Vance Boelter was trained at Dallas Bible College to engage in spiritual warfare against "demon-possessed politicians" and other foes of charismatic Christians

(YouTube)

The suspect in the deadly Minnesota political shootings has ties to a charismatic Christian movement that focuses on "spiritual warfare" and speaks of those with differing views as "possessed by demons," according to an article at The Atlantic. Raw Story reports on The Atlantic's findings under the headline "MN suspect tied to Christian group that warned of 'demon-possessed politicians.'" Sarah K. Burris writes:

The Minnesota assassination suspect had a history of participation in religious groups that speak of a kind of "political warfare" and warned of "demon-possessed politicians."

Family and friends have spoken out about Vance Boelter, the Minnesota man who turned himself in to police in the shootings of four people, killing two, The Atlantic reported on Tuesday. Among the things they've learned: he had contact with "a charismatic Christian movement whose leaders speak of spiritual warfare, an army of God, and demon-possessed politicians, and which has already proved, during the January 6 insurrection, its ability to mobilize followers to act."

Reporter Stephanie McCrummen found that Boelter attended a Dallas, Texas, Bible College named Christ for the Nations Institute. The college confirmed that Boelter graduated in 1990. It is described as "a prominent training institution for charismatic Christians," according to the report.

The late James Gordon Lindsay was a central figure in the movement's rise to prominence. He helped it grow roots in several denominations, especially those in the Pentecostal and Evangelical traditions. Burris writes:

Pentecostal evangelist James Gordon Lindsay helped found the institute in 1970. Lindsay comes out of the revivalist movement, the New Order of the Latter Rain, which began as a protest movement in Canada, wrote L. Thomas Holdcroft for the Fall 1980 edition of the Society of Pentecostal Studies.

Post World War II followers "believed that an outpouring of the Holy Spirit was underway, raising up new apostles and prophets and a global End Times army to battle Satanic forces and establish God’s kingdom on Earth."

It was a philosophy rejected by the main Pentecostal church but was embraced and promoted by the Christ for the Nations group. That ultimately became the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, which broadcasts its beliefs in "megachurches, global networks of apostles and prophets, and a media ecosystem of online ministries, books, and podcasts, becoming a grassroots engine of the Christian Right."

Burris describes the type of curriculum Boelter would have discovered at Christ for the Nations Institute (CFNI):

While at the school, the report said he would have been exposed to leaders who view the world as a physical battleground for a spiritual battle between God and Satan.

"He would have been told that actual demonic forces can take hold of culture, political leaders, and entire territories, and thwart God’s kingdom," the report said. Boelter would have been instructed to consider himself a "spiritual warrior."

In the piece, McCrummen found courses offered at the school, such as "Prayer and the Supernatural."  The class description says, "The Bible is clear that angels and demons are real. This course will cover a wide range of how the Bible and prayer contend against demonic forces. The World is in an era of serious warfare and the Body of Christ must remember that Jesus has already won this war. As in any warfare, the military must know their opponent and how to 'war a good warfare.'"

McCrummen quoted the school founder’s slogan that “Every Christian should pray at least one violent prayer a day.”

In the wake of the shooting, the Christ for the Nations Institute put out a statement saying, "We thought it important to clarify this issue" about the founder's quote. They claim that “violent prayer" means "that a Christian’s prayer-life should be intense, fervent, and passionate, not passive and lukewarm..."

The statement also said about the shooter that they were "aghast and horrified," noting, "This is not who we are."

Boelter's spiritual education is addressed in an article titled "On the Christian Education of Dr. Vance Boelter," by Jeff Sharlet, who wrote on the day of the shootings:

In 2024, at the Christ for the Nations Institute, I met a student at the Institute, a pleasant young man who wanted to pursue music ministry. I asked him about “violent prayer.” It was necessary, he said, to remind yourself every day that “the culture”—the rest of us, the unsaved—are the enemy. He clarified: “Not you, in particular,” he said. “Just, you know, the culture.” He wasn’t a killer.

Around 2, 3 this morning, somebody in Minnesota was.

I stopped by at Christ for the Nations Institute because I was in Dallas to speak at a very different church, First Unitarian, which has a 60-year history of fighting for reproductive rights and through volunteers continues to help people seeking abortions make their way to other states. It’s stepped up for trans rights, too. For my talk, the church hired off-duty cops as security. Because a church on the front lines of struggle for so long knows something about the violent prayers of others.

As it happens, Vance Boelter was involved in reproductive rights, too. According to Wired, he was the former president of “Revoformation Ministries,” and as a missionary in Congo—or, possibly, an aspiring oilman, or both—apparently preached a sermon in 2023 against churches that don’t fight abortion. “God,” Boelter wrote in his sermon, “will raise an apostle or prophet to correct their course.”

The hit list said to be Boelter’s included along with the names of Democratic politicians those of abortion providers and pro-choice activists; the addresses of Planned Parenthood clinics. Boelter joins the theological tradition of murder for “life,” heir to the so-called “Army of God,” a long list of killers, bombers, kidnappers, poisoners, and arsonists whose names need no recitation.

Perhaps the most disarming description of Boelter's mindset came in this paragraph from The Atlantic piece, where Stephanie McCrummen writes:

Reporting so far describes Boelter, the 57-year-old man now facing murder charges, as a married father of five who worked in the food industry for decades, managed a gas station in St. Paul and a 7-Eleven in Minneapolis, and recently began working for funeral-service companies as he struggled financially. (According to one report, Boelter worked for a transport service that picked up corpses from assisted-living facilities and delivered them to funeral homes.) At the same time, Boelter had an active, even grandiose, spiritual life long before he allegedly carried out what authorities describe as a “political assassination” and texted his family afterward, “Dad went to war last night.”

