State Leaders Clash With Trump Administration Over National Guard Deployments

The Trump administration’s move to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to Democratic-led states was met with immediate backlash from state leaders who called the move unwarranted and un-American.

The administration attempted to circumvent a Saturday court order blocking President Donald Trump’s call-up of 200 National Guard troops in Oregon by deploying guard troops from California and Texas to cities across the country, including Chicago. But California Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly joined a lawsuit brought by state leaders in Oregon seeking to block the move.

In a ruling that came late Sunday night, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut — a Trump appointee — again blocked the deployment, finding that the move was “in direct contravention” of her previous decision.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield celebrated the decision late Sunday night, noting that the state was prepared for the Trump administration to appeal the decision. An appeals court could rule as early as Monday on Immergut’s decision.

“The president doesn’t understand that when the court says no, the court means no, and that is not an indication for negotiation,” he said in a video posted to social media.

Trump has twice in the past week publicly instructed the military to focus on left-wing domestic threats, telling U.S. naval recruits in Norfolk, Virginia, on Sunday that “We have to take care of this little gnat that's on our shoulder called the Democrats.” That echoed Trump’s speech to several hundred military generals at the Quantico, Virginia, Marine Corps base last week, in which he instructed them to “handle” what he called the “enemy from within.”

The administration reiterated its approach following the decision, with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller citing “a violent armed resistance designed to incapacitate the essential operations of the duly-elected federal government, by force” as justification for the deployments.

“Today’s judicial ruling is one of the most egregious and thunderous violations of constitutional order we have ever seen — and is yet the latest example of unceasing efforts to nullify the 2024 election by fiat,” Miller wrote on X.

He also vowed to fight back against “domestic terrorism” and ensure “the full and unrestricted enforcement of federal immigration law in all fifty states.”

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul criticized those comments and others Sunday night, calling them “consistent Stephen Miller rhetoric.”

Raoul vowed to fight back Sunday, promising to file a legal challenge to Trump's attempt to deploy troops to Chicago within 24 hours.

“This call for federalizing the National Guard is not about any emergency situation in the city of Chicago or the Chicagoland area, it’s about this long, well-planned intention of turning our military on our American citizens,” Raoul said in an interview with MSNBC.