While Democrats continue to fight President Donald Trump's deployment of the National Guard to cities and states across the country, the Trump administration is moving to expand the deployments and make them more efficient. Newly revealed War Department documents show the Pentagon is ordering the formation of 'quick reaction' National Guard units to better respond to violence or civil unrest. According to an internal memo from War Sec. Pete Hegseth, the "National Guard Response Force" will be used for "rapid mobilization as the circumstances require."
According to the memos, these units will receive nonlethal training in things like crowd control, detainee handling, and use of stun guns and body shields. Most state Guard units have utilized these types of forces before, but not on a national scale like this. "QRFs (Quick Response Forces) are not new," says Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park). "You've seen them recently in Portland and Chicago, but you also saw it after Hurricane Katrina."
"So having these units ready allows us to respond quickly," he continues. "And by the way, the United States Supreme Court backs Trump on this...recognizing that this is allowed under the Insurrection Act to end violent anarchy."
The Supreme Court has approved Trump's authority to use the Insurrection Act, but Democrats are still challenging the individual Guard deployments in Portland and Chicago, which remain tied up in lower courts. Cain believes these cases will ultimately be decided in favor of Trump, but in the meantime Democrats have no right to complain. "If the big, blue cities don't want our National Guard there, all they have to do is enforce the law," he tells KTRH. "All they have to do is arrest people for firebombing ICE facilities or disobeying the law...it's that simple."
"The only reason (Trump) is having to come in to these cities, is because they aren't enforcing the law."
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