WASHINGTON, D.C.
A rapidly escalating political and constitutional crisis is pitting US President Donald Trump’s hardline anti-crime and immigration crackdown against opposition Democrats, who accuse the administration of an authoritarian power grab and sowing disorder in major cities.
The latest flashpoint erupted in Chicago, the nation’s third-largest city, where President Trump authorised the deployment of 300 National Guard soldiers late Saturday, moving ahead despite the staunch opposition of local elected leaders, including the mayor and state Governor JB Pritzker.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the decision on Sunday, telling Fox News that Chicago had become a “war zone.”
However, Governor Pritzker, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” fiercely pushed back, accusing Republicans of aiming to manufacture chaos. “They want to create the war zone, so that they can send in even more troops,” Pritzker stated. In a subsequent statement, the governor labelled the proposed deployment “Trump’s invasion,” asserting there was “no reason” to send troops into Illinois or any other state without the “knowledge, consent, or cooperation” of local officials.
The move comes as a CBS poll released Sunday found that 58% of Americans oppose deploying the National Guard to US cities. Trump, who recently spoke of a need for the military for a “war from within,” has shown no signs of softening his campaign rhetoric, even falsely claiming on Sunday that “Portland is burning to the ground. It’s insurrectionists all over the place.”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, a key ally, echoed the President’s language, telling NBC that National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., had responded to a “literal war zone,” a description widely disputed by on-the-ground reality.
Constitutional Law Over Martial Law in Portland
The administration’s campaign to use military force on domestic soil hit a significant legal obstacle in Portland, Oregon, late Saturday when a US District Judge ruled the deployment unlawful.
Despite Trump repeatedly calling Portland “war-ravaged,” Judge Karin Immergut issued a temporary block, stating that “the president’s determination was simply untethered to the facts.”
“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” Immergut wrote in her forceful ruling. She concluded that while Portland has seen scattered attacks on federal property, the Trump administration had failed to demonstrate that those incidents of violence were part of an “organised attempt to overthrow the government as a whole,” which would be necessary to justify military force.
One of Trump’s senior advisors, Stephen Miller, immediately dismissed the judicial order as “legal insurrection.”
A second court order issued late Sunday further blocked the deployment of National Guard soldiers from other states, according to Oregon’s attorney general and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who had previously announced a lawsuit to stop the mobilisation. Newsom, deliberately adopting the President’s all-capitals style, tweeted: “A federal judge BLOCKED Donald Trump’s unlawful attempt to DEPLOY 300 OF OUR NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS TO PORTLAND.” He added: “Trump’s abuse of power won’t stand.”
