California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday that he would sue the Trump administration after it federalized 300 California National Guard troops and deployed them to Oregon, just one day after a federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to deploy Oregon National Guard troops in Portland.
“In response to a federal court order that blocked his attempt to federalize the Oregon National Guard, President Trump is deploying 300 California National Guard personnel into Oregon. They are on their way there now,” Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement. “This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power. The Trump Administration is unapologetically attacking the rule of law itself and putting into action their dangerous words — ignoring court orders and treating judges, even those appointed by the President himself, as political opponents.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Pentagon referred questions about the deployment to the White House.
On Saturday, one day after the Trump administration activated 200 Oregon National Guard troops in Portland, a federal judge temporarily blocked the president’s move.
U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut, a Trump appointee, issued the temporary block, which lasts until at least Oct. 18.
“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” she wrote in her ruling.
In a statement issued after the ruling, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said: “There is no insurrection in Portland. No threat to national security. No fires, no bombs, no fatalities due to civil unrest. The only threat we face is to our democracy — and it is being led by President Donald Trump.”
The president has clashed repeatedly with Democratic governors and mayors over the weekend over his moves to deploy National Guard troops across the country.
In addition to the lawsuit from Democratic leaders in Portland and Oregon, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, blasted Trump’s decision on Saturday to deploy National Guard troops in Chicago, an idea the president has floated for weeks.
“It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will,” Pritzker said in a statement Saturday.
Democrats also blasted the president’s comments to senior military leaders last week, when he told them that the military should “use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military National Guard.”
Before the Trump administration’s moves this weekend in Portland and Chicago, it had deployed National Guard troops to two other American cities, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
Trump has also threatened to deploy troops and federal law enforcement to other American cities including Baltimore and New Orleans.
In Los Angeles last month, a federal judge ruled that the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines was illegal. Days later, officials in Washington, D.C., also sued to block the deployment of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital.