Vance Boelter's abandoned vehicle was filled with weapons and ammunition, indicating he planned a "long term," deadly campaign against political enemies

 

The interior of Boelter's vehicle reveals a stash of weapons (ABC7 Chicago)

The deadly political shootings in Minnesota were horrific, but they could have been even worse, with new evidence indicating suspect Vance Boelter had a much more extensive list of potential victims than was originally known, along with a significant amount of weaponry. That comes from an article at Raw Story via reporting at NBC News. From the  article, under the headline "'Going for something long term': Shocking new details about Minnesota shooter":

Evidence gathered by investigators suggest a suspected gunman who allegedly killed a Democratic state legislator and her husband and wounded another planned a "long-term" campaign against his political enemies.

Vance Boelter, 57, was arrested following a two-day manhunt and charged in the killings of Melissa and Mark Hortman and the shootings of John and Yvette Hoffman. NBC News correspondent Tom Winter discussed the evidence already turned up in the case by federal investigators.

"One, they say that they found a note effectively addressed to the FBI in a Buick that he bought," Winter said. "So he bought an e-bike and a Buick after the shooting, while he was on the run, for $900, and they say inside that they found a note where he effectively says, you know, 'Look, I'm the guy that you're looking for, this is me.'

"One of the other things that we found out is that in the course of their investigation, they were able to pull up cell phones that were associated with Boelter, and they used the location-finding services to try to figure out where he could be. They found his wife's cell phone, they pull over the wife's car and they find the kids inside. They find $10,000 of cash and all of their passports. Now, they haven't implicated her with any sort of wrongdoing. They said that she was cooperative in their discussions with her, but they noted that in the affidavit yesterday. So we'll have to see if there's more information that we find out about that. What exactly was Boelter perhaps planning on? "

NBC News is expecting new evidence to reveal more details about Boelter's plans for his campaign of violence, Winter said. That information probably will be revealed in the next couple of days. Winter hinted that Boelter's stash of weapons and ammunition was more extensive and powerful than early findings indicated:

"[Investigators] also found his travel of interest, the idea that he went to Minneapolis, as they said at the press conference on that Saturday, and then he goes back to a location pretty close to his house where he was living," Winter added. "And then that's ultimately, of course, where he was captured. So a lot of information, a lot of detail in there. Undoubtedly, we'll hear more because they're going to file a detention memo, so we might get some updates on this investigation in the next day or two as they continue their court process here as we move towards an indictment."

Federal investigators said Boelter went to the houses of two other Democratic lawmakers in between the two shootings, but the first was not home and a police officer interrupted his stop at the next before he moved on to the Hortmans' home, where he shot and killed the couple and got into a shootout with police.

"I think the fact that this could have been so much worse is what we're seeing come out of the evidence that was presented," Winter said. "So we obviously have the double homicide that occurs. One of the state lawmakers' houses, the first one, which is horrible. The idea that it was their daughter who called 911 to alert police to what was happening. They obviously uncovered a lot of video evidence from a camera that was near the doorway. Then they find evidence here, we're looking at it right now. This was really something to see in the vehicle, the amount of weapons that he had, including assault-style rifles, handguns, ammunition, other things that were found inside the car, so clearly he was going for something long-term here."

Video of the Winter discussion at NBC can be viewed at at this link.

Suspect in deadly Minnesota political shootings, described as a religious pro-life conservative who attended Trump rallies, "stalked his victims like prey"

Vance Boelter caught on video wearing a disguise (Fox)

Vance Luther Boelter, who a friend described as an ardent pro-life conservative,  was arrested Sunday night in the shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses, leaving behind an apparent hit list in his vehicle that included dozens of names. Boelter was a registered Republican and attended rallies for President Donald Trump.

State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband died from their injuries. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were shot multiple times but are in stable condition following surgery. Boelter went to the homes of two additional Minnesota political figures, four total, according to an article at Newsweek:

Vance Boelter, who faces several charges in the deadly shooting of a Minnesota Democrat lawmaker and her husband, targeted four different lawmakers during his rampage, acting U.S. Attorney Joseph H. Thompson said during a press conference Monday.

Thompson said Boelter's alleged crimes "are the stuff of nightmares," calling them "truly chilling."

"He stalked his victims like prey," Thompson told reporters.

Thompson said Boelter will face at least six federal charges, including stalking, murder, and shooting with a firearm, following his capture in the "largest manhunt in Minnesota history."

Thompson said Boelter went to the homes of four Minnesota State politicians, who he stalked before his crimes.

Boelter allegedly researched the families he targeted and went to their homes before the shootings and took notes, Thompson explained.

Those notes were found in a notebook that had a list of more than 45 Minnesota elected officials, including Hortman, Thompson said.

Boelter went to homes in Maple Grove and New Hope during his rampage, according to Thompson, but did not reach his targets.

Thompson said when he went to the Hoffman's house in Champlin, he knocked on the door and shouted multiple times, "This is the police! Open the door."

When the Hoffmans answered, he shined a flashlight in their faces and told them there was a shooting reported in the house.

Thompson says that the video surveillance he reviewed shows the Hoffmans making the terrifying realization before they are shot.

Background on Boelter comes from a report at CNN under the headline "What we know about the Minnesota shooting suspect":

The man accused of shooting Democratic state lawmakers in Minnesota on Saturday while impersonating a police officer worked for a security company that advertised a fleet of “police type vehicles,” and other equipment that could potentially have aided him in appearing to be law enforcement.

