They are - and it has always been intended that they would be - Trump's combination secret police and private army. Super-easy way around Posse Comitatus (forbidding the use of the military for domestic law enforcement): create a new military force that isn't "technically" a military force. They have all the toys, equipment, and trappings of the military, but (1) are not actually a military branch, and (2) do not even have the rules of engagement or UCMJ that restrains the military when it IS operating where it can.
Trump created his own Stasi, and his own fully militarized Gestapo -- literally EVERYTHING every "libertarian" and "the 2nd amendment is sacred because it protects us against an oppressive governement!" type has been freaking out about for decades....and now, from that exact crowd, not even crickets chirping. Nope, instead, gleeful, masturbatory fervor, ENJOYING watching a new branch of the military be deployed in combat action on American soil.
Remember, because this is important: if you ever talk to a libertarian or "second amendment fan," they are liars. Every single one of them. They never cared, at all, about the shit they said was the greatest danger to the Republic. The hell of it is, THEY WERE FUCKING RIGHT. They just don't have the integrity or balls to live up to those principles....because they never actually believed in them.