Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network. I’m your host, Greg Sargent.President Donald Trump lost a big one in court over the weekend when a federal judge blocked him from deploying the National Guard in Portland. After the state of Oregon sued, the judge found that Oregon was likely to prevail on the merits and issued a temporary restraining order. The ruling also barred Trump from deploying the California National Guard to Oregon. Interestingly, the judge cited one of Trump’s own tweets—in which he described Portland as “war ravaged”—as evidence of bad faith. The court concluded that the president does not have absolute authority to invent “facts on the ground” as a pretext to justify any military deployment he wants. In other words, Trump’s bad faith worked against him. Today we’re discussing what this ruling really means with Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield. Attorney General, thanks so much for coming on.Attorney General Dan Rayfield: Absolutely. Well, thanks for having me.Sargent: So, Trump moved to take over the Oregon National Guard and sent several hundred of them into Portland to defend ICE facilities from protesters. You went into court, and Judge Karen Immergut awarded you a temporary restraining order. Then Trump tried to federalize the California National Guard and send it into Portland. California joined you and got that stopped as well. The court ruled, AG, that Trump exceeded his statutory authority with these orders. Can you explain the ruling and bring us up to date on where we are?Rayfield: Yeah, I mean, it’s pretty simple. If you think about it just as Americans—we don’t see the United States military in our cities, and there’s a reason for that, right? We have laws that prevent that, except under extreme circumstances.
And the president was saying, Hey, these extreme circumstances exist in the city of Portland. And we said, absolutely not. We presented real facts in the courtroom. The lawyers for the federal government presented Truth Social facts in the courtroom.
Sargent: Well, to go into the guts of that, by law, Trump can only federalize the National Guard if there’s an invasion by a foreign nation, a rebellion, or if the laws can’t be executed with regular forces. The crucial thing though is that while the president has a fair amount of deference in determining whether those things are happening, you can’t just make it up whole cloth. The judge cited a few examples of violence but said it doesn’t come close to reaching those conditions. Can you talk about the importance of that aspect of the ruling?
What made this very unique is that, right now, it’s not even a close call. You can give all the deference you want to the president, and still—none of those circumstances exist.
Sargent: Well, I want to try to get at Trump’s bad faith in all this. The judge cited a tweet from Trump after a period of really minimal activity outside the Portland ICE facility. Trump tweeted that he’s directed the defense secretary to protect, quote, “war-ravaged Portland and any of our ICE facilities under siege from attack by Antifa and other domestic terrorists.”
Rayfield: Unquestionably, right? But that’s what’s so amazing about our court system in the United States. It’s a place where we get to go in and talk about truth. We get to talk about facts. And we have a judge—no matter where they come from in life—who gets to evaluate the circumstances on the ground and make these decisions.
I always kind of take these things back to raising a child, right? You have to set boundaries for your child, and you have to set boundaries for your president. That’s the Constitution and the laws of our country. Those boundaries are incredibly important. If you don’t enforce those boundaries, you’re going to have a child that’s going to run amok—or you’re going to have a president that going to run amok. And that’s what the founders of our Constitution did not want: too much power in the executive branch.
Rayfield: Yeah. I mean, what Stephen Miller says is incredibly inflammatory, and it’s incredibly short-sighted, because if you start expanding the power of the executive branch, those powers will be expanded for the next Democratic president. And they need to recognize the problem with that. It’s not just a problem with a Republican president—it’s a problem with a Democratic president. We have coequal branches of government for a reason, and we don’t want to start expanding that. And so I think this is the absurdity that Miller brings with him as he starts kind of going forward—incredibly short-sighted.
Rayfield: As Democratic attorneys general, we talk all the time. We talk about being ready and making sure that we are in a position to defend the rule of law immediately. It’s why we had our lawsuit filed in less than six hours of having formal notice that he was trying to federalize the Oregon National Guard.
It’s a weird place in this world where we start start pitting conservative states against Democratic states and talk about using the military of one state—dragging them into another state—and the sovereignty of each state in our country. So it’s a really new dynamic that we’re experiencing together right now. And I think it’s incredibly important that when we’re talking, we’re speaking with one voice as Democratic attorneys general—about enforcing that rule of law and reminding people why the Constitution put these boundaries in place in the first place.
Rayfield: Yeah. I mean, we’re ready for everything. What I would tell people is to really start hearing the president—hear what the president is saying right now. At every rally he goes to—yesterday, at the 250th anniversary of the Navy—what he’s talking about is using the United States military as police in our communities, a police force within our communities to reduce crime. That is unlawful. That is un-American. And that is not the America that any of us grew up in. That is not the America that any of us were taught about in grade school.
He started in California, D.C., Memphis. He’s doing it in Illinois, Oregon. He’s talking about it increasingly—and that’s absurd. We should be talking about the health care they’re trying to strip away. We should be talking about the food benefits. All of a sudden, all this is going on and we’re not talking about the Epstein files anymore. It draws attention away.
