DJT Calls Up National Guard Against Los Angeles Protests

After a second day of hundreds of protesters against federal raids by agents outfitted like soldiers in a war zone rounding up immigrants and at least one prominent citizen, Donald Trump called up 2000 California National Guard troops to deploy against the protests.

National Guard troops are usually called up by the governor of their state. Governor Gavin Newsom would not do it. The last time National Guard troops were used in Los Angeles was 1992 after acquittal of police who beat Black motorist Rodney King nearly to death, which sparked riots. Trump took control for himself, the first time since 1965 that a President has called up National Guard without a governor’s request. He invoked Title 10, not the Insurrection Act, to do so. The troops cannot legally participate in law enforcement activities unless they violate the Posse Comitatus Act. Legally they can only provide logistical support and force protection for federal agents.

Reportedly Newsom called Trump, although this was not confirmed. They spoke for about 40 minutes but made no announcement about what they said to each other. Trump used social media to insult Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, and announce his escalation.

Trump’s memo sending in National Guard went on to say the Secretary of Defense “may 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.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced he had Marines from Camp Pendleton on high alert. Using them would be a definite violation of the Posse Comitatus Act without a formal declaration of insurrection.

Los Angeles police say protesters there have been peaceful. Protests in Paramount and Compton have become hotter with some damage to property. Federal agents have used tear gas, so-called less lethal ammunition and potentially injurious flash-bang grenades against them.

Trump made no secret of wanting to crack down so hard on Los Angeles that all other resistance to his plans will be cowed into submission. Los Angeles is a city of more than 4 million people with a high proportion of non-whites. A quick look at numbers shows that Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation together would be overwhelmingly outnumbered even if local and state police ally with them.

Trump is likely to need to add military troops to achieve his goal. He can only legally do so by invoking the Insurrection Act. To do that credibly, he needs to push the people of Los Angeles into violence akin to the violence his agents have committed over the past two days.

The situation is uncomfortably reminiscent of Kent State University. Ohio Governor Jim Rhodes deployed National Guard troops against protesters there in May 1970. That resulted in four dead and nine wounded students on 4 May, not counting students assaulted by guardsmen with bayonets the previous day. Only eight of the twenty-nine troops who fired into the protest rally were charged with depriving the students of civil rights and they were all acquitted in a bench trial. The episode turned national momentum and put protesters definitively on moral high ground.

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