NEWARK – When Donald Trump told a roomful of brass in Quantico, VA. that he wants to use American cities as a training ground for the military, the urban leaders of New Jersey assumed another level of vigilance and preparation.

They stood at attention.

For they perceive a diabolical endgame, where a golf course-navigating, economy-worsening President seeking political vengeance and distraction wants to employ fascist intimidation to prevent American citizens from voting, and to deepen and exploit economic divisions in an already fractured and hurting nation.

They see no other reason for Trump’s identification of an “invasion from within.”

“No different than a foreign enemy but more difficult in many ways because they don’t wear uniforms,” the President told the generals.

Said Newark Mayor Ras Baraka: "We proved in Newark we don’t need an invading force of police to reduce crime. We did it by launching peacekeeping initiatives that put street teams out in the neighborhoods to calm situations and cut down on retribution crime. We did it with trained members of our Office of Violence Prevention and Trauma Recovery, who send out social workers with police to help de-escalate certain situations. We did by developing a home-grown force that represents the community and engaging the community in public safety. We did with education and entrepreneurial programs that give kids options off the streets.”

The numbers in Newark back up Baraka.

Murders fell to historic lows in 2024 with 37 homicides down 23 percent from the year before and a continued double-digit downward trend during the Baraka Administration.

The number of non-fatal shooting victims fell by nine percent, to 145 from 160. There were also four fewer reported rapes than last year, a three percent drop to 120 from 124.

Since Baraka took office 10 years ago, Newark’s overall crime rates have plummeted. The 2024 crime statistics results reflect a 61% decrease in murders and a 47% decrease in non-fatal shootings when compared to 2014. There was also a 41% reduction in overall violent crime from 10 years ago, a 35% decrease in overall property crime, and a 35% decline in overall crime.

Underscoring the retaliatory nature of Trump's motives and intentions:

According to data from the Center for Disease Control, these are the states with the
highest firearm mortality rates per 100,000 in 2021: 1. Mississippi had a firearm mortality rate of 33.9, making it the state with the highest rate in 2021. The state also used its electoral votes to vote for then President Trump in the 2020 election. 2. Louisiana had a firearm mortality rate of 29.1 and voted
for Trump. 3. New Mexico had a firearm mortality rate of 27.8 and voted for President Biden.
4. Alabama had a firearm mortality rate of 26.4 and voted for Trump. 5. Wyoming had a firearm mortality rate of 26.1 and voted for Trump. 6. Alaska had a firearm mortality rate of 25.2 and voted for
Trump. 7. Montana had a firearm mortality rate of 25.1 and voted for Trump. 8. Arkansas had a firearm mortality rate of 23.3 and voted for Trump. 9. Missouri had a firearm mortality rate of 23.2 and voted
for Trump. 10. Tennessee had a firearm mortality rate of 22.8 and voted for Trump. 11. South Carolina had a firearm mortality rate of 22.4 and voted for Trump. 12. Oklahoma had a firearm mortality rate of 21.2 and voted for Trump. 13. Georgia had a firearm mortality rate of 20.3 and voted for Biden (and Trump over Kamala Harris in 2024). 14. Nevada had a firearm mortality rate of 19.8 and voted
for Biden. 15. Indiana had a firearm mortality rate of 18.4 and voted for Trump.

Updated CDC firearm fatality figures from 2023:

The states with lowest gun rate deaths, according to the CDC: 1. Massachusetts has a firearm mortality rate of 3.4 and voted for Biden. 2. Hawaii has a firearm mortality rate of 4.8 and voted for
Biden. 3. New Jersey has a firearm mortality rate of 5.2 and voted for Biden.

Crude homicide death rate and total homicides by large metropolitan county, 2023:

While seeking information about the federal detention of people in his city, Baraka earlier this year found himself surrounded by armed agents in masks and in handcuffs. U.S. Attorney Alina Habba later dismissed the misdemeanor charge of trespass. But Baraka’s ally, U.S. Rep. Lamonica McIver (D-10), now fights federal charges related to that day, and her intervention with masked agents on the mayor’s behalf, as Trump proceeds with a plan to militarize urban America.

"If you have to wear a mask to do your job, then you probably shouldn't have your job," state Senator Joe Cryan (D-20), who represents Elizabeth in the New Jersey Legislature, told a crowd at the Eagleton Institute earlier this month.

Last week, Trump requested Texas Governor Greg Abbot send 200 National Guard troops to Chicago “to

protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from protesters, as the administration ramps up its [undocumented worker] deportation drive.”  Since Set. 27, the President has attempted to deploy National Guard troops from multiple states to Portland, Oregon.

