While Donald Trump’s economic policies are failing to create the manufacturing jobs that he promised the American people (or just about any jobs, for that matter), his authoritarian policies are creating employment opportunities in the previously non-existent “federal goons” sector.

On Monday, the president signed an executive order with “additional measures” to address the imaginary crime emergency in Washington, DC, that he is using as a pretense to put armed troops on the streets of the nation’s capital.

The order itself is evidence of this ruse. After all, Trump has already declared the city to be “safe again,” so one has to wonder why any additional measures would be needed in the first place.

However, since this is about occupying DC and putting it under the president’s thumb federal control, the order outlines a series of steps that various departments are supposed to take.

Some of them seem quite troubling.

For example, Trump directs former Fox News morning show host Pete Hegseth, who now serves as secretary of defense, to create a unit within the DC National Guard “that is dedicated to ensuring public safety and order in the Nation’s capital.”

If that sounds to you as though the most authoritarian president in US history wants a permanent military presence in the nation’s capital, then you are probably right.

Furthermore, Trump also wants to establish a standing “National Guard quick reaction force that shall be resourced, trained, and available for nationwide deployment.” While that is kinda what the National Guard is supposed to be, it sounds a lot more ominous coming from a budding dictator.

And it is not the most disconcerting provision in the order.

That distinction goes to the directive for the “DC Safe and Beautiful Task Force” (which sounds like something straight from Mao Zedong’s “Cultural Revolution” or from the Soviet Union’s Politburo) to establish “an online portal for Americans with law enforcement or other relevant backgrounds and experience to apply to join Federal law enforcement entities to support the policy goals described in [Trump’s previous executive order declaring the DC ‘crime emergency’].”

What in the world does that mean?

The most benign reading is that Trump simply wants to bulk up federal law enforcement agencies with ex-cops or soldiers and create a website where they can apply.

But, since there is nothing benign about this presidency, does this also include militia members or those who participated in Trump’s insurrection? That seems like it would count as “other relevant backgrounds and experience” to him.

And which “policy goals?”

A big problem with the language in all of these orders is that it is (intentionally) unclear. Obviously, that’s in line with how Trump talks. He will make vague promises but rarely back them up with specifics.

Therefore, one interpretation is that the parts pertaining to the National Guard could simply outline its regular duties.

However, in the hands of a president who will weaponize anything and anybody to amass more power, it could also turn the National Guard into some kind of personal police force that is augmented by far-right militants like the Proud Boys who want to finish the job they started on January 6.