In a significant and controversial move, President Donald Trump called up 2,000 citizen soldiers from the California National Guard, citing the necessity of federalized troops for immigration enforcement amidst ongoing protests.
This action, taken against the wishes of Governor Gavin Newsom, has few precedents in U.S. history and has triggered a heated debate over state sovereignty and federal powers.
Governor Newsom publicly condemned Trump’s decision, describing it as a breach of state sovereignty that unnecessarily escalates tensions.
After visiting Los Angeles to oversee responses to the protests, Newsom issued a formal request for Trump to return control of the National Guard to the state.
In his social media post, Newsom emphasized that local law enforcement resources were adequate to maintain order and that the deployment of the National Guard was unwarranted in Los Angeles, labeling the move as unlawful.
“We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved,” he tweeted, expressing concern over how such federal interventions could inflame the situation instead of alleviating it.
In conjunction with this deployment, Trump also dispatched 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles on Monday.
This federalization marks a rare occurrence in which a president has directly circumvented state authority in the deployment of its National Guard, a practice that hasn’t taken place since 1965, during the civil rights movement under President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Historically, the federalization of the National Guard has been a complex issue, often intertwined with civil rights and racial tensions.
In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened when the governor of Arkansas activated the National Guard to prevent nine Black students from entering Central High School, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling against segregation.
Similarly, in 1962, President John F. Kennedy federalized the National Guard in Mississippi to quell tensions following the enrollment of a Black student at The University of Mississippi.
Trump’s actions came in response to reports of violence at protests where demonstrators were seen throwing rocks at a Border Patrol vehicle.
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image source from：https://calmatters.org/politics/2025/06/national-guard-los-angeles-legal/