“What Trump is doing is divisive and creates a false narrative designed to stoke fear,” said Baraka. “He is returning law enforcement to bully policing. It's heavy-handed, militaristic, and unconstitutional and going in the opposite direction of programs we know have worked without stoking fear or violating civil rights.

“We don't need Trump to send in the National Guard,” added the Mayor of Newark. “We need him to not cut funding from these anti-violence programs that work.”

State Senator Benjie Wimberly (D-35), a football and baseball coach and head of the City of Paterson Recreation Department, agrees. "It's a show of force on your own people not where it's needed,” Wimberly told InsiderNJ. “You should be figuring out how to get money into policing and community policing to avert some of the issues we face with regard to crime."

"We need resources," added Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh. "You want to send federal funding to hire more police officers? By all means. We’re open to a partnership."

But troops?

Mayors in New Jersey’s cities by in large see Trump’s ongoing militarizing efforts as part of a larger strategy to create states of siege in urban America, where armed soldiers can impair elections and drive down voter turnout. It’s one of the reasons Trump detests voting by mail, because it impairs his Election Day military tactic of impairing election results. Between gerrymandering and a military presence at polling places he can give himself the best shot at eking out narrow victories, experts say. The more Trump deploys the military, the more he will acclimate the public to putting down “the insurrectionists.”

“They will find generals who will back them up,” a source told InsiderNJ. “There’s no doubt in my mind. The court will tell them to do something, and they will say no.”

NEWARK THEN, AND NEWARK NOW

Trump claims he wants to make America great again, and this is part of his strategy.

New Jersey's been there and done that.

The state already went through the militarized streets of American history, in fact, during the troubles of Newark in 1967, when Brick City residents rose against institutional racism, triggering skirmishes with deployed National Guard troops.  Twenty-six people died in Newark, as power in the aftermath shifted to the growth of a city with newly empowered Black residents.

For more, read from the work of the late Clement Price of Newark HERE.

The street-wide power struggles of Plainfield occurred that same hot summer of 1967.

But, critically, “The conditions that existed back in the 1960s and 70s that led to the rebellion no longer exist in Plainfield and Newark,” said Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp. “There is absolutely no comparison. The realities on the ground do not remotely suggest there is a need for the National Guard to be present in American cities. The City of Plainfield is very safe. Crime is down significantly. It’s the lowest it has been in decades. The same is true in so many cities.

“We did not have a president in office at the time who wanted to use our cities as training grounds for the military,” Mapp explained. “What existed then was a level of discrimination that caused people to rebel, people who felt they had a knee on their necks, who felt the pressures of a system that kept them down and apart from the American Dream. This here now, this march to fascism, is something of concern to all people – conservatives, progressives, black, white, brown. We are all witnessing something very terrible in this, the greatest nation on the face of the earth.

“The notion that any president of these United States would even remotely suggest that the military should use our cities as training grounds is something that takes us back decades,” the mayor added. “It is so reminiscent of something that happened under Hitler and his regime. To me it suggests that such actions would take us in the direction of declaring war by the military against the very people the military is supposed to be defending. Americans are not to be used as training grounds for the military. It suggests to me we are moving in the direction of a dictatorship. We are moving in the direction that would result in civil war in this country. Our cities do not need to be invaded by the military. Resources need to be provided to our cities across the nation so they can better provide safety and security to our residents. The idea that our cities are in chaos, that horrible things are happening, especially in states led by Democratic governors, is bothersome.

“There is an ulterior motive at work here that would give birth to such an idea that this President is concerned about 2026 - a precursor to what is being planned by this administration to disrupt the 2026 midterm elections, to find a reason to justify actions self-serving to the administration and against the rights of American people and our democratic values. Every American who believes in our democracy and our Constitution should speak out against what is being planned and articulated by our President.”

In the words of Vietnam veteran Stewart Resmer of Wayne:

"The gathering storm clouds of political and social unrest in New Jersey and elsewhere portend a predictable repeat of a time here in America when federal troops were put on riot control training as history records 123 U.S. cities burned simultaneously during the long hot summers of what has euphemistically been referred to as 'The Civil Rights Era.' This time however, the Thunder Over New Jersey is not generated by the evolutionary social ills of the by gone era. No, it is being fomented by threats of our streets being used as military training exercises for Generals who should know better than indulge in the fantasies of a latent dictator in a golf cart who longs to “shoot protesters in the legs."

That golf cart operates in pastures separate from reality, for the unmitigated horror is that whatever self-borne, local or regional ills arise from our urban areas, such as they are, in Trump's economy, according to seasonally adjusted data published Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the unemployment rate for Black Americans rose from 7.2 percent in July to 7.5 percent in August, now at its highest level since October 2021. This compares to 4.3 percent for the wider labor force and is more than double the rate for white Americans (3.7 percent).

