Trump is calling up National Guard Troops under a rarely used power

President Donald Trump took extraordinary action Saturday by calling up 2,000 National Guard troops to quell immigration protests in California, making rare use of federal powers and bypassing the authority of the state's governor, Gavin Newsom.

It is the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state's National Guard force without a request from that state's governor, according to Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, an independent law and policy organization. The last time was when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators in 1965, she said.

Newsom, a Democrat, immediately rebuked the president's action. "That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions," Newsom said, adding that "this is the wrong mission and will erode public trust."

Governors almost always control the deployment of National Guard troops in their states. But the directive signed by Trump cites "10 U.S.C. 12406," referring to a specific provision within Title 10 of the US Code on Armed Services. Part of that provision allows the federal deployment of National Guard forces if "there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States."

It also states that the president may call into federal service "members and units of the National Guard of any State in such numbers as he considers necessary to repel the invasion, suppress the rebellion, or execute those laws."

Trump's directive said, "To the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States."

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement Saturday night that Trump was deploying the National Guard in response to "violent mobs" that she said had attacked federal law enforcement and immigration agents. The 2,000 troops would "address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester," she said.

Although some demonstrations have been unruly, local authorities in Los Angeles County did not indicate during the day that they needed federal assistance.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a post on the social platform X late Saturday that the Pentagon was "mobilizing the National Guard IMMEDIATELY." But he did not say when or where the troops would assemble, or identify their units.

Trump's directive authorized the secretary of defense to "employ any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary to augment and support the protection of Federal functions and property in any number determined appropriate in his discretion." In Hegseth's post on X, he said that active duty Marines were "on high alert" at Camp Pendleton, about 100 miles south of Los Angeles, and could also be mobilized.

Protests have occurred Friday and Saturday in California to oppose federal immigration raids on workplaces. The latest is unfolding at a Home Depot in Paramount, California, about 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

California Democrats have braced for months for the possibility that Trump would seek to deploy US troops on American soil in this way, particularly in Democratic-run jurisdictions. Privately, they have acknowledged that such a move, absent the state's agreement, would have profound implications.

Trump suggested deploying US forces in the same manner during his first term to suppress outbreaks of violence during the nationwide protests over the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He opted against doing so at the time, but he has repeatedly raised the idea of using troops to secure border states.

In 2020, in the final days of Trump's first presidential term, military helicopters were used to rout peaceful protesters demonstrating against police violence near the White House.

"For the federal government to take over the California National Guard, without the request of the governor, to put down protests is truly chilling," said Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. "It is using the military domestically to stop dissent."

The National Guard was last federalized in 1992, Goitein said, when President George H.W. Bush sent troops to Los Angeles to control riots after police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. That deployment was requested by the California's governor at the time, Pete Wilson.

Trump and his aides have often lamented that not enough was done by Minnesota's governor to quell protests that followed the death of Floyd in 2020.

During a campaign rally in 2023, Trump made clear he was not going to hold back in a second term. "You're supposed to not be involved in that, you just have to be asked by the governor or the mayor to come in -- the next time, I'm not waiting," Trump said.