Trump deploys the National Guard

Summary

Today, Explained (Vox) – “Trump deploys the National Guard”

Date: October 8, 2025
Hosts: Noel King, with reporting from Dan Petrella (Chicago Tribune) and Isaac Stanley-Becker (The Atlantic)

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Episode Overview

This tense episode examines President Trump’s controversial deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Chicago and (attempted) Portland to bolster immigration enforcement operations. Through on-the-ground reporting and expert analysis, the show investigates the legality, political motivations, and local impact of Operation Midway Blitz, the surge in federal officers, and the resistance from city and state leaders. The episode explores rising anxieties and divisions surrounding immigration, public safety, and the federal government’s use of force in U.S. cities.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. National Guard Troops Arrive in Illinois (Chicago Focus)

• Troop Arrival & Uncertainty
  • Hundreds of Texas National Guard members have arrived, currently stationed at a federal facility in Joliet, southwest of Chicago. As of airing, they have not yet been deployed onto city streets.
    • Dan Petrella (02:10): "Everyone is sort of standing at attention waiting to see what is going to happen… They have yet to be deployed onto the streets… So that's sort of the next step that everyone is waiting for."
• Mood on the Ground
  • Tense atmosphere, increased confrontations between residents and DHS/ICE agents.
  • Clashes reported outside ICE facilities, spilling into neighborhoods, hospitals, and even schools.
    • Dan Petrella (02:43): "Things are very tense… reports all over the city and the suburbs of confrontations with agents from U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement."
    • Protests at ICE facilities led to arrests and DHS use of tear gas and pepper balls against demonstrators.

2. Federal Operations and Trump’s Rhetoric

• Operation Midway Blitz
  • Name given to the ramped-up immigration enforcement campaign, launched in early September after weeks of Trump discussing violence in Chicago and threatening National Guard deployment.
  • The operation involves militarized tactics, including dramatic raids (e.g., apartment building in South Shore), detainment of bystanders and even children, and viral Hollywood-style promo videos.
    • Dan Petrella (06:01): "I would characterize it as a military style operation… reports of them, you know, detaining and zip tying young children… then the administration… produces these highly produced, almost Hollywood style videos…"
• Presidential Escalation
  • Trump issues a call to jail Chicago’s mayor and Illinois’ governor for “failing to protect ICE officers,” following confrontations and protests.
    • Dan Petrella (04:12): "He is saying that they should be sent to jail… That language coming from the president… is not unusual… We've heard from this president… to these two individuals in particular."
  • Some residents physically block DHS Secretary Kristi Noem from accessing public facilities, symbolizing local anger and resistance (00:01-00:26).
• Governor’s Stance and Pushback
  • Governor Pritzker forcefully rejects the notion there’s a crisis, stating that the federal presence is unnecessary and provocative, and highlights the lack of consent for the Guard deployment.
    • Protester (07:24): "To any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker and more dangerous. We are watching and we are taking names."
  • Pritzker’s outspoken opposition dates back to his political start, rooted in anti-Trump sentiment.

3. Community Divisions and Political Optics

• Local Attitudes Toward Immigration Enforcement
  • While some vocal Chicagoans support more stringent actions, Petrella argues they’re a small minority, their views amplified by the administration for optics.
    • Dan Petrella (09:43): "There is a very loud minority of voices that will say that… I don't believe that they represent a large swath of the public here in Chicago."
    • Tensions highlighted between Black and Latino communities—sometimes stoked by politicians—and larger underlying issues of disinvestment and resource allocation.
• Political and Legal Strategy
  • Debate continues about whether the White House is seeking real security outcomes or simply stoking confrontation for political theater in Democratic-led cities.
    • Noel King (10:55): "Some people say it's about optics… it looks like the administration is hoping for a confrontation…"
    • Dan Petrella (11:37): "Their real aim is sort of unclear. I do think that there is a sort of shock and awe approach to this, trying to project this image of power."
  • The legality of the Guard’s use is being challenged in federal court; past judges in California and Oregon have already rebuffed similar deployments, with a ruling pending in Chicago.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On the National Guard’s Legality
  • Noel King (07:15): "The National Guard is not supposed to be deployed without the permission of a state's governor…"
• Governor’s Defiance
  • Protester (07:24): "To any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence… We are watching and we are taking names."
• On Community Disgust
  • Protester/Activist (00:28): "You're gonna use that gun on your people? Shame on you. I hope right now your ancestors are looking at you."
• On Chaotic Enforcement
  • Dan Petrella (06:39): "[On the operation] It's been very sort of scattershot and chaotic from the point of view, folks out on the street."
• On Political Calculations
  • Dan Petrella (11:37): "…obviously been told in federal court in California that they shouldn't be doing what they've been trying to do with these guard troops… It's really, really hard to say what the endgame is here."

