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As Republicans tout domestic troop deployments, 'Jade Helm' is relevant anew
In 2015, the right feared active-duty troops in local communities. In 2025, some Republicans can’t wait to send active-duty troops into local communities.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/jade-helm-washington-dc-troops-republicans-rcna225007
Congressional Republicans have spent the week predictably cheering Donald Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard troops to the streets of Washington, D.C., and placing local police officers under federal control, though some GOP lawmakers appear eager to see the president go even further.
In his latest appearance on Newsmax, for example, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky said, “We’re going to support doing this in other cities if it works out in Washington, D.C. ... We spend a lot on our military. Our military has been in many countries around the world for the past two decades, walking the streets trying to reduce crime in other countries. We need to focus on the big cities in America now.”.....
In case anyone’s forgotten, U.S. military officials organized some training exercises in 2015 for about 1,200 people in areas spanning from Texas to California. Somehow, right-wing activists got it in their heads that the exercises, labeled “Jade Helm 15,” were part of an elaborate conspiracy theory involving the Obama administration, the Pentagon, Walmart and some “secret underground tunnels.”
All of this, according to the conspiracy theorists, was part of a White House martial law plot, in which American civilians on American soil would be subjected to a military takeover......
Eventually, the training exercises happened; there was no military takeover; and the GOP base gradually moved on to different conspiracy theories. But the underlying fear is relevant anew: The whole point of the Jade Helm hysterics was conservative activists who seemed genuinely afraid of a tyrannical federal government sending active-duty troops into local American communities — a step that conservatives, at the time, characterized as obvious authoritarianism.
That was the summer of 2015. In the summer of 2025, however, many of those same conservatives have elected Republican policymakers who can’t wait to send active-duty troops into local American communities.
Comer: "We're gonna support doing this in other cities if it works out in Washington DC. We spend a lot on our military. Our military has been in many countries around the world for the past two decades walking the streets trying to reduce crime. We need to focus on the big cities in America now."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-08-14T14:40:08.637Z
In his latest appearance on Newsmax, for example, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky said, “We’re going to support doing this in other cities if it works out in Washington, D.C. ... We spend a lot on our military. Our military has been in many countries around the world for the past two decades, walking the streets trying to reduce crime in other countries. We need to focus on the big cities in America now.”.....
In case anyone’s forgotten, U.S. military officials organized some training exercises in 2015 for about 1,200 people in areas spanning from Texas to California. Somehow, right-wing activists got it in their heads that the exercises, labeled “Jade Helm 15,” were part of an elaborate conspiracy theory involving the Obama administration, the Pentagon, Walmart and some “secret underground tunnels.”
All of this, according to the conspiracy theorists, was part of a White House martial law plot, in which American civilians on American soil would be subjected to a military takeover......
Eventually, the training exercises happened; there was no military takeover; and the GOP base gradually moved on to different conspiracy theories. But the underlying fear is relevant anew: The whole point of the Jade Helm hysterics was conservative activists who seemed genuinely afraid of a tyrannical federal government sending active-duty troops into local American communities — a step that conservatives, at the time, characterized as obvious authoritarianism.
That was the summer of 2015. In the summer of 2025, however, many of those same conservatives have elected Republican policymakers who can’t wait to send active-duty troops into local American communities.