The legal and political questions surrounding Trump's deployment of National Guard troops
Update: 2025-11-04
Description
President Donald Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard in a few U.S. cities in recent months has reignited debate about when — and whether — federal troops should be used on U.S. soil.
Does a president have the authority to deploy state National Guard units against a governor's objection? If so, what does that mean for the balance of power between civilian and military authority?
MPR News guest host Catharine Richert talks with a political scientist who studies civil–military relations and a law professor who studies national security to help us understand what’s at stake — legally, politically, and for the U.S. tradition of keeping the military out of domestic affairs.
Guests:
- Laura Dickinson is a professor of national security law and constitutional law at the George Washington University Law School. She is also the author of “Outsourcing War and Peace.”
- Ron Krebs is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and professor of political science at the University of Minnesota where he studies civil-military relations and security policy. He is also the author of “Narrative and the Making of US National Security” and “Fighting for Rights: Military Service and the Politics of Citizenship.”
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