Martial Law Disguised as Law and Order: The Oldest Trick in the Authoritarian Playbook
“A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.”—James Madison
We are being frog-marched into tyranny at the end of a loaded gun. Or rather, hundreds of thousands of loaded guns.
Let’s not mince words: President Trump’s April 28 executive order is the oldest trick in the authoritarian playbook: martial law masquerading as law and order.
Officially titled “Strengthening and Unleashing America’s Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens,” this order is a “heil Hitler” wrapped in the goosestepping, despotic trappings of national security.
Don’t be fooled by Trump’s tough-on-crime rhetoric, cloaked in patriotic language and the promise of safety.
This is the language of every strongman who’s ever ruled by force.
The White House claims the order will “empower state and local law enforcement to relentlessly pursue criminals and protect American communities.” But under this administration, “criminal” increasingly includes anyone who dares to exercise their constitutional rights.
The order doesn’t merely expand policing—it institutionalizes repression.
It sets us squarely on the road to martial law.
If allowed to stand, Trump’s executive order completes our shift from a nation of laws—where even the least among us had the right to due process—to a nation of enforcers: vigilantes with badges who treat “we the people” as suspects and subordinates.
Without invoking the Insurrection Act or deploying active-duty military forces, Trump has accelerated the transformation of domestic police into his own paramilitary force.
With the stroke of his presidential pen, he has laid the groundwork for a stealth version of martial law by:
- Expanding police powers and legal protections;
- Authorizing the DOJ to defend officers accused of civil rights violations;
- Increasing the transfer of military equipment to local police;
- Shielding law enforcement from judicial oversight;
- Prioritizing law enforcement protection over civil liberties;
- Embedding DHS and federal agents more deeply into local policing.
Since taking office in January 2025, Trump has moved systematically to dismantle what little accountability remains:
- Terminating the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database;
- Halting DOJ investigations into abusive police departments;
- Expanding immigration enforcement while eliminating oversight;
- Dismissing internal watchdogs at DOJ and DHS;
- Weakening civil rights tools and body camera requirements;
- Suspending or eliminating consent decrees nationwide.
All of this has occurred without congressional debate, judicial review, or constitutional scrutiny.
Through it all, Trump has emboldened police forces to act with near impunity, reinforcing a trend long embraced by powerful police unions, bureaucratic cronyism, and laws providing for qualified immunity that shield misconduct from public consequence.
For years, we have watched as the government transformed local law enforcement into extensions of the military: outfitted with military hardware and trained in battlefield tactics.
However, this executive order goes one step further—creating not just a de facto standing army but Trump’s own army: loyal not to the Constitution or the people, but to the president.
This is the very danger the Founders feared: a militarized police force answerable to a powerful executive, operating outside the bounds of the law.
W
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
