Stephen Miller and Donald Trump Want War

They are ignoring a judge's ruling, ignoring the sovereign right of governors to keep their states safe and ignoring the on-the-ground facts to justify their dangerous invasions

Steven Beschloss - Oct 6

Apparently, these border patrol and police officers in Portland are not enough for the power-mad Trump and Miller. (Photo by Spencer Platt via Getty Images)
Stephen Miller is very mad. How dare a federal judge question the total power of Donald Trump to make up facts, insist violence is out of control and then declare an emergency so he can send in federal troops to clean up his fantasized anarchy?

“Legal insurrection,” Trump’s foaming-at-the-mouth propagandist pronounced over the weekend. “The President is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, not an Oregon judge.”

According to Miller, those poor, mistreated ICE officers in Portland are “facing relentless terrorist assault and threats to life.” That’s not all: “This is an organized terrorist attack on the federal government and its officers, and the deployment of troops is an absolute necessity to defend our personnel, our laws, our government, public order and the Republic itself.”

Wow. That sounds very serious.

Surely serious enough to justify the federalizing of National Guard troops under the 10th Amendment and 10 U.S.C. § 12406, the federal statute which permits such action when “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States” or “the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.” Right?

Yet, in our federal system in which states have power, it’s state governors who have the authority to keep the peace and enforce the nation’s laws—not a power-grabbing president who thinks the Constitution and its precepts need not apply to him when he wants something.

Judge Karin Immergut understands this. Thats why Immergut, a U.S. district court judge for Oregon, has not faltered in her duty to uphold the Constitution—no matter how aggressively Trump attack dog Stephen Miller pushes the terrorism button to justify his boss’ power grab.

On Saturday, she granted a temporary restraining order until at least Oct. 17 that blocks Trump’s federalization of 200 of Oregon’s National Guard troops. The order was filed by the City of Portland and the State of Oregon.

“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” Immergut wrote in her 30-page ruling.

“This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” she concluded. “Defendants have made a range of arguments that, if accepted, risk blurring the line between civil and military federal power—to the detriment of this nation.”

The district judge, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, also noted that Oregon would “suffer an injury to its sovereignty” were federal troops to be deployed.

But such an injury is of no concern to this White House occupant bent on expanding his power by waging war against Democratic-led cities and states. We saw the beginning of this in L.A. when he sent the National Guard to harass peaceful anti-ICE protestors. We saw it again in the District of Columbia when he sent in troops to deal with a manufactured crisis, many of whom spent their days picking up trash.

Yesterday Trump gave his disgraceful answer to Judge Immergut when he circumvented her ruling by deploying 200 California National Guard troops to Portland. He’s dangerously bent on ratcheting up chaos to justify an expanded police state and consolidate his authoritarian power.

“There is no need for military intervention in Oregon. There is no insurrection in Portland,” Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek responded, adding, “Oregon is our home, not a military target.”

And late Sunday, California joined Oregon’s lawsuit seeking another restraining order to block the use of California troops—which, just before midnight Eastern Time, was granted by Judge Immergut. As reported by legal journalist Adam Klasfeld, she told the government’s lawyers that Trump’s actions are in “direct contravention” of her order. She also broadened the scope of her initial restraining order to cover “the relocation, federalization or deployment of members of the National Guard of any state or the District of Columbia in the state of Oregon.”

Not long before this ruling, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement, “The commander in chief is using the U.S. military as a political weapon against American citizens. 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.”

Indeed, we can’t.

Let’s look at Trump’s rhetoric to see how we got here. You recall he pronounced Sept. 27 on his mis-named “Truth Social” that it was necessary to send troops to “war ravaged Portland” and that he was “authorizing Full Force, if necessary” to battle “Antifa, and other domestic terrorists.”

Later from the Oval Office, Trump was insisting that “it’s anarchy out there,” then the White House issued its proud proclamation about Trump’s planned deployment. “The radical left’s reign of terror in Portland ends now,” the White House’s ridiculous news release began.

Judge Immergut had a hard time taking the Trump hysteria and amateur operations seriously. While she acknowledged in her ruling that she’s expected to give a president “great deference” in such a serious decision as federalizing the National Guard, she practically laughed out loud at Trump’s Truth Social rant in a hearing prior to issuing her order.

