Trump’s old clip on governor’s nod for National Guard is viral amid California row

An old video from 2020 of Donald Trump is doing the rounds, in which he is seen saying that he can’t call in the National Guard “unless we’re requested by a governor.” Five years later, the clip from his first term as president has resurfaced amid rising tensions between Trump and California Democrats over his administration’s deployment of 2,000 National Guard members to the Los Angeles area in a bid to rein in pro-immigration protesters.

In an interview with ABC, Trump said, “I have restored law and order. Except in Democrat-run cities. We have to go by the laws. We can’t move in the National Guard. I can call insurrection, but there’s no reason to ever do that, even in a Portland case. We can’t call in the National Guard unless we’re requested by the governor.”

In response to Trump’s extraordinary move to deploy forces in Los Angeles, California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday stated that he would sue the US President for ordering a crackdown on pro-immigration protesters while overlooking federal laws.

In an interview with MSNBC, Newsom went a step further, calling Trump administration’s move to arrest protesters off the streets of Los Angeles by deploying the “state’s National Guard without consulting the Governor of that state is illegal and immoral.” National Guard units are jointly controlled by the US federal government and the state governments.

Dismissing Newsom’s claims, Trump was quick to call him “incompetent” on his Truth Social platform. Calling it a “great decision,” Trump said, “We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California. If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated. The very incompetent “Governor,” Gavin Newscum, and “Mayor,” Karen Bass, should be saying, “THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR.” Instead, they choose to lie to the People of California and America by saying that we weren’t needed, and that these are ‘peaceful protests’.”