In the “medical war” against COVID, the POTUS and Commander-in-Chief “gave the order” for Homeland Security to lead a nation-wide ‘biodefense’ response based on joint military doctrine
This post is a recap of a key development in mid-March 2020covered in a previous report on “What really happened in Washington” - namely, the “order” given by Trump on 18 March 2020 for the Department of Homeland Security - via its subagency FEMA - to lead the “national coronavirus response”.
President Trump at the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA - 19 March 2020
In the unprecedented and “unexplained” change to ‘pandemic’ plans, FEMA - the Federal Emergency Management Agency housed within DHS - replaced Health and Human Services as the Lead Federal Agency in charge of the so-called National Emergency.
As previously outlined - and reiterated below - this Presidential decision was consistent with US Department of Defense doctrine on Chem-Bio-Rad-Nuc (CBRN) Response.
A series of short video clips from the Trump White House archives highlights the sequence of announcements on 18-19 March 2020, including Trump’s reference to an “order” for FEMA to lead the federal response - ie. put Homeland Security in charge [of Domestic CBRN Response].
For 2025 context, consider President Trump’s scrutiny of FEMA within days of returning to the White House and his preference for the abolition of the agency depending on the outcome of an investigation by a review council into the scandalous mismanagement of disaster response.
Did Trump also have in mind mid-March 2020 and the policy trigger that led to a Homeland Security coup (via FEMA) on the pretext of a ‘National Emergency’?
“As of yesterday, when we gave the order…”
Reminder:
President Trump’s timeline for mid-March 2020 (after the WHO called a ‘pandemic’ on 11 March) was as follows…
On 19 March 2020*, Trump’s declaration of a “medical war” signified his “order” for DHS to lead what was, in effect, a militarized ‘homeland defense’ response to a ‘biological incident’.
[*Post-publication clarification: Trump’s references to “war” were during the press conference with the White House Coronavirus Task Force on 19 March 2020 - see video clip.]
The role of DHS (or DoD) as Lead Federal Agency for Domestic CBRN Response is shown in the diagram below, with a green box added to denote the ‘homeland’ environment:
The following four clips underline the significance of the President’s decision.
(Total viewing time < 90 seconds, with transcripts.)
(1) “FEMA now is fully engaged at the highest levels.”
18 March 2020
Last week I signed an emergency declaration under the Stafford Act, which as you know, we invoked previously, and which activated FEMA's National Response Coordination Center.
FEMA now is fully engaged at the highest levels.
Today, FEMA is activated in every region. We are at level one, level one being the highest level.
(2) “It's a war and it's a medical war. We have to win this war.”
19 March 2020
So there's never been anything like this in history. There's never been… nobody's ever seen anything like this. But we're doing the right thing. We have to get rid of… Our big war… It's not a financial war.
It's a war and… it's a medical war. We have to win this war.
(3) “…President Trump's decision to have FEMA take the lead…”
19 March 2020
Later today, the President and I will meet again in a teleconference with the nation's governors. We will meet at the National Response Coordination Center at FEMA and outline President Trump's decision to have FEMA take the lead in our national coronavirus response.
(4) “…as of yesterday when we gave the order, FEMA is totally involved…”
19 March 2020
Well, thank you very much and it's great having FEMA involved. We've had tremendous success working together and we appreciate all of the people here and it's an honor to be with all of you. You're doing a fantastic job, by the way. And so now we're, as of yesterday when we gave the order, FEMA is totally involved in addition to everybody else, and a lot of progress is being made. So I look forward to speaking to the governors…
In keeping with a militarized ‘biodefense’ response (and contrary to pre-existing ‘pandemic’ plans) on 18 March 2020 the President explicitly “gave the order” for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS-FEMA) to take over as the Lead Federal Agency (replacing Health and Human Services as LFA) per DoD Domestic CBRN Response.
‘Homeland Defense’ against ‘biothreats’… and boots-on-the-ground
In 2018 as required by Congress, President Trump signed the first ever National Biodefense Strategy “to rapidly respond to and limit the impacts of bio-incidents”, whether natural, accidental or deliberate in ‘origin’.
(This basically covers everything - from ‘disaster management’ to ‘medical countermeasures’ - related to the military-industrial ‘biodefense response’ to a manufactured crisis.)
To ensure an integrated, comprehensive approach, agencies shall coordinate and manage biodefense activities in support of the broader biodefense enterprise, which consists of all stakeholders with a role in the detection of, prevention of, preparedness for, response to, and recovery from biological incidents, including Federal, State, local, tribal, and territorial governments, the private sector, and international partners.
Donald J Trump - 18 September 2018
To get an idea of what domestic chem-bio response looks like (courtesy of US Northern Command)…
Joint Task Force Civil Support (JTF-CS) conducts chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear response and all-hazards defense support of civil authorities operations in support of the lead federal agency in order to save lives, mitigate human suffering, and prevent further injury.
