Donald Trump isn’t asking permission anymore. He’s sending troops, and letting the lawsuits come later.
The US President has reignited fierce legal and political debate after unilaterally deploying National Guard forces to California, bypassing Governor Gavin Newsom entirely.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump defended his move with characteristic bluntness:
“I’ve been here before, and I went right by every rule,” he said, referencing past protests during his first term. “I waited for governors to say, ‘Send in the National Guard.’ They wouldn’t do it. So this time, I said to myself: if that stuff happens again, we’ve got to make faster decisions.”
The “stuff” he’s referring to? Widespread protests in Los Angeles against his mass deportation campaign, demonstrations that have since spread across the US. Though mostly peaceful, they’ve included some incidents of vandalism to cars, buildings and infrastructure.
California isn’t taking the move lightly. On Monday, the state sued both President Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing them of federal overreach and violating the Tenth Amendment, which protects states’ rights.
“There was no rebellion, no foreign invasion, and no failure of law enforcement to maintain order,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta. “This wasn’t national defence, it was political theatre.”
According to the lawsuit, deploying over 4,000 National Guard troops under the guise of national security, when there was no clear breakdown in local control, amounts to an unlawful intrusion by the federal government.
But Trump remains unrepentant.
“Los Angeles was under siege until we got there,” he said. “The police were unable to handle it. The city was out of control.”
And in a move critics say betrays his true motivation, Trump also pointed to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“We’ve got the Olympics coming, and we don’t want people looking at Los Angeles like it was, like it would have been,” he added, implying the deployment was as much about optics as public safety.
The White House has defended the action by citing federal laws that give the president the power to deploy National Guard troops in the event of invasion, rebellion, or if local forces can’t uphold federal laws. Legal experts, however, argue that none of those conditions appear to have been met.
Now, the clash between Trump and California is shaping up to be a major constitutional showdown, not just about states’ rights, but about how far a president can go when he decides he’s done playing by the rules.
And as protests ripple across the country, the world is watching closely.