Vance Boelter was also an outspoken evangelical Christian who traveled to Africa to tell his faith story and, in at least one sermon, pointedly questioned American morals on sexual orientation, according to videos and social media posts reviewed by CNN.

Boelter was a conservative who was strongly against abortion rights, a longtime friend told CNN on Saturday. But Boelter never mentioned any particular anger with the lawmakers who were shot, said David Carlson.

“It wasn’t the thing that defined him,” he said of his religious and political beliefs.

Carlson added, “He wasn’t a hateful person. But he needed help.”

Boelter, 57, was arrested Sunday night in the city of Green Isle, Minnesota, where he lived, according to authorities. He’s accused of killing one lawmaker and her husband and wounding another and his wife early Saturday. Officials said he left behind an apparent hit list with dozens of names in his car after exchanging fire with police outside the home of one victim and fleeing the scene. Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said the attack “appears to be a politically motivated assassination.”

Evidence indicates Boelter targeted Democrats and those connected to Planned Parenthood and the abortion-rights movement. He appeared to be strongly opposed to LGBTQ rights. CNN reports:

State officials said authorities early on Saturday encountered what appeared to be a police vehicle with emergency flashing lights in the driveway of Rep. Melissa Hortman’s home. Officers at the home “saw (Boelter)…dressed as a police officer, shoot an adult man” through the open front door, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune. The suspect “exchanged gunfire” with police and ran into the house, ultimately disappearing from the area, according to the complaint.

Hortman – the top Democrat in the Minnesota House – and her husband were both killed. At a nearby home, Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were also shot but are in stable condition after surgery. 

Police said they are still investigating a motive for the attacks. The names on the list, which CNN obtained, are largely Democrats or figures with ties to Planned Parenthood or the abortion rights movement. The list included prominent lawmakers like Rep. Ilhan Omar and Sen. Tina Smith as well as Planned Parenthood leaders. Police said Boelter also had fliers for anti-Trump protests in his car, raising fears that he may also have intended to target those rallies.

Boelter largely shied away from political posts in his publicly available social media feeds and did not discuss abortion rights in any religious speeches reviewed by CNN. In one talk he gave in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023, he appeared sharply critical of LGBTQ rights.

“There’s people especially in America, they don’t know what sex they are, they don’t know their sexual orientation, they’re confused. The enemy has gotten so far into their mind and their soul,” he said in a sermon at a Pentecostal church in eastern DRC.

Carlson said Boelter was recently having financial problems, possibly due to his regular travels to Africa. The security firm had failed to find traction, Carlson said, leaving Boelter scrambling to find work, including at a funeral home.

“Problem is, he quit all his jobs to go down there,” he said. “And then he comes back and tries to find new jobs. Wasn’t working out that good.”

Boelter's ties to the shootings was a shock to those who knew him via church work. They never expected to learn of any connections to violence:

Those who knew Boelter from his church work said they were stunned that he was linked to the violence on Saturday.

Pastor McNay Nkashama, who said he knew Boelter as a volunteer who preached Christianity, said he was struggling to reconcile the allegations with the man he knew.

“Of all the people I know, he would not hurt a fly,” Nkashama said in a brief telephone interview. “I just cannot believe it.”

Although Boelter lived in the small town of Green Isle about an hour outside Minneapolis, he often crashed in Carlson’s rented home in the city.

Carlson, 59, spoke with reporters Saturday night in front of the small home after returning from the lumber store to buy plywood for the windows, which had been busted open by a SWAT team earlier in the day.

Carlson said he last heard from Boelter around 6:30 pm on Friday night. He said he knocked on Boelter’s door, and when Boelter said he was tired, Carlson watched TV and went to bed.

He said he awoke around 6:30 am Saturday and soon after he saw a text message from Boelter. It’s unclear when the text was sent. Carlson declined to read it to reporters on Saturday night, but Reuters had reported earlier that Boelter told Carlson that he might be dead soon.

After seeing the text message, Carlson said, he called the police.

“I thought he would do self-harm; I didn’t think he was … ” his voice trailed off.

Boetler's interests in politics went beyond voting and attending rallies. He also held an appointed position in state government, work that crossed party lines, CNN reports:

Boelter served on a state board with Hoffman, records show. In 2019, Walz put Boelter on the Governor’s Workforce Development Board – a group of business owners who recommend policies to the state government. In a letter, Walz said the post was in recognition of Boelter’s “integrity, judgment, and ability.”

According to a spokesperson for the governor, the development board, which has more than 60 members, is one of many external boards and commissions whose members are unpaid and come from “all parties.” The spokesperson said the governor does not interview applicants to the boards.

It’s unclear how closely Boelter and Hoffman interacted in that role, if at all.

“We are still exploring that,” Drew Evans, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension superintendent said in a news conference Saturday afternoon about whether Boelter knew the victims directly. “There’s certainly overlap with some public meetings, I will say, with Sen. Hoffman and the individual, but we don’t know the nature of the relationship or if they actually knew each other.”

Boelter and his wife apparently have ties to the security industry, and that might have helped him prepare for the attacks. From CNN: 

Boelter has worked as director of security patrols for Praetorian Guard Security Services, which provides “random armed patrols” of customers’ properties, according to the company’s webpage – which also suggests he could have had access to uniforms and equipment that could aid in impersonating a police officer.

The firm was registered to Boelter’s home address and listed a woman who is apparently his wife as president and CEO; she did not respond to messages from CNN.

The site advertised that the firm had “police-type vehicles” and noted, “We drive the same make and model of vehicles that many police departments use in the U.S. Currently we drive Ford Explorer Utility Vehicles.”