“Really?” she asked. “A social media post is going to count as a presidential determination that you can send the National Guard to cities? That’s really what I should be relying on?”

And then, of course, there’s the reality on the ground. Not the fictional world Trump and his propagandists have concocted, but the one described by local law enforcement and local reporters.

“The city of Portland is 145 square miles. And this is one city block,” Portland Police Chief Bob Day told reporters, referring to the area around the ICE facility in downtown Portland.

Demonstrations at the ICE building throughout most of September “rarely drew more than a few dozen” protestors, according to city records. As a reporter for Oregon Public Broadcasting noted, “the records show the majority of nights were calm, like the night before Trump’s Sept. 27 announcement to send in the National Guard.”

Facts like these are obviously inconvenient. “The facts do not remotely justify this overreach,” city and state attorneys wrote in their motion for a restraining order. And they were quite clear about the real purpose: “In furtherance of a nationwide campaign to incorporate the military into civilian law enforcement—while also seeking to punish select, politically disfavored jurisdictions.”

As for Immergut’s assessment of the regime’s intentions, she referenced an earlier ruling that notes an executive’s “exercise of his authority to maintain peace” must be “conceived in good faith, in the face of the emergency and directly related to the quelling of the disorder.” She noted that such a deployment should fall “within a range of honest judgement.”

Good faith and honest judgement—they are nowhere to be found with people like Trump and Miller. In their vicious hunger for maximum power, they are not about to let such quaint concerns get in their way.

This is exactly why rulings like that of Judge Immergut are so critical to both push back against the regime’s lawless excesses and remind us of the difference between the rule of law and an anti-constitutional authoritarian takeover.

This case is of immense significance. As the judge notes, there are three “fundamental principles in our constitutional democracy,” including the relationship between the federal and state governments; the relationship between the U.S. armed forces and local law enforcement; and the role of the judicial branch to ensure the executive branch complies with our nation’s laws.

“Whether we choose to follow what the Constitution mandates with respect to these three relationships,” she concludes, “goes to the heart of what it means to live under the rule of law in the United States.”

Donald Trump can keep condemning Democrats as “the enemy within” and make up stories about rising violence and anarchy. Stephen Miller can keep attacking all of his enemies, labeling them terrorists and dangerously condemning judges who perform their duty as leaders of a “legal insurrection.”

And we can be sure they will, not only in Portland and Los Angeles, but also in Chicago and other cities where they will lie about the reality on the ground as they work to force a nation to engage in war against itself. The question is whether judges will continue to fearlessly stand up for the rule of law and Democratic governors will continue to vigorously stand up for their states’ people and sovereignty.

Note how Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker last night characterized Trump’s plan to send up to 400 Texas National Guard troops to Illinois, Oregon and other states—a plan that Trump ally Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is happy to assist.

“We must now start calling this what it is: Trump’s Invasion,” Pritzker said, adding, “This morning, the Trump Administration’s Department of War gave me an ultimatum: call up your troops, or we will. It is absolutely outrageous and un-American to demand a Governor send military troops within our own borders and against our will.”

As for Abbott, he made clear that he “fully authorized” Trump’s move—in other words, to do his part to escalate he conflict. “You can either fully enforce protection for federal employees or get out of the way and let Texas Guard do it,” Abbott wrote on social media. “No Guard can match the training, skill, and expertise of the Texas National Guard.”

This is where we are. Donald Trump, with the help of his sycophants, is waging war against our own country. And he’s doing it for no good reason besides his hunger for power and his sadistic, sociopathic need to seek vengeance against his perceived enemies.

Of course, Trump will continue to lie and blame everyone but himself when law and reality intervene to push back against his despicable actions. “I wasn’t served well by the people that picked judges,” Trump told reporters yesterday morning, adding that the judge “ought to be ashamed” because “Portland is burning to the ground.”

Soon we’ll learn whether the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will supports Judge Immergut’s check on Trump’s overreach. But let’s not doubt the dangerously high stakes resulting from Trump’s latest attacks on the rule of law and the truth.

It’s hard to overstate how perilous this moment is as Democratic governors must decide how they will respond in the coming days to Trump’s unrelenting efforts to stoke more violence and seize more power. It should now be clear how important it is that millions and millions of Americans take to the streets on Oct. 18 to resist this reckless overreach at the next No Kings protest.