Donald Trump’s National Guard crackdown: What it means and why troops are on US streets

President Donald Trump’s mobilisation of the National Guard in several US cities in recent months is a departure from its historic role.

The National Guard is a state-based military force whose troops wear uniforms and rank, operate military vehicles and weapons, and have often been called upon to serve alongside regular active-duty units in war. But when deployed domestically, the guard has traditionally been asked to provide humanitarian assistance, not to act as a partisan strike force at the whim of the president.

Mr Trump has activated the guard several times this year in Democratic-led cities, in what he has called a crackdown on crime and as part of his escalating immigration enforcement tactics.

Here is an overview of what the National Guard typically does and how Mr Trump is currently deploying the force in the United States.

What is the National Guard?

Tracing its history to the Massachusetts militia in 1636, the National Guard is a component of the US military that has state and federal missions and traditionally operates under the jurisdiction of governors under Title 32 of the US Code.

By comparison, the active-duty military operates under Title 10 of the US Code, and the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act makes it a crime to use the regular military as a domestic police force in most circumstances.

Who is in charge of it?

The chief of the National Guard Bureau, which administers two organisations — the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard — was a job for a three-star general until recent years.

According to the Congressional Research Service, Congress elevated the job to a four-star position in 2008 and made the chief a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2011.

The current chief of the National Guard Bureau is Gen. Steven S. Nordhaus of the Air Force.

Operationally, the guard troops currently being sent into US cities are under the command of Gen. Gregory M. Guillot of US Northern Command, a four-star general who takes his orders from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Where are guard units located?

The Army National Guard and the Air National Guard have units in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the territories of Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

How large is the force, and what does it do?

More than 430,000 soldiers and airmen serve in the National Guard and operate akin to a reserve component of the active-duty force, typically reporting for duty one weekend a month and two weeks a year.

Beyond those obligations, they can be mobilised on active duty for specific periods by a state or territorial governor for support operations such as responding to natural disasters or civil unrest.

The White House can mobilise guard troops under Title 10 of the US Code for national missions — including overseas deployment to serve in wars — over the objection of state and territorial governors. (The District of Columbia National Guard reports to the federal government, as the capital does not have a governor.)

The guard also participates in training foreign allies and partners in more than 100 countries under the State Partnership Program, which evolved from a Cold War-era initiative to help former Soviet states operate their own military forces as newly democratic nations.

Troops participating in the program often spend their two weeks of active federal service deployed to a partner nation, working with the same units to build relationships over repeat visits.

When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Ukrainian military leaders often turned to their longtime partners in the California National Guard for assistance.

Has the federal government mobilised guard troops for domestic missions before?

Yes.

The guard has been federally mobilised at least 10 times since World War II, according to a recent guard document.

Five of the mobilisations were in support of racial desegregation efforts and the protection of civil rights: at schools in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957-58; Oxford, Mississippi, in 1962; twice in Alabama in 1963, and again in 1965 to protect civil rights marchers from Selma to Montgomery.

Until this year, the 1965 mobilisation was the last time a president federalised a state’s National Guard without the cooperation of a governor.

Three federal guard mobilisations were in response to riots: in Detroit in 1967; in multiple cities in 1968 after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; and in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of police officers who had assaulted Rodney King, a Black motorist.

Another federal mobilisation was in response to a strike by Postal Service workers in New York in 1970, and another was to restore order in the US Virgin Islands after Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

Have domestic deployments gone badly before?

Yes.

In 1970, the mobilisation of guard soldiers by Gov. James A. Rhodes, R-Ohio, ended tragically when troops opened fire on students who were peacefully protesting the Vietnam War on the campus of Kent State University.

The soldiers killed four students and wounded nine unarmed protesters, who were all in their late teens and early 20s.

Neither the governor nor any of the guard members who shot students were found criminally liable for the shootings.

How many guard troops are federally mobilised right now?

The exact number is unclear.

According to the National Guard Bureau, its troops can have dozens of federal missions at any given time to include “disaster relief, defence support of civilian authorities, training missions” and “community engagement.”

The bureau on Monday referred questions about the number of troops who are deployed on the order of the president to the Army component of US Northern Command, which then referred questions to the defence secretary’s office.

The defence secretary’s press office on Tuesday referred those questions back to the guard task force in Washington, DC, and to a US Northern Command website for what it calls the “federal protective mission” in the United States.

Here’s what we do know: In June, 2,000 members of the California National Guard were mobilised to Los Angeles to quell immigration protests. In July, Mr Trump authorised the deployment of guard troops to immigration facilities in 20 states.

In August, Mr Trump federalised the local police in Washington and mobilised troops to fight crime, even though violent crime was falling in the city. Later that month, he directed the Defence Department to create a mobile guard unit that could be sent anywhere in the country for “ensuring public safety and order.”

In September, the president signed an order authorising the use of the National Guard in Memphis, Tennessee, and said he would consider similar deployments in Chicago, St Louis and New Orleans.

As of October 1, there were still nearly 2,200 guard troops deployed in Washington, with more than 950 from the DC National Guard. A majority of the troops patrolling the capital are normally based in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia.

Late Sunday, a federal judge blocked Mr Trump from sending California National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon. Texas National Guard troops arrived in the Chicago area on Tuesday and were expected to deploy by Wednesday.

Do guard troops on federal orders still get paid during the government shutdown?

The National Guard receives state and federal funding, but troops are paid by their state legislatures when mobilised by governors. Those on federal orders will not be paid until congressional funding is restored.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.