Donald Trump’s continued deployment of National Guard troops to major cities over the objections of their Democratic state leaders is shattering a decades-long norm of cooperation between presidents and governors.
What began this year as a one-off deployment to Los Angeles has spread to Washington, Portland, Oregon and Illinois, spurring furious pushback from local and state officials. Governors, including potential 2028 presidential contenders Gavin Newsom in California and JB Pritzker in Illinois, have said they were notified at the last minute that Guard troops were being dispatched to American streets.
The precedent-skirting lack of communication is prompting high-profile Democrats — who have already sued the administration — to escalate their rhetoric and press for Republican condemnations. Newsom and Pritzker both threatened to withdraw their states from the National Governors Association on Monday, accusing the bipartisan group of silence in wake of Trump’s test of states’ rights.
“There is no invasion here, there is no insurrection here, and local and state law enforcement are on the job and managing what they need to,” Pritzker said at a news conference Monday, while calling for people to stand up to the Trump administration. “I refuse to let Donald Trump, Kristi Noem and Gregory Bovino continue on this march toward autocracy.”
The call-ups, the first against sitting governors’ wishes since the racial integration of American schools in 1965, have infused uncommon partisanship into the use of the military branch. While Republican Gov. Greg Abbott enthusiastically approved of Trump sending Texas troops to Portland, Oregon’s Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek called the overtaking of her state’s Guard members, which a federal judge blocked over the weekend, “not American.”
The federal government’s targeted overtures have, while polarizing state officials along party lines, united Democratic leaders behind a shared rallying cry. The Democratic Governors Association laced into Trump on Monday over his actions in Oregon and Illinois, calling them “a blatant abuse of power and an attack on state sovereignty.” Democratic attorneys general, while joining multi-state lawsuits aimed at preventing the proliferation of the deployments, have been closely coordinating their responses.
“The collaboration has only grown and strengthened over time,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta told Playbook on Monday. “Being in the foxhole together, if you want to use that metaphor, it’s as strong as ever.”
The Guard deployments have put likely 2028 contenders under an especially bright spotlight. Newsom delivered an address that was carried live on cable news in June after Trump sent Guard members and Marines to Los Angeles. The governor has in recent days asserted the country is “on the brink of martial law.”
Pritzker has described Trump’s actions in similarly draconian terms. At Monday’s press conference in downtown Chicago, he refuted Trump’s depiction of the city as a war zone in need of troops to restore order. And he cast federal immigration agents using aggressive tactics in the city, not out-of-control crime, as a prevailing threat to Chicagoans.
“The state of Illinois is going to use every lever at our disposal to resist this power grab and get those thugs the hell out of Chicago,” Pritzker said. “I’m not afraid. I’m not afraid. And I won’t back down.”
The fate of the administration’s broader efforts is still legally in question. A Trump-appointed federal judge over the weekend temporarily blocked attempts to deploy troops to Oregon from Texas and California.
But the administration has appealed the decision, which White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt argued was “untethered in reality, and in the law.” And Trump on Monday signaled openness to invoking the Insurrection Act to expand his power over the military soon after venting about judges he appointed standing in his way on the issue.
“The President,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told POLITICO,
“will continue to be vindicated by higher courts when liberal activist judges attempt to intervene.”
Rachel Bluth contributed to this report.
Like this content? Consider signing up for POLITICO’s California Playbook newsletter.
