The President And The National Guard
1A
NPR
4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 2 September 2025
⏱️ 34 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The president signed an executive order last week calling for a restructuring of the National Guard. It also asks the nation’s defense secretary to create a rapid response force to be deployed to states for “quelling civil disturbances and ensuring public safety.”
Meanwhile, Trump says the city of Chicago is in need of National Guard presence due to a rise in crime. But the president has declined to say how the federal government can intervene outside of D.C., a federal enclave.
Violent crime in Chicago is on a decline. In the first half of 2025, gun violence is down 25 percent compared to last year and down 41 percent from the average reported between 2020 and 2024. That data is from the CBS News Chicago Gun Violence Tracker.
What could that deployment look like? And what has the response been from city officials?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This message comes from Click Here. Erased is a four-part investigation into how China is wiping Uyghur culture from existence. |
| 0:08.0 | Erased uncovers an authoritarian regime's campaign to delete a culture. Listen to Click Here wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:26.3 | Not that I don't have the right to do anything I want to do. |
| 0:27.7 | I'm the president of the United States. |
| 0:31.9 | If I think our country's in danger, and it is in danger in these cities, I can do it. |
| 0:37.8 | Donald Trump says the office of the president gives him the right to deploy the National Guard to states. |
| 0:43.8 | He sent thousands of California National Guard members and U.S. Marines to protect federal agents during recent protests against his immigration crackdown in Los Angeles. |
| 0:48.2 | Recently, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that this violated the Posse Comitatis Act. Trump also used crime as a |
| 0:56.6 | justification to send federal troops to Washington, D.C. That's despite the fact that violent crime |
| 1:01.7 | is at a 30-year low in the district. Now he's turned his sights to cities like Chicago, where |
| 1:06.9 | according to data from the CBS News Chicago gun violence tracker, violent crime is also on the decline. |
| 1:13.5 | The National Guard is comprised of more than 430,000 civilian soldiers. |
| 1:18.7 | It's a part of the U.S. armed forces that is used to respond to domestic emergencies, |
| 1:23.1 | like natural disasters and civil unrest. |
| 1:26.3 | Trump is testing the bounds of what those domestic emergencies |
| 1:29.0 | can be. The president signed an executive order that calls for a restructuring of the National Guard. |
| 1:35.0 | It also asks the Secretary of Defense to create a rapid response force to be deployed to states for, |
| 1:40.5 | quote, quelling civil disturbances and ensuring public safety. Today, we're taking a closer |
| 1:46.4 | look at the National Guard and Trump's executive order. How does it interfere with the National Guard's |
| 1:51.2 | mission and training? I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A podcast. Stay with us. We've got a lot to |
| 1:56.7 | get to. |
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