With the White House already having militarized Washington, D.C., there’s been speculation for weeks about which American cities might be next. JD Vance tried to offer some public assurances last week, claiming the administration has no intention of imposing deployments on anyone.
As NBC News reported, the vice president, speaking at an event in Wisconsin, fielded a question from a reporter about whether governors have the ability to stop Donald Trump from deploying the National Guard to cities around the U.S. “We want governors and mayors to ask for the help,” Vance replied. “The president is not going out there forcing this on anybody.”
Asked about deploying Guard troops to Milwaukee, the vice president added, “We want to be invited into Milwaukee. … The president of the United States has said he wants to be asked, and that has been his consistent line from the very beginning.”
Five days later, that “consistent line” unraveled, and Trump said largely the opposite. NBC News reported:
Asked whether he’d be sending the National Guard into Chicago, Trump said, ‘We‘re going in.’ … ‘I didn’t say when, but we’re going in,’ he told reporters in the Oval Office.
The Windy City is apparently not the only intended target.
Trump on sending troops to Chicago: "If the governor of Illinois would call me up, I would love to do it. Now, we're going to do it anyway. We have a right to do it. And that includes Baltimore."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-09-02T19:14:41.108Z
“If the governor of Illinois would call up, call me up, I would love to do it,” Trump added. “Now, we’re going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it, because I have an obligation to protect this country, and that includes Baltimore.”
So to recap, late last week, the vice president insisted the administration’s policy was rooted in voluntary requests and invitations from state and local officials. Early this week, the president insisted that he has “the right” to deploy Guard troops onto American streets, at his discretion, whenever he feels like it.
As for whether Trump was correct in his assumption about his legal authority, the Republican’s timing could’ve been better. My MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin highlighted a highly relevant court ruling that roughly coincided with the president’s misguided boast.
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration broke the law in its use of the military in Los Angeles. If upheld on appeal, the ruling will stand as a check on President Donald Trump’s use of the military for domestic law enforcement and serve as a broader reminder that Trump being commander in chief of the military doesn’t make him a national chief of police. Sitting in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said the administration violated the Posse Comitatus Act. The 1878 law prohibits the U.S. military from executing domestic laws.
As for Gov. JB Pritzker, the Illinois Democrat made it explicitly clear that he opposes the White House’s plan. “He has no idea what’s he’s talking about,” the governor said, referring to the president. “There is no emergency that warrants deployment of troops.”
