California Gov. Gavin Newsom has eviscerated Donald Trump over his push to deploy military forces into Democratic-run cities across the country.
“This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power by the President of the United States,” he wrote on X Monday. “America is on the brink of martial law. Do not be silent.”
Newsom was replying to another post from his Democratic gubernatorial colleague in Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, sounding the alarm after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized the deployment of 400 Texas National Guard troops to locations in Illinois, Oregon, and other Blue states where protests are being staged against the MAGA administration’s immigration crackdown.
A judge ruled twice over the weekend against the MAGA administration’s efforts to send troops into Portland to “protect” immigration detention facilities from “domestic terrorists,” a threat Trump’s critics have described as “pure fiction.” The president has appealed that decision.
“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s invasion,” Pritzker wrote, adding he had not received word of the move from federal officials ahead of time. “It started with federal agents, it will soon include deploying federalized members of the Illinois National Guard against our wishes, and it will now involve sending in another state’s military troops.”
The White House has already mobilized the National Guard in California and Washington, D.C. The gathering momentum of its efforts in Oregon and Illinois, coupled with the prospective use of troops from a third state, has sparked intensifying concerns that the president may be seeking to normalize military interventions in urban centres where the majority of voters oppose his administration and its policies.
A Sunday night post from Stephen Miller, Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff and a key architect of MAGA’s anti-immigration crusade, will have done little to assuage that alarm. “It is the absolute moral and constitutional duty of the federal government to stop this terrorism, defend the lives and safety of federal officers, and protect the American citizen and nation by ensuring the full and unrestricted enforcement of federal immigration law in all fifty states,” he wrote.
It comes less than a week after the president himself told a summit of all U.S. military staff above the rank of one-star general his administration was weighing the use of Democratic-controlled cities as “training grounds” for recruits.
Having told top brass they should focus their efforts on defending from the “enemy within,” itself “no different than a foreign enemy—but more difficult in many ways, because they don’t wear uniforms,” Trump doubled-down on his incendiary rhetoric Sunday, telling recruits during a naval parade that “we have to take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder called the Democrats.”
Pritzker has described the present situation as “a moment where every American must speak up and help stop this madness,” further calling on Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott to immediately withdraw any support for this decision and refuse to coordinate.”
“There is no reason a President should send military troops into a sovereign state without their knowledge, consent, or cooperation,” he wrote on X.
Abbott has been quick to shoot down that appeal. “I fully authorized the president to call up 400 members of the Texas National Guard to ensure safety for federal officials,” he posted back.
“You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let Texas Guard do it,” he warned Pritzker. “No Guard can match the training, skill, and expertise of the Texas National Guard. They defend our country with pride.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast: “President Trump is using his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel when Democrat leaders like Newscum turn a blind eye to violent rioters and protestors.”