The firm’s website boasted of Boelter having experience in foreign conflict zones. It said that he was “involved with security situations in Eastern Europe, Africa, North America and the Middle East, including the West Bank, Southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.”

Video from outside Hortman’s home on Saturday showed law enforcement towing a black Ford Explorer equipped with police lights. Archived photos from a home previously owned by Boelter show a similar vehicle in the driveway.

Boelter often spoke publicly of his faith and had a special interest in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). An online biography described him as a reverend and author:

In speeches reviewed by CNN, Boelter discussed his deep faith and said he was born again into the church as a teenager.

“I met Jesus when I was 17 years old and I gave my life to him,” Boelter told the church in the DRC in February 2023. “And I just wanted to tell everybody about Jesus.”

Records also show that Boelter once launched a Christian nonprofit called Revoformation Ministries. An archived website under that name includes a biography of him, describing Boelter as having traveled extensively to preach Christianity, including in the Middle East, where the site says he had sought out “militant Islamists in order to share the gospel and tell them that violence wasn’t the answer.”

That website described Boelter as a reverend and an author, noting that he had written a book that presents a “different paradigm on the nature of man and our relationship with God.”

CNN reviewed numerous videos of Boelter preaching in the DRC from 2021 to 2023. Boelter appears emotional when describing his religious devotion. He also frequently talked about his connection to the DRC and what he perceived as the suffering the country has endured due to decades of internal conflict and meddling of other countries.

“I’ve been to North and South America, I’ve been to the Middle East, I’ve been to Eastern Europe, and I’ve been in the DRC. I’ve never been in a country before like the DRC that has had so much taken away. I hear the history, and it hits my heart. So many people, so many countries have taken, taken, taken,” he said in 2022.

Boelter said he worked at major food brands such as Nestlé, and was the general manager of a 7-11, according to an online resume.

Boelter registered to vote as a Republican in the early 2000s, state records show. Carlson said he was a Trump voter. In a post six years ago on LinkedIn, Boelter encouraged people to vote and wrote, “I think the election is going to have more of an impact on the direction of our country than probably any election we have been apart of, or will be apart of for years to come.”

A state document that listed his 2019 appointment to a development board noted he had “no party preference.”

Boelter’s LinkedIn page claims he had a doctorate in educational leadership and a masters of science in management, both from Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, and he used the prefix Dr. on his website and social media. Social media posts also indicate he has multiple children.

A search of Minnesota criminal records showed no cases against Boelter aside from some traffic charges.

Boelter had a property outside the small town of Green Isle, about 50 miles west of Minneapolis, according to records. A sheriff’s deputy was blocking a gravel road leading to the home on Saturday afternoon. In the town’s restaurants and bars, no one who spoke to CNN knew Boelter or his family.

Carlson said he thought Boelter’s recent financial struggles may have pushed him into violence.

“He was looking around, but maybe things didn’t work out and he just gave up and decided to go out in the blaze of glory,” he said. “I have no idea what he was thinking.

Steven Cheung, spokesman for the White House, takes heat from the press for bloated crowd estimates at military parade that drew mostly empty bleachers

Empty bleachers line the route of Trump's parade (YouTube)

A spokesman for the Donald Trump administration is taking heat from the press for allegedly making an exaggerated estimate of the crowd size for Saturday's military parade in Washington, D.C. Several media observers who were present along the parade route said Steven Cheung's estimate was "not even  close." Under the headline "Trump Lackey Torn Apart for Wild Claim of Giant Parade Crowd;The White House director of communications seems to be having trouble with basic arithmetic," Will Neal, of the Daily Beast, writes:

President Donald Trump’s director of communications has prompted ridicule with spurious claims over the size of the crowd at a Washington, D.C., military parade.

 “Amazing. Despite the threat of rain, over 250,000 patriots showed up to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the @USArmy,” Steven Cheung posted to X on Saturday night. “God Bless the USA!” MSNBC was quick to pour water on the claim.

“That’s just not accurate, that’s not even close to accurate,” reporter Vaughn Hillyard, who was present at the event, told hosts of MSNBC’s The Weekend on Sunday.

“Just the eye of any individual who is here on the ground or looking at images or video knows that there were not 250,000 people, but that can be the White House’s position here,” he added.

Aside from a bloated crowd estimate, Cheung's statement on X raises this question: How did Cheung know that the crowd was filled with people who met his definition of a "patriot"? Did that label apply to 50 percent of the crowd, 20 percent, less than that? Do you have to attend a Trump-sponsored military parade to qualify as a patriot these days? That Cheung's goofy statement raised such questions might be one reason he took a pummeling on social media. Here's another: Going back to his work on the 2024 Trump campaign, Cheung has proven that he almost is Trump's equal when it comes to being an a-hole -- and that's a tough bar to reach. Anyone who has experience in dealing with the press, should know that if you treat reporters with disdain and hold a shaky grasp on the truth, your list of media friends is going to be mighty short. Neal writes:

Users on X eviscerated Cheung in the comments section and in reposts of his original claim. Many of them compared him to former Trump Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who was called out in 2017 for grossly inflating the number of people who’d attended the president’s first inauguration.

“Steven Cheung in his ‘Sean Spicer’ moment declared FALSELY 250K people attended Trump’s vanity parade yesterday!!” one user put it. “The lying and delusion from this Trump administration never stops!!”

“Steven Cheung has no concept of the principles of empirical induction predicated from proven observation,” another chimed in. “Steven Cheung has no ability to use inference from established facticity. Steven Cheung is a deluded fantasist with no concept of actual reality.”

A third person simply wrote: “Trump’s nutsackhead is lying again.”

