Civil-Military Relations

The Army has ordered a military police brigade at Fort Bragg to prepare to deploy to Minneapolis, and the Pentagon has put roughly 1,500 soldiers from the 11th Airborne in Alaska on similar standby amid ICE-related protests and an incident in which a CBP K‑9 was allegedly targeted at a Minneapolis‑area kennel. Officials say any active‑duty units would likely support civil authorities; the Minnesota National Guard has been mobilized but not deployed, Gov. Tim Walz has urged against sending more federal troops, and the orders — issued after presidential threats to invoke the Insurrection Act — do not guarantee deployment.

The Trump administration is poised to keep about 2,400 National Guard troops stationed in Washington, D.C., through 2026, officials say. At the same time, the Pentagon has ordered additional active-duty soldiers to be readied for a possible deployment to Minneapolis, reflecting heightened federal readiness for domestic contingencies.

PBS reports that Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D‑Mich., says she is under federal investigation for her role in a November video in which she and five other Democratic lawmakers told U.S. military personnel not to follow unlawful orders. Slotkin, an Iraq War veteran and former CIA analyst, organized the video, which President Trump and his aides have publicly branded 'seditious,' and she posted her own response accusing the president of weaponizing the federal government against critics and using 'legal intimidation and physical intimidation' to silence dissent. The piece notes that three other lawmakers in the video have confirmed being contacted by Trump officials, and that Sen. Mark Kelly has already sued the Pentagon over disciplinary moves tied to his involvement. The episode raises serious civil‑military questions about the line between protected speech and incitement inside the chain of command, and about how far an administration can go in pursuing members of Congress over statements about 'illegal orders' at a moment when war‑powers and domestic enforcement controversies are already under scrutiny.