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4. Portland: Perception vs. Reality

• Federal Judge Blocks Guard Deployment
  • Portland has also faced threats of National Guard deployment. After the President labeled the city a “war zone,” a federal judge blocked troop mobilization.
    • Isaac Stanley-Becker (16:46): “The president says [Portland] looks like a war zone… efforts to deploy… have been stymied by a federal judge. But I went to… fact check those assertions…"
• Reporting From the Scene
  • Reality: No “war zone.” Lively, mostly peaceful protests at Portland’s lone ICE facility, with crowds rarely exceeding a couple hundred—even after Trump’s threats.
    • Isaac Stanley-Becker (17:05): "Well, certainly no war zone. What I saw is a lively and at times raucous and rowdy protest at the ICE facility in Portland…”
    • Protesters are diverse—youth, elders, clergy, people in wheelchairs, a topless woman, and even dogs.
  • Nighttime tension increases; some "black bloc" attire visible, pepper balls fired by federal agents, but confrontation still limited in scope.
• Political Impact of Federal Threats
  • Ironically, Trump’s threats galvanized protests that had actually been winding down.
    • Isaac Stanley-Becker (20:33): "Things had actually quieted down… What the president did by making these threats sort of insert and inject new energy into the demonstrations."
• Antifa: Reality and Rhetoric
  • Portland hosts Rose City Antifa, one of the country's oldest anti-fascist groups, but “antifa” remains a diffuse and misunderstood label.
    • Isaac Stanley-Becker (21:51): "The word has been used so promiscuously in recent years… a contraction of anti-fascist… membership diffuse, hard to understand…"
  • Many protesters reject the mischaracterization, asserting their protests are anti-fascist but not solely defined by “antifa.”
• Judge’s Striking Rebuke and Legal Stakes
  • The Trump-appointed federal judge who blocked deployment sharply described the President’s statements as “untethered from the facts.”
    • Isaac Stanley-Becker (25:25): "[The judge] said that this is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law, and called the President's statements and actions untethered from the facts… really worth listening to as we consider what it means that the President is attempting to mobilize active duty soldiers into an American city against the wishes of city and state leaders…"

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:01 – 00:45: Initial chaos in Chicago: National Guard troops arrive, residents resist, bathroom incidents, and protester outrage
• 02:10 – 04:07: Dan Petrella describes troop presence, public tension, and federal confrontations in Chicago
• 04:12 – 05:01: Trump’s call to jail the mayor and governor, and background of “Operation Midway Blitz”
• 06:01 – 07:15: Details of ICE raids and militarized enforcement, including botched detentions and propaganda videos
• 07:15 – 08:57: Governor Pritzker’s outspokenness and political background
• 09:43 – 10:55: Community divisions, minority support for harsh enforcement, and the balance of local political opinion
• 10:55 – 13:03: Debate over federal motives and forthcoming court case on legality
• 16:28 – 18:22: Isaac Stanley-Becker reports from Portland: Reality of protest size and character
• 20:23 – 21:24: Portland protest history and how Trump's threats have re-energized demonstrations
• 22:00 – 23:17: Explaining “antifa” in Portland: myth vs. reality
• 24:12 – 25:53: Federal court block, judge’s rebuke, and looming legal showdown

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Conclusion

This episode sharply critiques President Trump’s controversial use of the National Guard in Democratic cities, highlighting deepening legal, political, and civic fault lines. Local reporting counters federal narratives of chaos, illustrating how high-level power struggles directly shape on-the-ground tensions, civil liberties, and the lived realities of Chicagoans and Portlanders alike.

