Trump's Call to War - How a President Takes Aim at His Own Country

It was only a post on Truth Social, nine minutes old, but the content breaks every boundary of political normality. Donald Trump declared Portland a "war ravaged city," called on his "Secretary of War" Pete Hegseth to mobilize troops, and threatened the use of "full force" to defend ICE facilities against Antifa and other alleged "terrorists." Words that sound not only martial but like an open declaration of war against his own population.

At the request of Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, I am directing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to provide all necessary troops to protect war ravaged Portland and all our ICE facilities under siege from Antifa and other domestic terrorists. I am also authorizing the use of full force if necessary. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

For years Trump has been working on shifting the political coordinate system. Protesters are declared "internal enemies," opposition movements as "terrorists." By labeling Portland - a city with a long tradition of civic protest culture - a "war zone," he draws the red line between state and citizens as if they were two hostile armies. This is not just rhetoric but a dangerous strategy: anyone who describes a country in war mode creates the legitimacy for violence.

A Marine veteran intends to sue the federal government after twice being tackled to the ground last week by federal agents while protesting outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building in South Portland, he alleged in a legal filing. (August 22, 2025)

The order to Hegseth to deploy troops recalls the darkest chapters of American history, when presidents had the National Guard march against demonstrators. But Trump goes one step further - he stages a Ministry of War, speaks of "Full Force," and thereby sends a signal that every officer, every soldier, every ICE agent can only understand as a free pass. "When a president declares his own territory a war zone, that is no longer politics but a militarization of thought," says historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, an expert on authoritarian movements. "This language is fatally reminiscent of Mussolini and Franco, who also stigmatized internal opponents as terrorists and traitors."

The danger lies not only in the words but in their effect. In a political landscape that is already deeply polarized, such messages can be understood as a call to escalate. Radical groups that see themselves as militias could interpret Trump's words as empowerment. Security forces, in turn, are drawn into the pull of a language that transforms civic conflicts into military scenarios. "Trump is using a classic authoritarian pattern here: he declares a state of emergency when there is none," warns law professor Laurence Tribe. "That opens the door to measures that would otherwise be unconstitutional because they rely on a fictitious threat."

This makes Trump's rhetoric not only the symptom of a president who no longer knows any boundaries but the fever image of a man who is sick with delusions of power. It is as if he wants to avenge the defeat of General Custer, as if the goal were to rewrite history through an apocalyptic finale. In his hands politics becomes a battle order, society a front. Things happen that surpass everything that has gone before - steps that drive a country toward civil war. Whoever provokes for so long, whoever preaches hatred and glorifies violence for so long, plays with the certainty that in the end he unleashes exactly that: the war within, which he has long been preparing in his words. This brings closer a reality that until now seemed unimaginable: the creeping transition to an internal civil war. Trump does not only delegitimize opponents, he delegitimizes the very idea of opposition itself. Whoever protests is a terrorist. Whoever contradicts is an enemy. In this logic, only violence remains in the end.

Read our research on this: The Big Lie of Portland - How Fox News Feeds Trump and Turns a City into an Enemy Image at the link: https://kaizen-blog.org/en/die-grosse-luege-von-portland-wie-fox-news-trump-fuettert-und-eine-stadt-zum-feindbild-macht/

Also read our article: Command from Within - Pete Hegseth's Test of Power with America's Generals at the link: https://kaizen-blog.org/en/befehl-aus-dem-inneren-pete-hegseths-machtprobe-mit-amerikas-generaelen/

What is happening in Portland is more than a regional conflict. It is the epicenter of a policy that deliberately relies on escalation in order to secure power. Trump is playing with the internal stability of the United States - and risks that the country he wants to govern will tear itself apart from within. The question that remains: how many institutions, how many officials, how many citizens will allow themselves to be drawn into this war against their own society? And how long will it take before words turn into gunfire? We will report directly from Portland to document the events on the ground and make visible the impact of this escalation on the people of the city.