WASHINGTON – A federal judge has ruled that President Trump broke the law when he deployed troops to Los Angeles earlier this summer to respond to immigration-related protests.
The court said the president violated the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the use of the military as a national police force without authorization.
Despite the ruling, President Trump is doubling down, pledging to send federal troops into other major American cities. “Chicago is a hellhole right now, Baltimore is a hellhole right now,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.
Over the Labor Day weekend, at least 57 people were shot in Chicago, eight of them killed.
“If the governor of Illinois would call me up, I would love to do it,” Trump continued. “We’re going to do it anyway. I have a right to do it because I have an obligation to protect this country.”
Illinois officials quickly rejected the idea. Governor J.B. Pritzker responded by saying Chicago does not want federal troops.
“I am aware that the president likes to go on television and beg me to call and ask for troops,” Pritzker said. “I find this extraordinarily strange as Chicago does not want troops on our streets.”
The situation mirrors a recent deployment in Washington, D.C., where the president federalized the local police and sent in the National Guard. In response, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser issued an order to integrate local and federal law enforcement operations.
“We didn’t ask for any federal officers. We’re driving crime down – but while they’re here, how can we strategically use them?” Bowser said.
President Trump says the strategy is working, pointing to a reported drop in crime in the nation’s capital.
“The Republicans, President Trump, see this as a politically winning issue, to be on the side of safety – to be on the side of fighting crime,” said David Brody, CBN’s chief political analyst.
While the issue is resonating with conservative voters, the legal authority to deploy troops into states without their request remains murky.
“When it gets complicated is that federalizing or mobilizing the D.C. National Guard in the District of Columbia is different, because D.C. is not a state, than mobilizing the National Guard in other states and cities that are in actual states,” said Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of Inside Elections.
According to the latest AP-NORC poll, crime remains a top concern nationwide. Eighty-one percent of Americans say it is a major problem in big cities, and 53 percent approve of how the president is handling the issue. Still, fewer Americans support a full federal takeover of local police departments.
