's ready to invade states even when governors there don't ask for help.
..... Republican politicians aren't howling about Trump federalizing the National Guard to patrol their red states because that is not happening. And Trump;s control of the Republican Party, from congress to state offices, is so total now that Abbott would probably roll out the red carpet if the president decided to invade Dallas.
..... That Trump is targeting only blue states where Democrats are calling the shots is proof that his military actions against America's own citizens have nothing to do with crime. The FBI, now led by one of Trump's favorite conspiracy theorists, announced August 5 [2025] that crime was decreasing in America, according to statistics complied form 2024.
..... Crime in Washington, DC, lie in other big cities, is on the decline. The Department of Justice in January [2025] announced that violent crime in city had hit a 30-eyar low.
..... But that sort few talk doesn't help Trump flex his military in a city where Democrats are in charge. so he had federal prosecutors investigating how Washington's crime statistics were compiled.

It seems Republicans are just happy to be in control

..... Stephen Miller, the top Trump aide who contrives some of his worst policies, gave up the game while standing by the president in the Oval Office on August 25: [2025] "we've uncovered - and are in the process of uncovering -a massive scandal in Washington, DC, with the doctoring of crime stats."
..... Sure, Miller sounded several steps ahead of a federal criminal investigation. But that causes no concern in Trump World when the investigation itself is a sham with a predetermined outcome to maximize political benefit.
..... This is about control. It's maneuvers of a kind, but not for training.
..... Trump lawless administration in in a dry run for seizing control through military force if the 2026 midterm elections, and maybe the 2028 presidential election don't go his way.
..... Jade Helm 15 came to a quiet close in mid-September 2015. It was what it was always planned to be: a military exercise with no lasting footprint.
..... There were no detention centers. No Russian arms for Texas rebels. No invasion a tall.
..... That result was not at all surprising a decade ago. the same result now seems less and less likely.
..... Just ask Abbott, who was so jazzed by Trump's deployment of the military to Los Angeles in June [2025] that he activated troops to patrol Texas as a show of support. Or listen to Cruz tell Fox News two weeks ago that Trump was "showing bold and strong leadership: by filling Washington's streets with soldiers.
..... Their gave concerns for a decade ago were designed to stoke fears of a president trending toward authoritarian abuses. But that was a Democratic president. They're cool with it now.

..... Follow USA Today columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly Known as Twitter:@ByChrisBrennan.

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