FROM PLAINFIELD TO ELIZABETH

Bill Davis of Plainfield works with special needs children in the City of Elizabeth. His own memory of

National Guard Troops rolling through his hometown in 1967 served as the starting point for a life of activism and public service. Davis cites Trump’s September address to the military generals “a horrible moment in the history of the United States and described Trump as “the embodiment of fascism.”

“I think 45-47 is attempting to get people comfortable with the idea of troop s being in Democratic-led cities, patrolling. Troops guarding the ballot boxes. It’s a way for him to set everything up for us to remain in slavery. We are in an Orwellian moment of alternative facts, and the people must not be fooled by the double speak.”

Disillusioned with establishment Democrats, Davis enthusiastically backed Baraka in the Democratic Primary. After falling short, the Newark Mayor issued an endorsement of Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill.

Davis harbors skepticism and describes a generally flat feeling in the electorate since the primary. He describes ongoing meetings by Black leaders leading back to a fundamental systemic problem of corporate money serving as the same funding source for both Democrats and Republicans, which prevents establishment Dems from getting tough on genocide in Gaza, and delivering a hardnosed agenda for economic justice.

“Traditional Democrats have suppressed the voices to move the needle,” said Davis. “The quality of life in Newark under Ras’s leadership, however, has significantly improved. There are efforts to move in that direction, the direction in which we need to go, instead of where the corporate dark money leads.”

That said, in a binary election, Davis sees catastrophic destructive tendencies originating in Trump World. The loss of federal funds in the President’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” threatens children in the Elizabeth High School special education program where Davis works. “Special education is being decimated by cutting the funding for Medicaid for people with disabilities. It’s horrible,” he said.

Just this week, from USA Today:

 The U.S. Department of Education fired nearly everyone in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in a wave of new layoffs that began Friday, according to the union representing the agency's employees.

In addition, children fear going to and from school in fear because of ICE, Davis added.

So, if the election cycle boils down to deteriorated Dems versus Bull Connor, he said with a grim laugh, he doesn’t need prodding in the direction he intends to go.

Davis’ friend and ally, activist Larry Hamm, has roots going back to the 1967 Newark troubles. The founder and leader of the People’s Organization for Progress (POP) likewise supported Baraka in the primary. Now, he personally backs Sherrill. POP has yet to weigh in on the general election.

“Trump’s statement to the generals was unprecedented, deranged, dangerous and frightening,” Hamm told InsiderNJ. “So much so that military leaders and experts and elected officials have expressed alarm. A year ago, Retired General Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Trump was “fascist to the core.” Trump’s speech to the generals provides further evidence of this. He told the generals that they must now focus on the enemy within. He told them that our cities should be used as training grounds for the military. It is clear that Trump sees himself at war with the American people. His statement and actions make it clear that he is preparing to seize and hold on to power. I believe he wants to provoke a crisis that he will use to invoke the Insurrection Act, declare martial law, and interfere with or cancel upcoming midterm and presidential elections. This is a political five alarm fire. However, the worst part is that many cannot see the flames.”

Paterson At-Large Councilwoman Maritza Davila told InsiderNJ that many of her constituents who

backed Trump last time have awakened to the danger the President represents to Americans.

“That statement is coming from somebody who is supposed to protect us,” said Davila. “Look, do you have good and bad everywhere? Yes. But to use our military against us. How do you pick and choose the people you intend to target? It’s disheartening and sad to see. I didn’t vote for him, but I don’t think people who voted for him voted for that. They didn’t vote to feel like they’re at war in their own backyard, in the land of freedom. That, to me, is not being free. It saddens me that this is what we’ve come to with the President of the United States.”

SHERRILL VERSUS CIATTARELLI

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11), who served as an officer in the United States Navy for nearly a decade, said of Trump’s remarks, “So, I have to say, when you look at this across the country, and when you look at the threats, and then you see the president saying, when he was with [Secretary of War Pete] Hegseth recently, that he's going to use our U.S. cities as training grounds for our military, that is unacceptable. I will not stand for that as governor."

Of course, Trump supports Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli, Sherrill’s rival. And while many people – even among Democrats – describe liking Ciattarelli personally, and respecting him, they find it difficult to justify his affiliation with the President of the United States, who supports his candidacy. “The president will never have to worry about sending the National Guard to Jersey because I’ll take care of it,” Ciattarelli told InsiderNJ when asked about the President’s comments to the military generals.

But Ciattarelli’s frontline presence at a MAGA rally in Wildwood last week reasserted a fundamental

problem for the Republican in Jersey, especially when Trumper Jack Posobiec (the Pizzagate conspiracy theorist) publicly targets political opponents while the crowd chanted “LOCK THEM UP”. “We're coming for you. We're coming for every single one of you,” Posobiec said.