A fourth person said: “Yeah right dude, and Steven Cheung is skinny too.”

That last comment might best be described with the aid of a photograph. Even Trump calls Cheung "my sumo wrestler." Cheung also could be described as a jerk, as one reporter essentially has done, according to a New Yorker account. Of course, Cheung's boss is the world's No. 1 jerk, so what should we expect from his spokesman:

Trump has always delighted in belittling opponents—Lyin’ Ted, Liddle Marco, Crooked Hillary, Sleepy Joe—and Cheung, a former spokesman for the mixed-martial-arts franchise Ultimate Fighting Championship, is a virtuoso at mimicking his boss, voicing all manner of innuendo and humiliating barbs. “He can be pretty offensive and crass online, and I think that’s a tactical thing,” one newspaper reporter who has dealt with Cheung said. “They’re a brutal operation—‘You come at us and we’re going to kick you in your fucking teeth.’ ” Cheung seems to relish playing the heel. He has also stepped in to refute accusations that the Trump movement is racist. In 2021, after Ted Lieu, a Democratic congressman from California, tweeted about the rise in hate crimes committed against Asian Americans during the Trump Administration, Cheung replied, “As an Asian American who has worked on campaigns, in government, and in the corporate world, working for President Trump and in his WH was the most inclusive environment I’ve ever encountered.” 

That, of course, is coming from someone who is paid to toe the Trump line, so a reasonable person might not want to give it much credence. Daily Beast provides more details on crowd size:

“The sad spin starts,” as another described it. “The highest reasonable total is only 10-20K attending.”

Even Grok, X’s in-house AI fact-checking tool, found it hard to wrangle any logic from Cheung’s post. “Claims of over 250,000 attendees at the U.S. Army’s 250th anniversary parade in Washington, D.C., on June 14, 2025, appear exaggerated,” the program responded to a tag in the comments.

“Official permits allowed for up to 200,000 for the parade and 50,000 for the festival, but news reports suggest actual attendance was lower than expected,” it went on. “No official figures confirm the 250,000 claim, and sources like PBS and KTLA indicate turnout fell short of 200,000. Exact numbers remain unverified as of now.”

Trump and Hegseth have suggested that shooting protesters in the legs would be no big deal, but research shows such wounds can lead to amputation and death -- indicating our "leaders" are not too sharp

 

Police shoot a woman at point-blank range with a  "less lethal" round as she returns home from work (Guardian)

 

A few months ago, most Americans likely could not have imagined a U.S. president and his secretary of defense having protesters shot -- even those peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights on public property. But now, with protesters and military personnel confronting each other in Los Angeles -- and a similarly combustible event set to take place this weekend in Washington, D.C. -- no American should be certain an unimaginable event will not unfold soon in one of those locations -- or at another site where some 1,500 "No Kings" events are planned around the country on Saturday to protest Trump's military parade that day in D.C. Possible clashes might be of particular concern when the president and secretary of defense in question are Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth. It likely is especially troubling for those familiar with the pair's rhetoric about protesters.

The New Republic (TNR) reminds us of the words Trump and Hegseth have spewed on the subject in an article titled "Would Trump and Hegseth Have Protesters Be Shot? See What They’ve Said; The weekend’s events in Los Angeles bring us face-to-face with a possible reality that until this year seemed unimaginable in the United States. Michael Tomasky writes:

If you’d somehow forgotten what Donald Trump said to top military aides in June 2020 about the people gathered in Washington’s Lafayette Park protesting the killing of George Floyd, now seems like a good time to remember.

Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper said in many interviews while promoting his book in 2022 that, during a White House meeting to discuss the protests, Trump turned to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley and asked: “Can’t you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?”

Naturally, Esper and Milley were both aghast. But now fast-forward to this past January, and the confirmation hearing of current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. As fate would have it, Hegseth was among the National Guard troops deployed by Trump to quell those George Floyd protests. Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii asked Hegseth about that day, and how he might handle a similar situation were he the Pentagon chief. Per The Washington Post at the time: 

“In June of 2020, then-President Trump directed former secretary of defense Mark Esper to shoot protesters in the legs in downtown D.C., an order Secretary Esper refused to comply with,” Hirono said. “Would you carry out such an order from President Trump?”

“Senator, I was in the Washington, D.C., National Guard unit that was in Lafayette Square during those events,” Hegseth replied, “carrying a riot shield on behalf of my country.” …

As Hegseth was describing his experience, Hirono pressed the point: “Would you carry out an order to shoot protesters in the legs as directed to Secretary Esper?”

“I saw 50 Secret Service agents get injured by rioters trying to jump over the fence,” Hegseth continued, “set a church on fire and destroy a statue. Chaos.”

“That sounds to me that you will comply with such an order,” Hirono concluded. “You will shoot protesters in the leg.”

The Post’s droll next sentence? “Hegseth didn’t reject her conclusion.” Watch this video, starting at about 3:30; at exactly 4:02, Hegseth had a clear opportunity to say, “No, senator, I can’t imagine ordering that.” He didn’t take it.

This, remember, is the same Hegseth who tweeted over the weekend about possibly calling in the Marines to Los Angeles.

Oh, while we’re recalling stuff, it behooves us to recall this: During a 2023 campaign rally, Trump was talking about those Lafayette Square protests when he said this: “You’re supposed to not be involved in that, you just have to be asked by the governor or the mayor to come in—the next time, I’m not waiting.”

