For perspective now in the Trump administration's deployment of active duty Marines to Los Angeles and the federal call-up of the National Guard, we get two views.

James McPherson was the Undersecretary of the Army during the first Trump administration.

He also had a 25-year career in the Navy and served as that service's top lawyer in uniform.

And retired Major General David Baldwin was the top military commander

of the National Guard forces in California from 2011 to 2022. Gentlemen, thank you for being with us.

Jim McPherson, I want to start with you because Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam said today

that deploying active duty Marines to L.A. was the right call because, in her words, they're specifically trained to

meet the need on the ground. Is that the case? Are combat Marines really what's needed?

Well, I would respectfully disagree with the secretary. Combat Marines are trained and exercise in

just that, engaging in ground combat. They're not trained and

they do not exercise in crowd control or de-escalation of things like that. Now, we've heard from

Northcom that they have received that training, but I would ask what was the level of that training?

Was it just an hour-long briefing with a handout? Or did they actually go through the sort of

training that MPs go through to include, as General Baldwin knows, the California National Guard

MPs who do train and who do exercise in crowd control? Marines are not trained to do that.

They are trained to engage in combat.

David Baldwin, how do you see it?

And drawing in your experience, what do you make of President Trump's decision to federalize

the National Guard over the objections of California's governor?

Federalizing the National Guard for use domestically is always a suboptimal solution.

The National Guard works best when it's under state control and can work hand and glove with

its law enforcement partners at the state and local level. Federalization of the Guard creates a lot of

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