This is a new setback for the American president. On Wednesday, December 31, Donald Trump announced on his social network Truth Social the withdrawal of the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland (Oregon), even though the troops were already deployed there, following legal proceedings carried out by these states to prevent their deployment.
“We are withdrawing the National Guard from Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, even though CRIME (sic) has decreased significantly due to the presence of these great patriots in these cities, and ONLY because of that fact,” he wrote, a claim not supported by available data.
Donald Trump had deemed it necessary to send National Guard soldiers to these territories to fight crime and protect federal property from protesters, while mainly peaceful demonstrations took place earlier this year to denounce anti-immigration raids carried out by federal agents across the country. But the deployment of the National Guard in these three cities was deemed unnecessary by local authorities and by Democrats, who accused the White House of using isolated incidents as a pretext to send troops. After several legal challenges, judges effectively declared that the Trump administration had exceeded its authority, finding that there was no evidence to justify the indispensable nature of the deployment of soldiers.
Exceptional circumstances
“The president deployed these courageous men and women against their own communities, in defiance of the Constitution and federal law,” responded Gavin Newsom, Democratic Governor of California, hours after a decision by a federal appeals court which ordered the administration to put California National Guard troops back under its control. “We are pleased to welcome members of the California National Guard back into service to the state,” he continued in a statement.
Until those rulings, Donald Trump claimed near-unlimited authority to deploy the National Guard typically under the authority of governors, but judges ruled he could federalize troops only in exceptional circumstances, such as a foreign invasion, rebellion or when the regular military is unable to enforce federal law due to a breakdown in law and order. “At this preliminary stage, the government has not identified a legal basis for the military to enforce Illinois laws,” the decision reported by the Washington Post. This is “an important step in curbing the Trump administration’s constant abuse of power and slowing its authoritarian drift,” the Democratic governor of Illinois, Jay Robert Pritzker, said in a statement.
Last August, Trump also ordered the deployment of thousands of National Guard members to Washington to combat violent crime, prompting a lawsuit from District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb. In this case, however, a federal appeals court ruled in a preliminary order issued in December that the National Guard could remain for the time being and that the Trump administration had a good chance of winning an appeal of a lower court ruling because the District of Columbia’s lack of legal autonomy gave the president broad authority over the deployment of the National Guard within city limits.
