NSL4A, a bipartisan coalition of retired senior military officers, ambassadors, and national security officials, today announced its opposition to  President Trump’s new Executive Order granting the National Guard sweeping authority to perform domestic law enforcement duties,  calling them “ineffective, wasteful, and dangerous.”

This action represents a perilous escalation in the politicization of America’s armed forces. For over two centuries, the United States has maintained a distinct separation between civilian policing and the military. By directing the Guard to assume routine law enforcement responsibilities, the administration is eroding one of the bedrock principles of our democracy: that military power must never be used as a tool of domestic control.

NSL4A is deeply concerned by the sudden firing of Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Announced without explanation, this dismissal is the latest in a disturbing trend of political interference in the U.S. intelligence community.

This follows the recent removal of General Timothy Haugh as Director of the National Security Agency (NSA), as well as the abrupt dismissal of the acting chair and vice chair of the National Intelligence Council, whose members provide strategic, long-term analysis to policymakers. These actions, along with reports of pressure on analysts to alter or downplay assessments of foreign threats, reflect a concerted effort to bend intelligence to fit political preferences.