Trump Meets a Friendly Audience in Court as He Seeks To Deploy Military Wherever He Wants
Dueling hearings were held Thursday regarding President Trump’s desire to deploy National Guard troops to blue states that don’t want them there.
In a San Francisco courtroom, a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, dominated by Trump appointees, seemed so sympathetic to his case that a certain familiar reporter wondered whether the arguments doubled as a Supreme Court hearing. The hearing focused on a district court’s order preventing the Guard’s deployment to Portland.
“The president can direct his resources however he sees fit and it seems a little counterintuitive to me that the city of Portland can step in and say ‘no, you need to do things differently,’” Judge Ryan Nelson, one of the Trump appointees, said Thursday. “Now, I understand that there is a law here and we’re going to have to review it, but that goes to the level of deference that I think the president is entitled to in these circumstances. And all of that is not entirely determined by what we see on the streets, it’s also determined, to some extent, by what’s going on behind the scenes, and you don’t have the full picture of that.”
And in Chicago, the city and state argued to dismiss Trump’s deployment in district court (in a courtroom without remote access – to which we say boo). During the hearing, Judge April Perry, a Biden appointee, called the city’s protests a “rebellion” — one of the criteria for sending the Guard under Title 10, the law cited by the administration — “bold,” according to NBC’s Chicago affiliate.
“What if the people at DHS aren’t connected to reality? Does it matter?” she said, asking “who are the rebels” and “are they well armed?”
She also reportedly insisted to DOJ officials where exactly the guard would be stationed.
Perry refused to immediately block the Guard’s deployment when she received the brief, and the troops arrived in the city.
Samantha vs. Mike Johnson
A caller identified as Samantha from Fort Belvoir, Virginia, confronted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) while answering CPSAN calls Thursday, telling him that her military family — including two “medically fragile children” — would suffer greatly if her husband missed pay due to the shutdown.
“If we see a loss of wages on the 15th, my children will not get the medications they need to live their lives because we are living paycheck to paycheck,” she said, adding that her “children could die.”
“As a Republican, I’m very disappointed in my party, and I’m very disappointed in you, because you have the power to recall the House — you refuse to do it just for show,” she said. “The audacity of someone who makes six figures a year to do this to military families is insane.”
Johnson responded that stories like his “keep him up at night,” turning to blame Democrats for the shutdown.
“Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are stopping your family from getting the care they need, not the Republicans, and my heart goes out to you,” he said.
Dozens of House Democrats signed a letter to Johnson, demanding a standalone vote on military pay, according to Politico.
Katie Porter’s cycle of self-inflicted hell continues
Gubernatorial candidate and former Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) continues to pay for her on-camera panic in response to a local CBS reporter’s fairly lame but innocuous questions. After being asked in a clip released Tuesday night about how she would win over Trump voters in the state, she grew annoyed.
“I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative, what is your question?” she shouted before saying: “I don’t want to keep doing this, I want to call him.”
She ended up staying for the remainder of the interview, as per her campaign.
The episode was particularly stupid because when she briefly stopped criticizing the questions and answered them, she had a perfectly correct answer. She said her experience as an Orange County representative has given her good faith in winning over Republican voters, something her primary challengers from the bluer pockets of the state lack.
I understand that on a meta level it’s extremely annoying that a gubernatorial candidate in, say, Texas is never asked how he “intends to win over Harris voters” – it’s a classic example of the ingrained media bias whereby Democrats are supposed to be compliant adults toward the opposing party, while Republicans are free to dismiss them and rain down invective on them. But come on. Threatening to walk out of an interview while on camera only encourages journalists to ask these kinds of questions.
And now the tap is turned on. Someone leaked a clip to Politico on Wednesday in which she berates a staff member during a video call for “getting out of my f***ing way!” »
How Operation Steal the House Before a Vote is Cast Happens
Vice President JD Vance is being sent to Indiana to burn down a state legislature reluctant to redraw congressional maps to guarantee Republicans more seats, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle. The state delegation is currently Republican at 7-2.
Vance visited in August to convince legislative leaders to support the initiative, but they made no firm commitments after the meeting.
They don’t seem to share the belief of Sen. Jim Banks (R-IN), who told Politico in September: “They killed Charlie Kirk — the least we can do is go through a court process and redistrict Indiana on a nine-to-zero map.” »
Meanwhile, in Missouri, there are efforts to hold a referendum in 2026 so voters can weigh in on the newly rigged map, which is making some Republicans nervous, according to Punchbowl. The delegation is currently 6-2 Republican, but the new map would make Rep. Emanual Cleaver’s (D-MO) Kansas City-area seat a safe Republican district.
While the Missouri Legislature passed the new revamped map, it also passed an amendment aimed at making it harder for citizen initiatives to appear on the ballot in the future, in a wild coincidence.
In case you missed it
The big story of the day: Greg Bovino emerges as Trump’s man for imagining an insurrection in the Blue City
Morning memo: Bondi’s alliance made Trump bleed…and other DOJ nonsense
Learn more about the 9th Circuit’s arguments: Trump 9th Circuit judges enthusiastically support his ability to deploy military anywhere, at any time
Rear channel: Did Trump bring peace to Gaza?
Reader’s mailbag: War zone coverage
Yesterday’s most read story
Key witness undermines Trump’s DOJ witch hunt against Jim Comey
What we read
Oklahoma’s Republican governor criticizes National Guard deployment in Chicago — New York Times
MAGA rage against Bad Bunny at Super Bowl sparks alternative spectacle – Washington Post
US anti-fascist expert blocked from traveling to Spain at airport — The Guardian
