LEXIE THAYER
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
AIDAN SHAPIRO
STAFF WRITER
10/20/2025
Over the course of the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term, he has attempted to send the National Guard to many cities across the United States.
From Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. all the way to Chicago, Trump has attempted and failed in many cases to federalize the National Guard in Democratic cities to assist in managing crime.
Earlier this month, Trump sent Texas National Guard troopers to an Elwood, Ill. training facility ahead of a possible operation assisting immigration forces.
“Chicago’s a great city where there’s a lot of crime, and if the governor can’t do the job, we’ll do the job,” Trump said at a White House briefing.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker has been vocally opposed to Trump’s militarization of Chicago, and earlier this month a federal appeals court ruled that the National Guard can stay in Illinois but cannot be deployed.
While the National Guard has failed to station in Chicago and other areas, Republican Governor of Tennessee Bill Lee has allowed the National Guard to be deployed in Memphis.
Democratic mayor of Memphis Paul Young hopes the National Guard will do their intended job and crack down on crime instead of using their presence and power to cause unrest in the city.
Why does Trump want the National Guard in these cities in the first place? This is purely speculation, but I think Trump simply wants his presence to be felt in cities that aren’t huge fans of his presidency.
I wrote an article about all the opposition that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had in cities like Chicago, and it is cities like Chicago and Portland that Trump now wants a military presence in.
That is really it, in my opinion. Trump wants his presence and power felt across the country, and he is starting with those that oppose him.
In a country where you can now lose your job for saying anything bad about our president or his supporters, it makes complete sense that said president would send his troops across the country to places that don’t like him.
Many are in fear of Trump eventually using the Insurrection Act to finally get his way in cities that are opposing his deployment of the National Guard.
In a nutshell, the Insurrection Act is an act that dates all the way back to 1792 that gives the president the right to deploy the National Guard domestically, under certain circumstances.
Should we be worried about this, though? I think so. According to an article written by the Brennan Center for Justice, the act itself is so broad and vague that it can easily be twisted into whatever the president wants.
For example, Sections 252 and 253 are all about allowing the president to deploy the National Guard without state approval in order to “suppress rebellion” and “enforce the laws” of our country. Historically, these sections were used by former President John F. Kennedy to desegregate schools during the Civil Rights movement. This is a positive use of the Act that makes sense, unlike Trump’s apparent fearmongering method.
If Trump were to enforce the Insurrection Act in order to get the National Guard into a city that doesn’t want it, I can see a lot of civil unrest spreading across our country.
Hopefully, someone will wise up soon and propose alterations to the Insurrection Act before Trump realizes how much power he really has.
The Almanian: News 
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