I’m no math whiz, but I’m pretty sure I can add all that up. It equals the very real possibility that somewhere down the dark road ahead of us, under orders of the president of the United States, U.S. soldiers might open fire on U.S. citizens, along with possibly other civilians who don’t happen to be U.S. citizens. The idea of the military firing on civilians on American soil seems impossible to imagine, something more akin to a totalitarian dictatorship or a rogue state. The idea of U.S. soldiers firing on U.S. citizens exercising a constitutional right they’ve secured simply by being born is beyond incomprehensible. But today, under this president and this defense secretary, there seems a better than remote chance that this is where we’re headed.

Let's establish for the record that a gunshot wound to the leg is not a minor inconvenience. Consider the following insights from an article at PubMed and the National Library of Medicine under the title "[Treatment of gunshot fractures of the lower extremity: Part 2: Procedures for secondary reconstruction and treatment results]":

Abstract

Background: Gunshot wounds of the lower extremities are always serious injuries, especially in cases in which bone is affected. Contamination and extensive tissue damage can be life-threatening for the patient and severely affect the function of the extremity. Contamination and local infections with multidrug resistant pathogens are regularly encountered particularly in casualties evacuated from crisis regions. Treatment of this special type of injury, which differs in the form and extent from conventional high-energy trauma of the lower extremities, usually requires lengthy and extensive therapy algorithms in order to preserve the affected extremity.

Patients and methods: Based on the results of 34 gunshot wounds of the lower extremities which were surgically treated in this department between 2005 and 2011, this article reports on procedures used for wound management, soft tissue reconstruction and restoration of bone continuity. This group included 18 patients with a total of 20 gunshot-related fractures, 40% of which affected the lower leg and 35% the thigh. The affected extremities could be salvaged in all cases.

Results: The therapeutic spectrum required for bone reconstruction after soft-tissue coverage demonstrated in these case examples ranged from conventional osteosynthesis with or without local cancellous bone transplant with platelet-rich plasma, to healing in a fixator, bone resection and the Masquelet method, distraction osteogenesis using a fixator in order to restore continuity and definitive secondary extension using an intramedullary skeletal kinetic distractor (ISKD) nail. Out of 15 bullet fractures affecting large tubular bones 8 could be healed without any shortening, axis deviation or malrotation. In 7 cases definitive shortening by an average of 20 mm (minimum 10 mm and maximum 40 mm) was necessary. The average treatment time before full weight-bearing was achieved within tolerable pain limits was 66 weeks (minimum 4 weeks and maximum 267 weeks). Secondary osteitis and osteomyelitis following primary restoration was detected in only one case.

Conclusion: These results show that the treatment of gunshot wounds of the lower extremities is time-consuming and extensive and requires the complete spectrum of modern trauma surgery. Despite the high risk of complications during treatment it is possible and feasible to apply procedures that preserve the extremities.

Extremities can be saved in many instances, but that is not always the case, as an article from PubMed and the National Library of Medicine makes clear under the title "Lower extremity vascular injuries caused by firearms have a higher risk of amputation and death compared with non-firearm penetrating trauma":

Abstract 

Objective: Firearm injuries have traditionally been associated with worse outcomes compared with other types of penetrating trauma. Lower extremity trauma with vascular injury is a common presentation at many centers. Our goal was to compare firearm and non-firearm lower extremity penetrating injuries requiring vascular repair.

Methods: We analyzed the National Inpatient Sample from 2010 to 2014 for all penetrating lower extremity injuries requiring vascular repair based on International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes. Our primary outcomes were in-hospital lower extremity amputation and death.

Results: We identified 19,494 patients with lower extremity penetrating injuries requiring vascular repair-15,727 (80.7%) firearm injuries and 3767 (19.3%) non-firearm injuries. The majority of patients were male (91%), and intent was most often assault/legal intervention (64.3%). In all penetrating injuries requiring vascular repair, the majority (72.9%) had an arterial injury and 43.8% had a venous injury. Location of vascular injury included iliac (19.3%), femoral-popliteal (60%), and tibial (13.2%) vascular segments. Interventions included direct vascular repair (52.1%), ligation (22.1%), bypass (19.4%), and endovascular procedures (3.6%). Patients with firearm injuries were more frequently younger, black, male, and on Medicaid, with lower household income, intent of assault or legal action, and two most severe injuries in the same body region (P < .0001 for all). Firearm injuries compared with non-firearm injuries were more often reported to be arterial (75.5% vs 61.9%), to involve iliac (20.6% vs 13.7%) and femoral-popliteal vessels (64.7% vs 39.9%), to undergo endovascular repair (4% vs 2.1%), and to have a bypass (22.5% vs 6.5%; P < .05 for all). Firearm-related in-hospital major amputation (3.3% vs 0.8%; P = .001) and mortality (7.6% vs 4.2%; P = .001) were higher compared with non-firearm penetrating trauma. Multivariable analysis showed that injury by a firearm source was independently associated with postoperative major amputation (odds ratio, 4.78; 95% confidence interval, 2.07-11.01; P < .0001) and mortality (odds ratio, 1.74; 95% confidence interval, 1.14-2.65; P = .01).

Conclusions: Firearm injury is associated with a higher rate of amputation and mortality compared with non-firearm injuries of the lower extremity requiring vascular repair. These data can continue to guide public health discussions about morbidity and mortality from firearm injury.

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Trump and Hegseth have proven that their thought processes do not go very deep and do not include much forethought before words come pouring out of their mouths. Tomasky, however, sees reason to believe that brainier thinkers, with more consideration than their "leaders," will allow cooler heads to prevail in hot-button environments:

I hope people allow what’s happening in Los Angeles to de-escalate. No one should give up the right to peaceful protest, of course. But everyone should be mindful that Trump and Hegseth, and Tom Homan and Stephen Miller and JD Vance, are just waiting for an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act. Homan, the border czar, said over the weekend: “You’re going to see more work-site enforcement than you’ve ever seen in the history of this nation. We’re going to flood the zone.” That means more protests, which means more confrontations, which means many more opportunities for something to happen either by intention or even perhaps by accident.

