Legal battle over Guard

‘He is not a king:' Newsom rips Trump amid legal battle over Guard

The California governor mercilessly mocked the president.

By Dustin Gardiner and Blake Jones

California Gov. Gavin Newsom lit into President Donald Trump on Thursday, heralding “a new day in this country” after a federal judge ordered the president to end his unilateral deployment of the state’s National Guard troops.

But the victory was short-lived, with an appeals court hours later preserving Trump’s ability at least temporarily to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles.

“He is not a monarch. He is not a king, and he should stop acting like one,” Newsom told reporters outside the federal courthouse after an emergency hearing in downtown San Francisco.

Newsom’s remarks came moments after a federal judge ordered Trump to relinquish control of California’s National Guard troops, ruling his deployment of the Guard to Los Angeles was illegal and unconstitutional. But hours later, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the order, setting a Tuesday hearing on the matter.

Following the short-term block of the order, Newsom’s team referred to the governor’s comments from earlier Thursday night projecting confidence the decision would stand.

“I’m confident in the rule of law,” Newsom said. “I’m confident in the Constitution of the United States. I’m confident in the wisdom and judgment of a very well-respected federal judge. And I’m confident, on the basis of the review of the 36 pages — absolutely it will stand.”

Earlier Thursday, Newsom had also mercilessly mocked Trump for his upcoming military parade — calling it “a vulgar display of weakness” — and referred to the president as “a stone cold liar” for claiming he spoke with the Democratic governor in advance about commondeering his National Guard.

“I would love to share the readout, but I revere the office of presidency, so I’ll keep it in confidence. He is quite literally made up components of that conversation,” Newsom said. “He never discussed the National Guard, period, full stop. I would love to share with you what he actually talked about. It would send shivers up your spine.”

The court battle came after Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Monday challenging Trump’s move to use the National Guard to quell protests over ICE raids in Los Angeles.

Newsom said local law enforcement had the situation under control, calling Trump’s move “authoritarian” and an intentional effort to inflame violence and justify his use of executive power.

“The National Guard will go back to border security, working on counter drug enforcement and fentanyl enforcement, which they were taken off by Donald Trump,” Newsom told reporters after the ruling. “The National Guard will go back to working on what we refer to as the rattlesnake teams, doing vegetation and forest management, which Donald Trump took them off in preparation for wildfire season. The National Guard men and women will go back to their day jobs, which include law enforcement that he took them off the job.”

Newsom added: “Clearly, there’s no invasion, there’s no rebellion. It’s absurd.”

Trump’s move to seize control of the Guard troops is exceedingly rare in modern American history. Not since the civil rights era of 1965 has a U.S. president deployed the National Guard without a governor’s consent.

Attorneys for the Trump administration contend Trump didn’t need the governor’s consent to take control of the Guard given resistance to federal immigration enforcement efforts. Trump has accused Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of failing to control unrest as scofflaws burn cars and assault police.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who issued the temporary restraining order, bristled at the administration’s stance that the president’s position cannot be second-guessed — even by the courts — because he is the commander-in-chief.

“That’s the difference between a Constitutional government and King George,” Breyer told a packed courtroom earlier Thursday. “It’s not that a leader can simply say something and it becomes it.”

Breyer — a Clinton appointee and the younger brother of former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer — noted that, under federal law, the president has the authority to call up the National Guard in limited situations, provided such orders are “issued through the governors of the states.”