President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday directing state National Guard units to be ready to assist local, state and federal law enforcement, a potential step toward a dramatic expansion of Trump’s use of military personnel for domestic policing.

The order calls for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to ensure troops in the National Guard of every state “are resourced, trained, organized, and available to assist Federal, State, and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances and ensuring the public safety” and directs the secretary to establish “a standing National Guard quick reaction force” for “nationwide deployment.”

Hegseth will also work with adjutant generals to decide a number of each state’s Guard “to be reasonably available for rapid mobilization for such purposes,” the order said.

State National Guard units are generally controlled by the state’s governor, except in emergencies. 

In comments in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said the Guard deployment could rapidly “solve” crime in some major cities, but left doubt about his desire to overrule governors who do not want Guard troops in their cities.

Trump mobilized the District of Columbia National Guard, which he is able to do because the district is not a state, to assist local law enforcement this month. Guard troops from West Virginia, Louisiana, Ohio, Mississippi, Tennessee and South Carolina also have sent troops to the nation’s capital.

Free DC, a group that advocates for district self-governance, issued a lengthy statement calling the move dictatorial. 

“Trump is laying the groundwork to quell all public dissent to his agenda. If he is successful, it would spell the end of American democracy,” the group said. “We refuse to allow that to happen.”

Chicago next?

Following the deployment to Washington, D.C., Trump said “Chicago should be next.”

Democratic governors, such as Illinois’ J.B. Pritzker, should request National Guard assistance, Trump said. But if they would not, Trump said he may not send troops.

Asked if he would send troops into cities over governors’ objections, Trump complained that governors could be ungrateful for federal deployment.

“We may wait,” he continued. “We may or may not. We may just go in and do it, which is probably what we should do. The problem is it’s not nice when you go in and do it, and somebody else is standing there saying, as we give great results, say, ‘Well, we don’t want the military.’”

Pritzker slammed Trump on social media and said he would not accept Trump sending troops to his state’s largest city.

“I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again and again: We don’t have kings or wannabe dictators in America, and I don’t intend to bend the knee to one,” he posted with a link to Trump’s comments.

The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act generally prohibits federal military forces from engaging in domestic law enforcement. 

‘I’m not a dictator’

Trump dismissed criticism that deploying the military for law enforcement purposes is antidemocratic, saying that most people agree with extreme measures to crack down on urban crime.

“They say, ‘We don’t need ‘em. Freedom, freedom. He’s a dictator, he’s a dictator,’” Trump said of his critics. “A lot of people are saying, ‘Maybe we like a dictator.’ I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator. I’m a man with great common sense and a smart person. And when I see what’s happening to our cities, and then you send in troops, instead of being praised, they’re saying, ‘You’re trying to take over the republic.’ These people are sick.”

Trump earlier this summer called up the California National Guard to quell protests over immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, setting the stage for his actions in the district. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has challenged the president’s authority in a case that is still in court.

Trump over the weekend also fought with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, also a Democrat, on social media and threatened to send in troops to Baltimore.