Obama Critiques Trump’s Use of National Guard

Former President Barack Obama has voiced his disapproval regarding President Trump’s decision to send the National Guard to various cities, denouncing it as an act of “politicization of the military.”

Obama stated, “It wasn’t controversial for me to go to other countries and say, ‘It’s a good thing that the military is under civilian control,’ because having a military that can use force against its own people is inherently corrupt,” during a recent interview on a podcast with Marc Maron.

The former president accused the Trump administration of seeking to “deliberately circumvent” laws that typically prevent military involvement in civilian policing, while also addressing Trump’s threat to use the Insurrection Act amidst protests about immigration enforcement in Portland.

“This is a real attempt to undermine our understanding of democracy,” Obama remarked.

Since January, Trump has ordered the National Guard’s deployment to places like Los Angeles in June, Washington, D.C., in August, and Memphis this month. The plans to send troops to Portland and Chicago are currently on hold due to court decisions.

A federal judge ruled in September that Trump’s order for California National Guard and Marines to be sent to Los Angeles violated federal law. Obama pointed out an 1878 law that stipulates the military should not be used domestically “unless there is some special emergency.”

In 2015, during Obama’s second term, the Maryland National Guard was sent to Baltimore amidst protests following Freddie Gray’s death. However, it was then-Governor Larry Hogan (R) who ordered the troops, not Obama.

Notably, three of the four states Trump is targeting for National Guard deployments are led by Democratic governors, with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser being a Democrat and Tennessee Governor Bill Lee being Republican. Officials in Oregon and Illinois have publicly objected to Trump’s actions.

“If I had sent the National Guard to Texas and said, ‘You know what? Dallas has a lot of problems, there’s a lot of crime there, and I don’t care what the governor says’—that would be quite an overreach,” Obama said.

He concluded, “We don’t want masked people with rifles and machine guns patrolling our streets. We need police officers who know their neighborhoods and the kids around them, so they can keep peace in this area.”