Once we’re down the Insurrection Act road, there’s no telling where this leads. It’s not an accident, by the way, that JD Vance called what happened in L.A. an “insurrection”; labeling it as such makes it easier to invoke the Insurrection Act, whose Section 253, passed into law in 1871 when the Ku Klux Klan was terrorizing people, allows the president to suppress “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” in a state that “opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.” Vance undoubtedly used the word to troll us about January 6. But there’s also a legal rationale for using it.

Presidents have invoked the act in the past, and our democracy survived just fine. That said, the reasons for those invocations have always been specific, the durations short. Now our concern is that if Trump decides that Blue State X isn’t enforcing the law in the way he wants it enforced, he will call the lawlessness an insurrection and then do who knows what, for who knows how long.

And finally, get a load of this, which Insurrection Act expert Joseph Nunn wrote about last year in Democracy journal (which I also edit): “Because the Insurrection Act refers simply to ‘the militia,’ and not specifically to the National Guard or the organized militia, a president could, in theory, use it to call private individuals into federal service—including members of the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and other private militias.” Nunn notes Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes used this interpretation of the act in his defense at his trial. No wonder that Nunn calls the Insurrection Act “a nuclear bomb hidden in the United States Code.”

Donald Trump won the election. A narrow majority backs his immigration policies (although support drops when people learn more specific facts about how they’re being carried out). Those of us who opposed his election and oppose his immigration policies have to live with this democratic verdict. Our recourse is to do everything we can to make sure the next democratic verdict (assuming there is one) repudiates the man and his policies.

But this is not about immigration policies. This is about the use of state power against the people of the United States, or at least the ones he doesn’t like. And now, potentially, it’s about the state doing violence against those people. Again: We have a president who said, “Next time, I’m not waiting,” and a defense secretary who refused to deny that he’d allow soldiers to shoot protesters.

Photos show Trump admin sent troops to L.A., with no food, water, beds, or toilets -- drawing outrage from those demanding the military be treated with respect

National Guard: No beds, water, food or toilets (SF Chronicle)

 (Note: A second photo from the Chronicle can be viewed at the end of this post.)

By now, no one should be surprised to learn that the Trump administration is incompetent. But three days ago, we received new evidence that "King Donald" is running such a slipshod operation that it's downright nauseating. That's because it involves abusive treatment of our own military personnel. Given that Trump already has made nasty comments about those who have put their lives on the line for our country -- deeming them "suckers and losers," implying a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be executed, even turning a visit with staffers to Arlington National Cemetery into a campaign event, pushing aside a U.S. Army official in the process . . . well, it's hard to believe that any American still could support such a cretin in the White House.

What makes the latest episode of ineptitude so gross? The San Francisco Chronicle provides the answer under the headline "‘Wildly underprepared’: National Guard troops seen sleeping on floors in exclusive photos." Matthias Gafni reports:

President Donald Trump’s rush to deploy California National Guard troops to Los Angeles has left dozens of soldiers without adequate sleeping arrangements, forced to pack together in one or more federal buildings, resting on the floors of what appear to be basements or loading docks, the Chronicle has learned.

The state troops federalized by the Trump administration over the weekend to confront immigration protesters, without the approval of Gov. Gavin Newsom, were “wildly underprepared,” said a person directly involved with the deployment, who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak on the issue.

The troops — whose makeshift quarters are shown in photographs exclusively obtained by the Chronicle — arrived without federal funding for basic necessities, said the source, who was granted confidentiality under Chronicle policies. This person said state officials and the California National Guard were not to blame.

Senior military leaders advised Monday that the California troops could continue sleeping on floors or outdoors until Thursday, at which point federal officials would decide whether to make more permanent lodging plans, the source said. By Monday afternoon, additional National Guard troops were expected to reach Los Angeles, upping the total from around 300 late Saturday to more than 2,100.

It was unclear where the new arrivals would stay at night, the source said, with only a few hundred available tents. 

“This is what happens when the president and (Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth) demand the National Guard state assets deploy immediately with no plan in place … (and) no federal funding available for food, water, fuel and lodging,” the source said. “This is really the failure of the federal government. If you’re going to federalize these troops, then take care of them.”

Is this the Trump administration's way of showing appalling lack of respect for U.S. military personnel, something the president himself has done several times in the past? Is there any other way to put it? Gafni writes:

“Currently, there is no plan for where everyone is sleeping tonight,” the source said, adding that there was an urgent need to find more portable bathrooms and dumpsters for garbage.

The Pentagon referred questions about troop provisions to the California Guard, which in turn referred questions to the U.S. Special Operations Command North, which did not immediately respond to the Chronicle.

Protesters clashed with law enforcement officers through the weekend in Los Angeles, in some cases burning vehicles and hurling rocks. President Trump’s order to deploy the National Guard troops said protest activity or violence that interfered with the activity of immigration officials constituted “a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

His order deployed the soldiers for 60 days or at Hegseth’s discretion.

National Guard troops can be summoned by any state governor or a U.S. president under certain conditions. Ordinarily, though, presidents activate the National Guard at the request of state leaders and have only rarely made the decision to activate troops independent of a governor’s petition for assistance. In contrast, California officials sharply criticized Trump’s move and sought to reverse it.

