Governor Larry Rhoden has proudly shipped 12 members of the South Dakota National Guard to participate in Dictator Trump’s fake-emergency military occupation of our nation’s capital:
Today, Governor Larry Rhoden announced the mobilization of 12 South Dakota National Guardsmen to support ongoing operations in Washington D.C. at the request of President Donald J. Trump.
“South Dakota stands in solidarity with President Trump and his efforts to Make America Safe Again,” said Governor Larry Rhoden. “With the National Guard’s help, President Trump has restored law and order to our nation’s capital – and our guardsmen will help keep it that way. We will not sit on the sidelines while crime threatens the safety of our families” [Governor’s Office, press release, 2025.08.31].
But wait: it sounds like they actually are sitting on the sidelines, not stopping crime or restoring law and order, but just doing PR for the President’s latest Big Lie:
The 12 public affairs guardsmen are from the 129th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment based out of Rapid City. They will serve in a public affairs capacity in the joint information command center [Governor’s Office, 2025.08.31].
Serve in a public affairs capacity… so, churning out press releases? Spinning Trump’s million-dollar-a-day deployment of soldiers to pick up trash? Explaining why we send troops to patrol the National Mall instead of hiring more actual police to patrol neighborhoods where crimes actually happen?
Perhaps South Dakotans can take some comfort in knowing these 12 South Dakota part-time soldiers are just flacking and not engaging directly in egregious violations of due process and civil rights. But even if all they do is issue press releases, these soldiers and their commander-in-chief, Governor Rhoden, are still complicit in promoting America’s decline into fascism.
Here in town, like many places I imagine, the school has taken a group of high schoolers to DC every summer. So which is it? Were we putting them in harm’s way and those smiling pictures were a lie? Or is Trump full of crap?
Fascism depends on a never-ending supply of liars.