SEN TAMMY DUCKWORTH: Trump's domestic troop deployments betray our military and nation

One of the proudest moments of my life was the first time I ever laced up my boots, put on my uniform and raised my right hand to swear my oath to the Constitution as a member of the Illinois Army National Guard.

I cherished every day that I got to wake up and call myself a United States soldier. And it is precisely because I love our military so deeply that I refuse to let a five-time draft-dodging coward abuse it for his own gain and to our country's detriment.

Another way to put that is that he's lying.

It's obvious what Trump is doing. He's targeting and punishing the cities who dare push back against him - the ones who are willing to call the president what he really is: a wannabe emperor with no clothes, no courage and certainly no moral compass. 

And while he's currently targeting blue cities with his lies, if these deployments are not stopped, there will be nothing to stop him - or any future president - from doing this to anyone, anywhere, for any made-up reason.

Let's be clear: Ordering our troops to intimidate the very Americans they sacrifice every day to protect does nothing to make our nation safer. Policing Americans in their own communities is not the National Guard's job. They can't make arrests, and they're not adequately trained to carry out police duties in urban environments. These deployments are simply another unwarranted, unwanted and unjust move from Trump straight out of the Authoritarian 101 textbook, further jeopardizing civil rights while distracting our troops from executing their core mission of keeping our families safe from the actual adversaries who wish us harm.  

But he did. All of those things, instead of supporting and expanding proven violence and crime prevention strategies that prevent retaliatory escalation. 

I drove past some of the National Guardsmen who have been mobilized on the way to work today. I felt for them. Because when they raised their right hands and took their oaths, they didn't do so to help a draft dodger dodge not just wars but his own personal scandals, too. 

They signed up to defend Americans' right to free speech - not to intimidate Americans from that act of speaking out. They were willing to die to defend this country - not to defend one man's ego. 

If only Donald Trump cared about doing the same.