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Notable Quotes (with Speaker & Timestamp)

• “Things are very tense… reports all over the city and the suburbs of confrontations with agents from U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
  – Dan Petrella (02:52)

• “Their real aim is sort of unclear. I do think that there is a sort of shock and awe approach to this, trying to project this image of power.”
  – Dan Petrella (11:37)

• “What I saw is a lively and at times raucous and rowdy protest… certainly no war zone.”
  – Isaac Stanley-Becker (17:05)

• “This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law, and [the judge] called the President's statements and actions untethered from the facts.”
  – Isaac Stanley-Becker (25:25)

• “They are the ones that are making it a war zone. They need to get out of Chicago.”
  – Protester/Activist (08:24)

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Host information, production credits, and sponsor spots omitted as per instructions.

Transcript

[Noel King]

Hundreds of Texas National Guard troops have arrived in Illinois and are getting ready to deploy in Chicago. Residents there have been pushing back against ice. They blocked DHS Secretary Kristi Noem from using the bathroom.

[Dan Petrella]

That's why Governor Pritzker says is cooperation.

[Noel King]

In keeping people safe. Then actually even more bathroom stuff.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

They don't even let our ICE officers.

[Dan Petrella]

And our Border Patrol officers use restrooms and facilities.

[Noel King]

But it's not all bathroom related.

[Protester/Activist]

You're gonna use that gun on your people? Shame on you. I hope right now your ancestors are looking at you.

[Noel King]

And this tension, combined with President Trump's early morning call for the governor of Illinois to be jailed, has raised fears about what is coming next. And that is coming up on Today Explained from Fox.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

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[Isaac Stanley Becker]

Today. Today explains Today Explain.

[Noel King]

I'm Noel King with Dan Petrella. Dan's a political writer for the Chicago Tribune. Dan, what's happening in Chicago today?

[Dan Petrella]

Well, everyone is sort of standing at attention waiting to see what is going to happen with the National Guard troops who arrived yesterday from Texas. We are seeing that they have gathered at a federal facility near Joliet, which is a far southwest suburb of Chicago. They have yet to be deployed onto the streets of the city or any of the suburbs. So that's sort of the next step that everyone is waiting for is seeing how and when these troops might be used.

[Noel King]

Chicago is a big city, but there have been some high profile instances of violence in the streets in the last couple of days. What is the mood there like today?

[Dan Petrella]

Things are very tense you know, there's reports all over the city and the suburbs of confrontations with agents from U.S. immigration and Customs Enforcement.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

New clashes have broken out, mostly outside.

[Dan Petrella]

The suburban ICE facility, but also spilling into neighborhoods, hospitals, even outside schools.

[Protester/Activist]

U.S. customs and Border Patrol officials spent another day sailing up and down the.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Chicago river, leaving onlookers and local officials.

[Protester/Activist]

Confused as to what the mission was.

[Dan Petrella]

You know, we see videos posted all over social media and hear from sources of folks having encounters with them on the streets.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Protests at that same ICE facility got heated.

[Protester/Activist]

That led to multiple arrests and the.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Use of tear gas and pepper balls by DHS agents on those blocking entrances to the facility.

[Dan Petrella]

And there's a lot of worry about what might happen to escalate the situation if military troops are sent out under the ostensible purposes of protecting these federal agents who've been operating at a sort of ramped up level here in the city and surrounding area for the last month or so.

[Noel King]

And have you seen what President Trump is saying this morning about the mayor and the governor?

[Dan Petrella]

I did. And yes, that he, he is saying that they should be sent to jail.

[Protester/Activist]

Truth social Chicago mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE officers.

[Dan Petrella]

Governor Pritzker also, which is not entirely surprising. I mean, it is, I guess we shouldn't excuse that kind of language coming from the president, but it is, you know, not unusual from what we've heard from this president directed to these two individuals in particular previously and from throughout his life in politics at all sorts of different political opponents.

[Noel King]

All right, let's go back to where this all starts. And it begins with President Trump and something called Operation Midway Blitz. What is this?

[Dan Petrella]

So this is a title that they have given to this sort of stepped up immigration enforcement activity that they began toward the beginning of September. This came after a couple weeks of the president talking about violent crime in Chicago and the possibility of calling up National Guard troops to deal with violent crime. That sort of shifted to stepping up immigration enforcement, which is something we've seen from the president before. They did a round of sweeps and things like that in the early days of his administration. Even brought Dr. Phil and a camera crew to follow around. ICE agents and his borders. Are Tom Homan as they, as they arrested people.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Are you a citizen?

