Trump sends California guard troops to Portland in Oregon

The Trump administration sent 300 federalized members of the California National Guard to Oregon on Saturday night and early Sunday, after a federal court had blocked President Donald Trump from deploying the Oregon National Guard in that state, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. Newsom denounced the move as a “breathtaking abuse of power” and said California would sue.

The move came less than a day after Judge Karin Immergut of U.S. District Court in Oregon issued a temporary restraining order that prevented the Trump administration from mobilizing 200 Oregon troops for a 60-day deployment there. Trump had said the troops were needed to respond to demonstrations at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, but the judge wrote that the protests “were not significantly violent or disruptive” and that she expected a trial court to agree with the state’s contention that the president had exceeded his constitutional authority.

“This isn’t about public safety, it’s about power,” Newsom said of the California troops in a statement. “The commander in chief is using the U.S. military as a political weapon against American citizens. We will take this fight to court, but the public cannot stay silent in the face of such reckless and authoritarian conduct by the president of the United States.”

A White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, said the president had “exercised his lawful authority to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following violent riots and attacks on law enforcement.”

In Oregon, state and local officials expressed outrage.

“This action circumvents the court’s decision and threatens to inflame a community that has remained peaceful,” Mayor Keith Wilson of Portland said.

Gov. Tina Kotek of Oregon said that 101 federalized California National Guard members had already arrived in her state by Sunday morning. There had been no prior notification from the federal government to her administration, she said.

“The facts haven’t changed,” she added. “There is no need for military intervention in Oregon. There is no insurrection in Portland. No threat to national security.”

Dan Rayfield, the state’s attorney general, indicated that the state would return to court to try to block the deployment. State lawyers could ask Immergut to expand her temporary restraining order to include National Guard soldiers from other states.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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