WASHINGTON (AP) — Military leaders have ordered the National Guard in every state to develop a “quick reaction force” of troops trained to deal with civil disturbances and riots that can be ready to deploy with just hours' notice, the latest indication of longer-term Trump administration plans to more readily dispatch soldiers to U.S. streets.
A set of memos circulated this month directs Guard units in all 50 states and U.S. territories, except for the District of Columbia, to train a contingent of soldiers in a specialized course that includes the proper use of batons, body shields, stun guns and pepper spray.
Signed by Major Gen. Ronald Burkett, operations director for the National Guard, the memos reviewed by The Associated Press give various numbers for each state's force — often 500 each — that total more than 23,000 troops in all. The memos direct Washington, D.C., to maintain a “specialized” military police battalion with 50 National Guard soldiers on active duty orders.
It presses forward with President Donald Trump's broader vision for a muscular role for the U.S. military in targeting illegal immigration and crime. He has already pushed traditional boundaries by sending the National Guard into American cities, often over the objection of Democratic local leaders.
The memos, reported earlier by The Guardian, come after Trump signed an executive order in August that directed the Pentagon to create quick reaction forces that would be “available for rapid nationwide deployment.” The executive order is cited as one of the authorities for the memo, about which the Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The National Guard has always had troops that were on standby to deploy at a moment's notice, but they traditionally have been used to quickly react to natural disasters and did not receive special training.
The new, specialized quick reaction forces will be able to deploy a fourth of all their troops within eight hours and all of those assigned to the units within a day, according to the memo.
During a roundtable at the White House last week with homeland security officials, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked about a memo detailing similar plans. Hegseth said he would not comment on the “particulars” but went on to say that there were “multiple layers of National Guard response forces.”
“We’ve got a lot of different ways that, constitutionally and legally, we can employ” Guard troops, and “we will do so when necessary,” Hegseth said.
While Trump has sent the National Guard into cities including Los Angeles and D.C., his efforts to deploy troops in other places have faced swift legal challenges. The Trump administration is blocked from sending troops into the Chicago area until at least the latter half of November, following a U.S. Supreme Court order calling on the sides to file additional legal briefs. And a federal trial seeking to block a troop deployment in Portland, Oregon, got underway this week.
The memos, which were sent out to the states early this month, mandate that each state and territory have its quick reaction forces operational by Jan. 1, 2026. To help with that goal, units will be provided 100 sets of crowd control equipment as well as two full-time trainers by the National Guard Bureau.
The units also will be allowed to use an additional five days of training for soldiers to get through the “Interservice Nonlethal Individual Weapons Instructor Course.”
According to one of the memos, the initial portion of the course includes topics like “crowd management techniques,” “domestic civil disturbance training,” and “proper use of baton and body shields.” The intermediate portion focuses on the use of non-lethal weapons like Tasers and pepper spray.
Each National Guard unit is required to update military leaders monthly on its progress in meeting this new mandate.
A member of the National Guard stands watch on Beale Street, Friday, Oct. 24, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball owners proposed banning high school players from signing with major league teams, raising the age for international amateurs and slashing the money spent on signing bonuses in negotiations Thursday for a new collective bargaining agreement.
The amateur draft for players residing in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico would be cut from 20 rounds to 12 beginning in 2027 under the proposal Major League Baseball made during a bargaining session with the players' association. An identical 12-round draft would be started for international prospects, a proposal the union has rejected in the past.
Starting in 2028, a prospect for the amateur draft would have to be at least 20 years old by the Sept. 1 of his signing year and two years removed from the graduating year of his high school class — a restriction that also would eliminate players who completed their first year of junior college.
The amateur draft started in 1965, high schoolers have been eligible along with college players who are in or have just finished their junior years.
Raising signing ages would likely lead to players being older when they become eligible for free agency, which currently requires six years of major league service.
MLB cited increased revenue in college baseball as reasoning. In addition, MLB said 75% of high schoolers signed from 2012-19 did not reach the major leagues.
“Expanded scholarships, NIL opportunities, revenue sharing and significant investments in facilities and player development have made college baseball an increasingly important pathway that is producing major league-ready talent at an accelerated rate," MLB said in a statement. “By creating a draft system centered around college-aged players and making most college players eligible one year earlier, more players will benefit from both a college education and an elite development environment while reaching professional baseball — and ultimately the major leagues — more quickly.”
The players' association claimed the plan would decrease compensation by $1 billion over five years, including $400 million from this year to 2027.
“MLB made another set of proposals that are flat-out bad for baseball, ones that would cripple the next generation of players and damage the future of our game,” the union said in a statement.
MLB said it will not seek to reduce the 120 minor league teams in the top four levels when it negotiates new professional development licenses in 2030 to replace expiring 10-year deals. It would cap bonuses for undrafted players at $10,000 — Middle Tennessee two-way player Trace Phillips was bypassed in the draft last July and signed with Tampa Bay for $629,200.
For international amateurs, the age to sign would be raised to 18 on the Sept. 1 of their signing year, up from 17.
“The game's greatest stars are precocious talents. We always want to have a great window for them,” said Scott Boras, baseball's most high-profile agent. “International markets recognize this, as well. When you bar a labor force from opportunity in America, it is not an American concept.”
Each separate draft would have $200 million in signing pools in 2027. There would be hard caps for each draft.
Teams would be able to trade draft picks but a club couldn't trade its first-round pick in consecutive drafts. A team couldn't acquire more than three additional selections among the first three rounds.
Spending on signing bonuses for players eligible for the 2025 amateur draft have totaled $401.81 million and signing bonus pools for 2026 increased by 2.5%.
Each team would have the same amount to spend under the proposal rather than the current system which gives higher pools to teams with poorer records in the previous year. Pittsburgh is at just over $19 million this year and the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at slightly under $4 million. Teams currently can go over their pools and often do as much as 5%.
Teams have spent $196.38 million on signing bonuses for international amateurs in 2026. The current signing period runs from Jan. 15 to Dec. 15 each year, but the initial international draft would be no earlier than September 2027 and no later than March 2028.
MLB proposed eliminating competitive balance round picks that began in 2023 and cutting the draft lottery that started in 2023 from the top six picks to four.
Bargaining began May 13 and the sides exchanged initial proposals two weeks later as management proposed a salary cap for the first time since 1994, which resulted in a 7 1/2-month strike and the first cancellation of the World Series in 90 years,
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
FILE - Attorney Bruce Meyer, the current interim executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, speaks at a news conference in New York on March 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE - Commissioner of Major League Baseball Rob Manfred answers questions during a news conference at the MLB winter meetings, Dec. 8, 2025, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux, file)