[Protester/Activist]

My mother says it.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Your mother's a citizen?

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

Yes.

[Dan Petrella]

Dr. Phil?

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Yeah. How do you know? Me?

[Dan Petrella]

No, I seen, I seen Dr. Phil.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

You know, on TV.

[Noel King]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dan Petrella]

They have done a. I would characterize it as a military style operation at an apartment building in the South Shore neighborhood On the south side of Chicago where there have been reports of them, you know, detaining and zip tying young children who were there. And, you know, then the administration sort of produces these highly produced, almost Hollywood style videos that they post on social media to, you know, promote their cause and sort of gather support for this operation.

[Protester/Activist]

Get out of the way through the Bearcat. All the way through the Bearcat.

[Dan Petrella]

And they've said that they've detained about 1,000 people. It's really hard to come by, really hard to get them to release actual full information on who they've arrested. There have been several instances where there have been people who weren't the supposed worst of the worst, but just people who got sort of caught up as collateral detentions. We saw a family in Millennium Park a couple weekends ago that was taken into custody. So it's been very sort of scattershot and chaotic from the point of view, folks out on the street.

[Noel King]

The National Guard is not supposed to be deployed without the permission of a state's governor. Governor Pritzker is giving a lot of main character energy the past couple of.

[Protester/Activist]

Weeks to the public servants who have forsaken their oath to the Constitution to serve the petty whims of an arrogant little man. To any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker and more dangerous. We are watching and we are taking names.

[Noel King]

How has he been making his case and how. Have you seen the tenor change in the last couple of days?

[Dan Petrella]

Yeah, you know, he. He really has. I think the way you characterize it is, is very fair. He has tried to state forcefully and frequently and you know, on seemingly every national media outlet, he can, he can find a microphone at that. There's not a crisis situation here in Chicago or in Illinois that warrants the use of National Guard. But there is no wide scale unrest really going on anywhere in the Chicago area right now that would warrant that sort of thing.

[Protester/Activist]

They are the ones that are making it a war zone. They need to get out of Chicago. If they're not going to focus on the worst of the worst, which is what the President said they were going to do. They need to get the heck out.

[Dan Petrella]

So he's really been outspoken about that from the moment that the President, you know, started bringing this idea up again. He's somebody who has, you know, been an outspoken critic of the President all throughout his time in office and frankly ran for governor in the first place because he was upset when Hillary Clinton, who he supported in the 2016 election lost.

[Noel King]

Last summer, Dan, I was in Chicago for the dnc, and I spent a couple days reporting from the south side, and I talked to a lot of people who were very angry about illegal immigration. They said, you know, the south side has been disinvested for years. People are coming in from Venezuela and they're getting money. What is this like? Is this like they setting up job training for them? Is that a bad thing? If they're setting up job training for them, why are you not setting up.

[Dan Petrella]

Job training for us?

[Noel King]

Many of those people were voting for Donald Trump because of immigration. So I wonder, you said these raids, some of them have been taking place on the south side. Are there people in Chicago who will say, this is what I voted for, this is what we wanted?

[Dan Petrella]

I would say that there is a very loud minority of voices that will. That will say that. And I think, you know, the. The administration has been very active in highlighting some of those voices, you know, on social media, calling attention to folks who, you know, even groups of people who are sort of known. Known quantities at City hall, for example, where they show up and speak during public comment at city council meetings and things like that. Reg, that is not to say that those voices don't exist. I don't believe that they represent sort of a large swath of the public here in Chicago. I think that. I would note that overall, I think President Trump only improved his vote total statewide in Illinois by about 2,000 votes from 2020 to 2024. So regardless of how it affects voting, there are people who feel disaffected. And there's been long tensions in Chicago between the black community and the Latino community. And I think politicians over the years have sort of stoked those divisions, often white politicians kind of stoking the divisions to hold on to power themselves.

[Noel King]

There is still, at the end of the day, a question here about what the point of this is of sending the Guard into Chicago against the governor's wishes. Some people say it's about optics. President Trump is enjoying the memes, the shypocalypse. Now, the posts on Truth Social. And some people say it looks like the administration is hoping for a confrontation the likes of which we've seen now over the past couple of days, hoping to ramp things up in Chicago. Now, I am asking you to speculate here, but I wonder, you've done deep reporting on this. What do you think the administration is after right now?