LeRoy Jones of East Orange, chair of the Democratic State Committee, and a key ally of Mikie Sherrill, told InsiderNJ: “Donald Trump is not a leader looking to move our country forward. His only concern is punishing those he deems his ‘enemies’ and it is a gross miscarriage of justice to deploy the National Guard into our cities to carry out his personal vengeance agenda. His rhetoric around the state of our cities is full of derogatory attacks on our Black and brown communities, which he’s using to justify weaponization of the military against the people it’s meant to protect. He will try to intimidate governors, mayors, and everyday Americans but we see through this charade. These threats underscore how critical it is that we elect Mikie Sherrill our next governor. She will never cower to Trump’s bullying, meanwhile 100% MAGA Jack would let the president steamroll over him.”

IN THE WEST WARD

Chigozie Onyema, an attorney, Newark West Ward Democratic Committee chair, and a candidate for the Assembly in Newark’s 28^th District, said Trump’s designs on using the miliary against urban enemies, creates a chance for allies to engage politically as at no other time.

“It shows the foreign polices we accept abroad for black and brown folks are also acceptable here, and we must be vigilant,” Onyema told InsiderNJ. “We have to prepare ourselves. I’ve spoken to friends and colleagues in Chicago - and we have to prepare ourselves in Camden, Trenton, and Newark.

“We have to win the governor's race,” he added. “What we see in Illinois is Trump ignoring a governor, but a governor can be an ally. I do think the message is resonating with a lot of voters. It could come home because people see that it is important to have an ally in the state legislature or the governor's office.”

A progressive and grassroots organizer, Onyema reiterated what Davis said about Democrats in the establishment getting a message from voters who lack institutional trust. “I think it's really important that Democrats see the flat mood as voters’ response to our inability to govern well and consistently.”

The clock ticks.

“For people to show up at the polls they have to believe their lives will improve because of the people they put in power,” Onyema said. “Too often, the party takes this position that we have to message better. It's not a messaging problem but a governing problem. People need to believe that those they elect to government positions will improve their

material conditions, their schools, their infrastructure. …We need to stop blaming voters and respond to a fundamental question: How do we do a better job serving?”

We need to start, Onyema said, by prioritizing more affordable housing in all communities. We can’t just build more housing, but better affordable housing, for people crushed by New Jersey unaffordability.

That said, just like Davis, Onyema sees the immediate threat with 20 days until Election Day.

“The [Big, beautiful bill] cuts to Medicaid - when I think about my district and the people who leverage Medicaid for healthcare, those cuts will absolutely disproportionately impact people here,” he said. “Right now, as we debate who's going to do the best job of raising the economic floor, as we anticipate a difficult budget year, we don’t balance the budget on the backs of the people who need [public resources] the most.

“Mikie Sherrill sees these people as part of her coalition,” he added.

The other side awards an “A” grade to a President who wants to militarize America’s cities.

“We can’t retreat into our corners,” said the ward chair. “Wherever people organize is the weapon of democracy. When they deploy ICE, we show up. We pull our phones out and expose some of this stuff. We have to be in the street protesting. We had some of the biggest and most effective protests after George Floyd. We've got to put lots of pressure on Trump.”

Onyema sees the President’s designs on using precisely those public acts of demonstration and civil disobedience to justify intensification of the military.

“But our endgame is more important than his,” he said. “Ours is a multiracial democracy that all of us have to fight for. Don’t forget the big picture.”

Union County Commissioner Rebecca Williams, a college English Literature teacher by trade, sees an endgame on the other side that wants to use the military to take the country back to the post reconstruction era.

“Back to when the KKK armed themselves and attempted to re-enslave African Americans through intimidation and forced them to stay on plantations,” she said. “What I see happening, given the way the economy is going, is part of Trump’s plan will create even more of an underclass working at low-wage jobs. Holding down the rights of free people in this country with the military suggests we’re moving more toward totalitarianism. Just look at Trump’s admiration for Vladmir Putin and his admiration for North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Remember, he loves the military parades, those performances. It seems as if he wants to do that here, all for the benefit and glory of himself.

“I feel sorry for enlisted men and women forced to do his bidding in his way,” Williams added. “It’s unconscionable. I don’t know where this will lead. He’s ginning up the ICE agents and National Guard. If he puts troops in these cities, it’s a recipe for disaster, mayhem, and chaos - thereby justifying their presence.”

And thereby justifying force at the ballot box on Election Day and beyond in the cities of New Jersey and America, land of the free, home of the brave.