Greetings, MW reader! Here’s to wrapping up summer with another quick round-up of US militia news from August 2025. This month, here are the highlights:
- A couple of notes on the fed occupation of DC
- Militia figures continue their engagement in electoral politics
- Militia actors face further legal trouble
July’s Monthly is available here if you’d like to read the previous one:
Trump Demands, Expands DC Occupation
Trump’s occupation of DC is slightly out of the purview of this blog, but many lawyers and journalists have written extensively about it, drawing from more expertise on the policy around the deployment than this writer. However, that National Guard members are now armed is yet another recent disturbing escalation in this moment.
Here are a few things to check out:
- University of Chicago professor William Baude, in his newsletter, discusses the (un)constitutionality of this moment
- Quinnipiac University Poll results find that the deployment is deeply unpopular with registered voters
- A team of three journalists at The New York Times released a map, some analysis of activity types, and descriptions of agency actions in DC
However, some elements relate to militias in this context, unfortunately. On August 25, Trump announced the formation of a “quick reaction force” to bolster his ongoing occupation of DC. Alongside the executive order, he established a “D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force”, a body to be led by Stephen Miller and seemingly meant to operate as a volunteer deputization scheme. The term “quick reaction force” is derived from military lingo, but might come for many readers out of its previous evocation by Oath Keepers staged across the Potomac during the January 6 capitol riot. As Teddy Wilson reports on his newsletter this month, Rhodes once again told a patriot movement podcast on August 14 that Trump “should invoke the Insurrection Act…every able-bodied male in this nation… could be called up as the militia.”
This news continues the trend of what might explain continued depressed activity levels by paramilitary groups, as described by Melissa Gira Grant: “Federal Agents Are the New Proud Boys”.
Election Period Developments
On July 30, Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association founder Richard Mack spoke in support of Josiah Roise, a mayoral candidate in Minot, North Dakota. Roise has faced previous law enforcement scrutiny for allegedly making bombs at his residence and has been notorious for his sovereign citizen-style approaches at traffic stops.
Tig Tiegen, who lost a previous mayoral race with less than 5% of the vote, announced he is once more running for mayor of Colorado Springs. Tiegen founded and has run the United American Defense Force, a militia-style group that was pretty aggressive towards his detractors over the past several years. A local III% group refused to endorse the UADF, insinuating even they thought it was a grift.
Legal Updates
U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes sentenced two 2nd American Militia activists for their role in a 2022 conspiracy to murder Border Patrol agents and their attempt to kill FBI agents serving a search warrant. The men are Bryan C. Perry of Clarksville, Tennessee, and Jonathan S. O’Dell of Warsaw, Missouri. A jury found both men guilty in Jefferson City, Missouri, on November 7, 2024.
In July in Canada, the RCMP charged four military-associated men from Quebec for their alleged plans to “forcibly take possession of land in the Quebec City area” in what one member said would “be another Waco”. The four men include three in their 20s (Marc-Aurèle Chabot, Simon Angers-Audet, and Raphaël Lagacé) and a fourth in his 30s (Matthew Forbes). One of the men ran an Instagram account that looks extremely familiar to US-based militia trackers, given how similar it looks to domestic militia accounts.
Further Reading:
- Tess Owners, writing for Wired Magazine, provides some insight into a contemporary wave of militia activists