California Governor Gavin Newsom has been publicly slamming President Donald Trump for taking control of the National Guard and deploying troops to Los Angeles amid anti-ICE protests. The Democrat dared the administration to arrest him on Sunday. Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, said on Monday that there were currently “no discussion” about arresting the governor, but didn’t close the door on the idea. Trump flung it wide open, however, telling reporters on Monday that he thinks arresting Newsom would be “great.”
“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing. He’s done a terrible job,” the president said.
Newsom quickly responded. “The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor,” he wrote on X. “This is a day I hoped I would never see in America. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.”
Trump signed an order on Saturday authorizing the federalization and deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops, 300 of which were promptly sent to Los Angeles without the request or consent of city and state officials. The action hasn’t been taken by an American president since 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson bypassed Alabama’s segregationist Governor George Wallace and sent the National Guard to protect civil rights protesters marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
The order does not mention California, but instead directs the National Guard “to temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions, including the enforcement of Federal law, and to protect Federal property.” In effect, the order could be invoked in other states. Unless the President invokes the Insurrection Act, the National Guard would be barred from conducting law enforcement activities against U.S. citizens.
“Let’s be very clear, there was no risk of rebellion, no threat of foreign invasion, no inability for the federal government to enforce federal laws,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a Monday press conference.
Bonta affirmed that his office would be pursuing a lawsuit to declare the president’s unilateral commandeering of the National Guard as unlawful. “The Trump administration likes to ignore laws and just barrel forward. We like to follow the laws and go through the process, including going to court to secure a court order,” he said. Bonta explained that the state decided to persue a legal solution instead of issuing counter-orders to the National Guard in order to avoid confusion. “They’d be getting two orders from two of their bosses, so to speak […] we think the appropriate way is to get a clear order from the court saying that Trump’s actions were unlawful.”
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“The governor is in charge […] unless there is an appropriate invocation of a legal authority by the President to exert authority with respect to deploying the National Guard. He has not done that here,” Bonta added. “The court should be declaring that Governor Newsom has the command here, not President Trump. I think that needs to come from a court, not just from the governor saying it.”
“Donald Trump has created the conditions you see on your TV tonight,” Newsom said in a Sunday night interview with MSNBC. “He’s exacerbated the conditions, he’s lit the proverbial match, he’s putting fuel on this fire, ever since he announced he was taking over the National Guard — an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act.”
From Rolling Stone US
