As I discussed in yesterday’s version of The place Issues Stand, there is a component of campaign-promise success intertwined within the Trump administration’s aggro deployment of Nationwide Guard troops to inflame an already tense standoff between LA protesters and native legislation enforcement. Trump’s spent a lot of his political profession vowing to punish his perceived enemies (on this case, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and, extra typically, a state that gained’t give Trump its Electoral Faculty votes). Earlier than he was even again in workplace this yr, he was already formulating a plan to punish states and municipalities that dare to be led by Dems.

The damaging standoff he’s created in LA between civilians and the army is the real-life manifestation of a operating bit in Trump’s psyche, a feud between himself and blue-voting municipalities that, up till this level, he largely stoked by way of Fact Social posts and, beginning in January, govt orders attacking sanctuary cities and those that govern them.

With a view to justify the deployment of the army in opposition to civilian protesters as something larger than him discovering a gap for his blue metropolis retribution, it seems he’s enlisted a few of his allies within the administration, and in Congress, to carry out a little bit of shameless spin in the case of state sovereignty.

When Trump first ordered the federalization of the California Nationwide Guard, Newsom surfaced an previous tweet from Trump’s DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, which she posted whereas governor of South Dakota in 2024. The tweet is a clip from an interview Noem did with Fox Information’ resident MAGA man Sean Hannity throughout which she argued that if President Biden “federalizes the Nationwide Guard, that will be a direct assault on states’ rights.” (They had been expressing disapproval of a theoretical transfer Biden might take to order the Texas Nationwide Guard to face down when Texas Governor Greg Abbott mobilized it for border enforcement.)

Newsom reposted the tweet on Sunday.

This aged effectively. https://t.co/Ofb0Gs07RD

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 8, 2025

Noem is, in fact, now residing and dying by President Trump’s determination to federalize the Nationwide Guard with out consulting a state governor, going thus far, per a doc obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, as to counsel that Guard members transcend their present unprecedented deployment and extra-legally be part of ICE in conducting immigration arrests.

Trump’s buddies in Congress, in the meantime, are having to twist themselves a bit extra to make the hypocrisy stick.

Take libertarian-in-chief Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the person who is consistently lamenting federal overreach and professing his sturdy need to shrink the scale of the federal authorities. In response to questions on Trump’s determination to federalize Nationwide Guard troops and ship them into LA, Paul stated he supported the choice. He additionally gave the sport away: that the true level of deploying troops was not about mitigating protests however about forcing California, a sanctuary state, to bend to the President’s will.

“I’ve all the time most popular native legislation enforcement to federal however this can be a time during which it seems as if the state authorities is resisting imposing federal legislation,” he stated.

Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) — the world’s largest fan of states’ rights in the case of their capability to impose draconian abortion bans in Roe’s wake — was all in on the deployment when chatting with reporters on Tuesday.

“President Trump has put his hand on the desk and stated ‘Not on my watch,’ and we applaud that so we’re standing with him,” Johnson stated.

“Look, that’s not my lane. I’m not going to present you authorized evaluation on whether or not Gavin Newsom needs to be arrested, however he must be tarred and feathered,” he continued.

WH Acknowledges Rescissions May Not Be Fashionable

Some weak Home Republicans have reportedly been vocalizing their lack of enthusiasm for a White Home-created, Mike Johnson-supported plan that will see Congress green-light a handful of DOGE cuts within the type of a rescissions bundle. Seems among the devastating cuts to international support applications are usually not simply exhausting to abdomen, however rubber stamping them may show problematic for these representatives’ reelection prospects. Particularly, at the very least a dozen Home Republicans have expressed issues about cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Reduction, a George W. Bush-era program. Per Politico:

In latest days, White Home officers have conveyed to GOP leaders that they won’t solely preserve life-saving therapies below PEPFAR however may even — in response to issues from greater than a dozen Home Republicans — protect some prevention applications as effectively, based on three folks granted anonymity to debate the non-public assurances.

Tulsi Warns Of Different Contemporary Hell Not On My Radar

After a latest go to to Hiroshima, Japan, DNI Director Tulsi Gabbard put out a video on Twitter Tuesday warning that the world is nearer to nuclear conflict than ever earlier than. In it she accused “political elites” who can conceal in “shelters” of attempting to stoke battle between world powers with entry to nuclear weapons.

“As we stand right here at present, nearer to the brink of nuclear annihilation than ever earlier than, political elite and warmongers are carelessly fomenting concern and tensions between nuclear powers,” Gabbard stated within the video.

“Maybe it’s as a result of they’re assured that they are going to have entry to nuclear shelters for themselves and for his or her households that common folks gained’t have entry to,” she stated. “It’s as much as us, the folks, to talk up and demand an finish to this insanity.”

Trump Will get Win In DOGE’s Africa Company Dismantling

A decide granted the Trump administration’s movement for abstract judgment Tuesday night, discovering that the President’s removing energy allowed him (by way of DOGE) to axe the U.S. African Growth Basis’s board, and that the board members had already been eliminated once they voted to nominate a brand new president. We had coated this saga a bit in March as Trump was early on his aggressive push to remake the manager department, demolishing many businesses within the course of. The USADF had managed to carry off DOGE — at the very least for awhile. Choose Richard Leon had telegraphed Tuesday’s determination in latest court docket hearings. This isn’t one of many unbiased businesses that had removing protections and is unlikely to finish in a showdown over company energy.

— Kate Riga

In Case You Missed It

Stephen Miller Demanded ICE Goal House Depots

Punishing Blue Cities Was At all times On The Agenda

Yesterday’s Most Learn Story

Trump Admin Calls In Nationwide Guard Towards LA Protestors

What We Are Studying

White Home Pushes Texas to Redistrict, Hoping to Blunt Democratic Features

Faux Photographs and Conspiracy Theories Swirl Round L.A. Protests

GOP senator on Trump’s army parade: ‘I wouldn’t have carried out it’