The Chronicle published photos of National Guard members sleeping on a floor, prompting a flood of outrage directed at the White House. Conservative users on X attacked the messenger, claiming the photos were fake. Two fact-checking organizations, Snopes and Politifact, looked into the accusations before Pentagon officials confirmed the photos were authentic: 

“The soldiers you saw in the photo were resting as they were not currently on mission and due to the fluid security situation, it was deemed too dangerous for them to travel to better accommodations,” a Defense Department spokesperson told Snopes.

Gafni provides more details about the photos his newspaper published:

The two photos the Chronicle obtained show troops asleep in one or more of the three federal buildings they had been ordered to protect. In one photo, the troops slept next to what appeared to be a security checkpoint, with Red Bulls, backpacks and rifles strewn about the makeshift quarters.

In the second photo, dozens of troops appeared to be sleeping in a larger room on concrete floors with their backpacks and other equipment next to them. The source said they redacted the name of one soldier that appeared in the photo.

Newsom responded to the images by condemning Trump’s handling of the deployment.

“You sent your troops here without fuel, food, water or a place to sleep,” Newsom wrote in a post on X. “Here they are — being forced to sleep on the floor, piled on top of one another.”

Several members of the state Legislature were dismayed by the pictures.

“Oh my God, this is horrible,” said Assembly Member Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth (Los Angeles County), when a Chronicle reporter showed her the photos. “That’s incredibly shocking and concerning.”

Assembly Member Rick Chavez Zbur, D-Los Angeles, said he was “appalled” by the conditions depicted, adding that it “shows the lack of respect” the president has for men and women who serve in the military.

“I think this speaks to what the governor has talked about and others have talked about, a complete lack of coordination and communication, which is what we would expect if you actually want law and order instead of chaos and disorder,” said Assembly Member Ash Kalra, D-San Jose, “This has nothing to do with public safety, it’s all a show, it’s all propaganda, and we’re demanding that it stop.”

 

(SF Chronicle)

Trump threatens "heavy force" against protesters who might dare appear at D.C. military parade, and law enforcement has its eyes peeled for unruly conduct

Tanks are prepared for transit to D.C. parade (Reuters)

Having shown residents of Los Angeles that he is a "tough guy" by calling in the National Guard and Marines to help handle protests of his immigration policies, Donald Trump now is planning to teach a similar lesson to those living in Washington, D.C. How will he do that? It involves the upcoming military parade, which is designed to honor the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary -- but just happens to also fall on Trump's 79th birthday.

If Trump gets his way, the celebration could turn into confrontation -- and one gets the impression that's how the president wants it. Trump's rhetoric sounds like something out of a John Wayne movie, but that doesn't mean his actions will be appropriate or lawful. Under the headline "Trump: Protests in DC will be met with ‘very heavy force’; Nationwide “No Kings” demonstrations are expected on Saturday, the same day as the president’s military parade in Washington," Politico takes a look at a parade that could morph into a test of American values -- and its constitutional principles. Irie Sentner and Hassan Ali Kanu write:

President Donald Trump warned that any protests during this weekend’s major military parade in Washington will be met with “very heavy force.”

“If there’s any protester who wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,” the president said Tuesday during an impromptu Oval Office press conference. “I haven’t even heard about a protest, but [there are] people that hate our country. 

Trump’s threat came as thousands of National Guard troops and about 700 marines are in Los Angeles, clashing with protesters of the president’s immigration agenda. Trump claimed Tuesday without evidence the demonstrators were “paid insurrectionists” and said the city would have experienced “a lot of death and destruction” if he had not sent in the Guard.

Signs of preparation for the parade are appearing in D.C., and behind the scenes, law-enforcement officials are keeping an eye on possible plans for protests. From the Politico report:

“If we didn’t attack this one very strongly, you’d have them all over the country,” Trump said of the Los Angeles protests. “But I can inform the rest of the country that when they do it — if they do it — they’re gonna be met with equal or greater force.”

The comments come as the White House and Washington law enforcement officials are preparing for a military parade on Saturday, which coincides with the Army’s 250th — and Trump’s 79th — birthday.

By Tuesday, a mile-long line of tanks had arrived in Washington, and barricades were going up around the White House complex. It will be the first military parade in the nation’s capital since the country celebrated the end of the Gulf War more than three decades ago.

Large demonstrations were expected in several major cities on Tuesday, and a string of “No Kings” protests is expected from coast to coast on Saturday — including in Washington.

Ahead of Trump’s Oval Office remarks, Communications Director Steven Cheung told POLITICO the White House was not concerned about protests disrupting the military event.

“The parade is a way to celebrate the Army and to celebrate generations of individuals who have fought and paid the ultimate sacrifice for the country,” he said, adding that he expected large crowds of supporters.

Administration officials aren't the only ones keeping track of the event. Officials in D.C. have grown accustomed to hosting "national special security events," and they consider the military parade to be another such occasion. Sentner and Kanu report: 

Law enforcement officials in Washington are also preparing for the event, which will be the fifth designated “national special security event” in the city this year — an unprecedented number in recent memory, according to federal security agencies. Local and federal law enforcement plan to deploy more than 100 metal detectors and multiple drones, according to Matt McCool, the agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s D.C. office.

Officials are tracking a handful of demonstrations — or “First Amendment activity,” as law enforcement calls it — planned for Saturday, but “don’t have any significant concerns,” Jessica Taylor, chief of the U.S. Park Police, told reporters on Monday.

“As far as the First Amendment activity from a Secret Service perspective, it’s simply people using their First Amendment right to protest. We’re not going to do anything with that,” McCool said. “But if that turns violent or if any laws are broken, that’s when [Metro Police], Park Police, Secret Service will get involved, and that will be handled swiftly.”