[Dan Petrella]

You know, that is a very good question, and I wish I had a better answer. I think that's Part of the problem is that their real aim is sort of unclear. I do think that there is a sort of shock and awe approach to this, trying to project this image of power. And I do think they've obviously been told in federal court in California that they shouldn't be doing what they've been trying to do with these guard troops. They've been told in federal court in Oregon. We're waiting for a federal judge here in Chicago later this week to rule on the state's request for a temporary restraining order. It's really, really hard to say what the end game is here. And that's honestly one of the questions that the federal judge here in Chicago has tried to get the Trump administration to answer in court. Where these troops will be sent, what their activities are going to be once they're here. And those answers haven't been provided. We'll see. They're supposed to be filing a response in federal court here shortly, so it'll be interesting to see what the arguments they make there are. You know, it's obvious that the target of all of these movements so far have been cities that are led by Democrats, and there's been a lot of partisan rhetoric from the administration about that. So it's really hard to view it through any other lens.

[Noel King]

Dan Petrella of the Chicago Tribune Coming up, the president says Portland is a war zone. Portland is not so sure about foreign.

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This is Today Explained.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

My name is Isaac Stanley Becker. I'm a staff writer at the Atlantic.

[Noel King]

And what have you been up to for the past two weeks?

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

Well, I have been in Portland of late. The city that the president says looks like a war zone authorized the use of full force by soldiers there and.

[Protester/Activist]

I get a call from the liberal governor, sir, please don't come in. We don't need you.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

His efforts to deploy members of the National Guard have been stymied by a federal judge. But I went to Portland. Try to fact check those assertions and try to understand what it actually looked like on the ground.

[Noel King]

Tell me what you saw.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

Well, certainly no war zone. What I saw is a lively and at times raucous and rowdy protest at the ICE facility in Portland. It's Oregon's only ICE facility. One of the things that's important to remember, and the city police chief emphasized this in some of his recent public comments.

[Protester/Activist]

City of Portland is about 145 square miles.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

This is one city block for anyone who travels there. I think the geography of this is so important to try to get across. There's the area just outside the facility where any given moment there's maybe two dozen at most. Protesters standing outside holding signs, shouting at the federal agents coming in and out. And there's a much, much smaller permanent encampment where several people at a time have been camping overnight, spending their time there. And then at certain moments when a specific action is called, the crowd gets bigger, but not that much bigger. I think the biggest crowd I saw was on the Sunday after the day after the President's initial truth social message announcing this. Maybe 200, 250 people, young people.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

I'm out here because my parent is an immigrant. I think it's being trade in a lot worse way than it actually is.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

Old people, members of the clergy, labor organizers, people in wheelchairs, a topless woman, dogs, people in costumes. There was music, there was dancing, there was food. And then as night fell, things got a bit more tense. I put my hands up and I said, I'm just standing here exactly where you asked me to.

[Dan Petrella]

And then he maced me in the face for three seconds straight without warning.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

At some point, they even started to fire pepper balls from the roof.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

The share of people wearing the black block attire, it's all black, usually with helmets, some type of ski goggles or masking grew. But for even those people, it was somewhat hard to discern their exact intentions. Some of them were presenting themselves as medics. They had medic insignia on their clothing. A diverse and really varied group of people, I think with wide ranging motivations, interests and intentions.

[Noel King]

Portland for the past couple of years has been kind of famous for protests. But walk me through when the most recent protests date to and what's been going on since the summer in June.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

Is the way that protesters describe the timeline to me. The actions begin to morph into more focused on ice, and that's when a permanent encampment begins just near the ice facility. And when I say encampment, I'm talking about maybe a tent or two, a couple of cots, medical supplies, food, a grill. I'm not talking about some sprawling kind of no go zone. And that drew the attention of some right wing activists who called attention to it.

[Protester/Activist]

For people who say that there's not violence going on in front of these facilities, what do you say?

