The deployment would mark the latest escalation of Donald Trump’s use of federal intervention in Democrat-led cities, which the US president describes as rife with crime.
Published On 5 Oct 2025
California Governor Gavin Newsom has said that United States President Donald Trump is sending 300 California National Guard members to Oregon, after a judge temporarily blocked his administration from deploying that state’s guard to Portland, Oregon.
Newsom, a Democrat, called the deployment on Sunday “a breathtaking abuse of the law and power” and pledged to fight the move in court.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 items
- list 1 of 3Is an end to Israel’s war on Gaza finally in sight?
- list 2 of 3Trump orders Israel to stop bombing Gaza, says Hamas ready for peace
- list 3 of 3Norman Finkelstein: Trump plan has no connection to reality in Gaza
end of list
He said these troops were “federalised” and put under the president’s control months ago over his objections, in response to unrest in Los Angeles.
“The commander-in-chief is using the US military as a political weapon against American citizens,” Newsom said in the statement. “We will take this fight to court, but the public cannot stay silent in the face of such reckless and authoritarian conduct by the president of the United States.”
There was no official announcement from Washington, just as was the case when the governor of Illinois made a similar announcement on Saturday about troops in his state being activated.
Oregon’s Attorney General Dan Rayfield announced later on Sunday that the states of Oregon and California, together with the city of Portland, were launching a new joint legal challenge to what he called “the unlawful deployment of California National Guard troops to Oregon”.
The new legal action comes after a Trump-appointed federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plan to deploy the Oregon National Guard in Portland to protect federal property amid protests on Saturday, after Trump called the city “war-ravaged”.
US District Judge Karin Immergut, who was appointed by Trump during the president’s first term, said the relatively small protests the city has seen did not justify the use of federalised forces and that allowing the deployment could harm Oregon’s state sovereignty.
“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,