Donald Trump’s “Border Czar” Tom Homan said Saturday the administration is planning to send in the National Guard Saturday evening to quell protests in Los Angeles.
“This is about enforcing the law, and again, we’re not going to apologize for doing it,” Homan said on Fox News. He continued: “We’re already ahead of the game. We were already mobilizing. We’re gonna bring National Guard in tonight. We’re gonna continue doing our job. We’re gonna push back on these people, and we’re gonna [enforce] the law.”
On Saturday night, following Homan’s on-camera remarks, both national Democratic and Republican figures were scrambling to figure out if he was just mouthing off, or if the federal troops were actually on their way, or just … what the hell was going on.
Two Trump administration officials say they learned about the alleged National Guard plans from journalists such as Rolling Stone’s who had reached out to them on Saturday evening, asking for clarification.
Homan did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
“The federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) wrote on Bluesky Saturday evening. “That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”
He added, “LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice. We are in close coordination with the city and county, and there is currently no unmet need. The Guard has been admirably serving LA throughout recovery. This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.”
The president can request, but not order, a governor to deploy their state’s National Guard. The governor can refuse the request, and Trump would not be allowed under the Constitution to send National Guard troops to California from other states. However, the Trump administration has previously mulled invoking the Insurrection Act, which could allow the president to deploy the U.S. military domestically, federalize the National Guard, and send in troops to quell uprisings or civil disorder.
Editorializing beyond here:
The Insurrectionist invokes the Insurrection Act.
I liked BSG reboot for being good sci-fi slop back in the day and Ron D Moore’s pedigree showed etc its still a very good show at least for the first few seasons, specialy the pilot.
But that quote is peak liberalism though, the show is speaking to liberals that believe this myth of police as a social service and not exactly as he describes, a force to fight the enemies of the capitalist state. The only difference is merely external vs internal forces. Never mind the police budget worth more than most of the world’s military to begin with etc.
We saw the whole defund the police cycle and how that turned out among libs, they don’t realy believe this shit in the real world anymore, heck the show is already 20 years out of date on that alone.
As much as there is a whole theory of the function and form of the police under a socialist state, I’m not giving that benefit of doubt they are not talking about this.