Revealed: Pentagon orders state guards to form ‘quick reaction forces’ for ‘crowd control’
Pentagon memo details plan to train over 20,000 national guard members across the US to carry out Trump’s order on subduing civil unrestUS politics live – latest updatesA top US military official has ordered the national guards of all 50 US states, the District of Columbia and US territories to...
<p>Pentagon memo details plan to train over 20,000 national guard members across the US to carry out Trump’s order on subduing civil unrest</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/oct/29/donald-trump-south-korea-china-latest-news-updates-live">US politics live – latest updates</a></p></li></ul><p>A top US military official has ordered the national guards of all 50 US states, the District of Columbia and US territories to form “quick reaction forces” trained in “riot control”, including use of batons, body shields, Tasers and pepper spray, according to an internal Pentagon directive reviewed by the Guardian.</p><p>The memo, signed 8 October by Maj Gen Ronald Burkett, the director of the Pentagon’s national guard bureau, sets thresholds for the size of the quick reaction force to be trained in each state, with most states required to train 500 national guard members, for a total of 23,500 troops nationwide.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/29/pentagon-memo-quick-reaction-forces">Continue reading...</a>
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