Adam Schiff: Trump Could Use Military Force Against Domestic Groups

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) sounded the alarm Wednesday night on MSNBC, warning that President Donald Trump may be laying the groundwork for military strikes against groups inside the United States.

Appearing on All In with Chris Hayes, Schiff reacted to comments from Attorney General Pam Bondi, who earlier this week likened the far-left group Antifa to drug cartels. Bondi had suggested during a White House meeting that the administration was prepared to treat Antifa with the same force used against designated foreign terrorist organizations like Tren de Aragua—a cartel recently labeled a “narco-terrorist” by the Trump administration.

Hayes noted that such designations have already led to real-world consequences, including military airstrikes on ships suspected of smuggling drugs. “Today, the attorney general… said essentially, we are going to treat Antifa the way we’re treating the cartels,” Hayes said. “They have said [about Tren de Aragua], we’re in an armed conflict with them… and they have the inherent constitutional authority to order strikes.”

Schiff warned that such logic could dangerously expand. “It should catch all of our attention,” Schiff said. “It started with blowing up ships. You then have the president say, well, we may go to land targets now in Venezuela or elsewhere. And with statements like the attorney general’s, now you begin to wonder—do they believe that they have the authority, by putting some groups on a list—even domestic groups—to use lethal force against them, with no trial, no due process, no nothing?”

The California senator emphasized that this is not a far-fetched fear given what he described as the administration’s previous “misuse of the military in American cities.”

“When the president tells generals and admirals that we have an ‘enemy within,’ and treats American cities like a battlefield, you cannot exclude the possibility that the next stage is to go after groups closer to home—or even here at home,” Schiff added.

The Trump administration has already designated Antifa a domestic terrorist group, and President Trump has floated the idea of labeling it a foreign terrorist organization as well—a move that would trigger stronger federal enforcement powers. Whether such powers could be constitutionally applied to U.S. citizens remains a subject of legal debate.

But Schiff made one thing clear: “We can’t rule that out.”