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

It's a complete lie. There's lots of violence within the city block. Journalists have been attacked over and over.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

Which made it, you know, more of a notable symbol outside the facility that drew larger crowds and, you know, things were pretty rowdy in the summer. There were a number of arrests outside the facility. And I think one of the ironies and this is one of the ironies that was not lost on the federal judge who enjoined the deployment of the troops is that things had actually quieted down. Certainly nothing exceedingly violent or out of control in the area. And what the President did by making these threats sort of insert and inject new energy into the demonstrations, which I think for many of the protesters raised the question of is this what he wants? Does he want to inflame the situation? Does he want to turn the city into, into a war zone in order to justify this mobilization?

[Noel King]

President Trump has been very clear about what he wants in Portland. He says he wants to get Antifa.

[Protester/Activist]

Look, the politicians are afraid for their lives. That's the only reason that they say, like there's nothing happening. And you've seen it, the place is burning down.

[Noel King]

People in the know have responded. Antifa is like, it's not like a club, right? We, we don't know who antifa is. What are these protesters telling you about antifa? Do they identify as such?

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

The word has been used so promiscuously in recent years.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Antifa is a very small group of losers and miscreants and buffoons.

[Protester/Activist]

Antifa is terrible, of course.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

It's a contraction of anti fascist. And one of the interesting things about Portland is that it is home to one of the oldest known antifa groups in the country, Rose City Antifa.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

What our group does is we engage.

[Dan Petrella]

In community self defense against fascists and white supremacist groups. And that includes disrupting their activities whenever we can.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

One of our points of unity is that we don't depend on the cops.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

Or the courts to do the work.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

Of opposing white supremacy.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

But even that organization, if you want to call it that, is diffuse. And it's kind of hard to understand exactly its leaders, its membership. And one of the things that some locals pointed out to me is that, you know, a number of years ago when there were, you know, quite violent protests and really sort of roving street brawls that popped up in parts of the city between left wing protesters and right wing activists in all out brawl.

[Sponsor/Advertisement Voice]

In the streets of northeast Portland, by the looks of it. Antifa in the right wing group Patriot Prayer clashing at what was advertised as a mayday after party. Make no mistake about it, these two groups do not like each other. This man came back bloody and angry after a confrontation with Antifa members. He wouldn't be the only one hurt. By the end of the day, a.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

Number of these actors went to prison or felt the threat of going to prison. Which has taken down the temperature significantly. I think the feelings about this really ranged. There are some of them who said, look, I'm engaged in anti fascist protest. I believe that ISIS conduct, its tactics and the president's directives to ice resemble fascist regimes. They also though felt that the term has been emptied of all of its meaning and that it's being used by the President to try to criminalize anti fascist protest. They both wanted to combat that by embracing it, but also wanted to distance themselves because they felt that this is a term that's just talked about by people who are aren't in it, don't really know what it is, and just see political opportunism in it.

[Noel King]

All right, so a judge temporarily blocked the National Guard from coming to Portland. The governor and I imagine the local authorities mayor are probably on high alert. What they are doing and how they are approaching the situation is actually escalating it. I would ask them to stand back and focus on de escalating the situation because it is not coming from the.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

Folks who are demonstrating.

[Noel King]

What do we understand about what is going to happen next?

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

So the administration has appealed this and there's going to be a hearing, I believe, on Thursday before the ninth Circuit. So we'll have to see whether the judge's decision is reversed and also whether there are other ways in which the administration tries to work around it. But I think, you know, for the time being, it's really worth listening to the words of this judge, who again is a Trump appointee, a Republican, and who said that this is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law, and called the President's statements and actions untethered from the facts. These are striking words from the judge in justifying this order that she issued and you know, really worth listening to as we consider what it means that the President is attempting to mobilize active duty soldiers into an American city against the wishes of city and state leaders and based on a rationale that a judge that he himself put on the federal bench is saying are untethered from the facts.

[Noel King]

That was the Atlantic's Isaac Stanley Becker. He's been reporting from Portland. Today's show was made by Danielle Hewitt, Denise Guerra, Amina El Saadi, Laura Bullard, Patrick Boyd and Adrian Lilly. Congratulations are pouring in for Sean and his wife Lori, who had a baby last night, Beyonce. That was such a beautiful email. Thank you from all of us. Sean is going to be back in five months. I will be here. We'll have some other great fill in hosts until tomorrow. I'm Noel King. It's today, explained.

[Isaac Stanley Becker]

S.A.

[Protester/Activist]

Foreign.

[Noel King]

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