Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
Trump federalized about 4,000 California National Guard troops and sent 700 Marines into Los Angeles over Newsom’s objection
A federal judge later found the deployment violated the Posse Comitatus Act. Trump ended the Los Angeles, Chicago and Portland deployments on December 31, 2025.
What happened
On June 7, 2025, during protests against ICE raids in Los Angeles, Trump invoked 10 U.S.C. 12406 to federalize California National Guard troops without Governor Gavin Newsom’s consent. More than 4,000 Guard members and about 700 Marines from Camp Pendleton were deployed. It was the first time since 1965 that a president had federalized a state’s Guard over its governor’s objection.
California sued on June 9 in Newsom v. Trump. A Ninth Circuit panel stayed Judge Charles Breyer’s June 12 order, and in October the full court denied en banc review, leaving the federalization in place.
On September 2, 2025, after a bench trial, Breyer ruled the deployment violated the Posse Comitatus Act. On December 10 he ordered the deployment of the remaining roughly 100 troops to end. The Ninth Circuit upheld that on December 12, and the troops left by the December 15 deadline.
Who benefited
The administration gained a template it then applied to other cities, and Homeland Security got military protection for immigration operations. Trump gained a confrontation with California’s governor that he used politically through the summer.
Who wanted something
Trump signed the memorandum, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the Marines. Stephen Miller and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ran the raid strategy that produced the protests. The gain was the first peacetime use of federalized troops in a U.S. city against a governor’s will in 60 years.
Who lost out
Residents of Los Angeles were policed by federal troops during immigration raids. California lost control of its own Guard, and Guard members were pulled from state missions for months. The court found that the Posse Comitatus Act’s bar on using the military for domestic law enforcement had been violated.
Why it matters
A federal judge found that the military was used for domestic law enforcement in violation of a 147-year-old statute, and the deployment ran for roughly 6 months anyway. The Los Angeles operation was the proof of concept for later troop deployments to American cities.
Sources Associated Press (via WTAP)Wikipedia (citing AP, LA Times, Politico, Reuters)U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (primary)NPRCourtListener (primary)