Sargent: Well, and in addition, it’s actually going even further than just using the military as police. He’s essentially talking about turning the military loose against Americans of the other party. In one of his speeches the other day, he said it straight out. He was talking to service members, and he said, I have a gnat on my shoulder—you know, the Democrats who supposedly want to let in the “illegals.” He said that to members of the armed forces. So isn’t he really talking here about turning the military loose against fellow Americans?
And that’s why, again, we have to continue to push back against this. And ask: What is this vision for America? Because that’s not my vision. I don’t want to live in a world where we’re using tariffs as a regressive tax on Americans, or where we’re stripping people of essential benefits—health care, food assistance—that they desperately need.
Sargent: Well, I wonder whether, given all this, we could be hearing a little more from national Democrats about what’s happening. Would you like to see something like a joint statement from congressional leadership—the party leadership—essentially saying the entire party is united, and inviting any Republicans who want to join, saying: We are all united against Trump’s efforts to turn the military loose in American cities? Maybe something expressing more urgency from the party as a whole. Would you like to see that?
I don’t think people are really grasping the reality of what’s going on in America right now because it is so absurd. And I’m hopeful that a year from now we’re not talking about this. But remember—we’re not even one year into this man’s presidency. And he’s just beginning.
Rayfield: Unquestionably. But let’s also not forget some of the real positive things coming from some Republicans. So I do want to throw some optimism into the world. Earlier this year, we had Supreme Court justices pushing back against the president as he was really attacking the independence of the judiciary. That’s a good sign.
A couple of weeks ago, who came out of the blue to defend the free press? Senator Ted Cruz. That’s not a bad thing to have in your back pocket, right? So when we really start stretching the bounds of our democracy, we’re seeing some of these red flags pop up—cautionary signs—that give me hope that you have actually elected officials who aren’t too fearful of President Trump. Because they absolutely are afraid of him. And they won’t stand up to him. But we also have Republicans in our cities and our communities who really know, deep down, this is not okay. And we can’t allow this to continue.
Rayfield: Oh, absolutely. My dad’s a Republican. And when this first started to happen—he was in the military, this man has served more than 30 years—he sends me text messages talking about, Oh my gosh, Posse Comitatus Act, right? This is real common-sense stuff. But it is things I think we’ve taken for granted in society, because we’ve had the fortune—the privilege—living in the United States where having the military on our streets just hasn’t been a reality for us.
Sargent: Certainly seems like that’s something Donald Trump and Stephen Miller want to acclimate people to, don’t you think?
And then, moreover, saying—boldly, to all of the top brass in our United States military—talks about how he wants to train them in our cities. Just imagine if any Democratic president had ever said that. We would all lose our minds.
Rayfield: Yeah, so right now—for those who haven’t really been tracking it—you get a temporary restraining order, that’s this immediate thing where you get in front of a judge to kind of pause the action and preserve the status quo, if you will. And that’s what we have in place.
So we expect in the next, you know, probably 24 to 48 hours, the ruling will say whether or not we’re going to move forward with that stay. The federal government has asked for that to happen by the end of, I believe it s today. So we’re hopeful to hear back that no, we’re not going to move forward, and they will not grant the federal government’s motions.
Sargent: Now to be clear though, even if the government were to get a stay on the temporary restraining order, you guys still will have won that first round in court because the court, the judge did say that they expect you to prevail in the long run, correct?
Sargent: Just to wrap this up, the judge also issued a strong denunciation of Trump that I’d like to quote: “This is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law.” AG, that’s what’s at stake here, I think. Do you expect this to go to the Supreme Court and how do you predict the Supreme Court will handle the underlying issues?
I think the Supreme Court—even if it makes it to them—will understand what’s at stake here in America. And again, sometimes even having the Supreme Court rule in our favor might be what this country needs to see to really know that even this conservative court—even a judge appointed by Trump—sees it differently.
Sargent: I hope you’re right. I just want to ask, though—do you think the Supreme Court sees it the way we see it? Do the Supreme Court’s conservatives, the majority, think we’re at a precipice moment where things like this are required?
Sargent: Attorney General, really hope you’re right. Thank you so much for coming on with us today. We really appreciate it.
Rayfield: Thank you. Take care.
Hence then, the article about transcript trump s own tweet on portland backfires in big court loss was published today ( ) and is available on The New Republic ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Transcript: Trump’s Own Tweet on Portland Backfires in Big Court Loss )
Also on site :
- Blizzard conditions and tornadoes disrupt travel as winter brings frigid reality check back to the US
- Arrowhead Stadium Worker Reveals 'Beautifully Kind' Gesture From Taylor Swift During Chiefs' Christmas Day Game
- Samsung Plans to Bring Google Photos to Samsung AI TV Lineup, Helping Users Relive Their Favorite Memories on the Big Screen