Why Trump Says He Wants To Send The National Guard To Chicago And Portland

The NPR Politics Podcast

NPR

Politics, Daily News, News

4.5 • 24.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump has taken steps to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago and to Portland, Oregon. We discuss how the administration justifies those actions, as well as how Albuquerque, New Mexico, is using that state’s National Guard to fight crime

This episode: senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman, justice correspondent Ryan Lucas, and senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro.

This podcast was produced by Casey Morell & Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.

Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:05.0	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:09.5	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
0:11.5	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
0:15.3	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
0:19.1	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:24.3	Hi, this is Jenna calling from beautiful Bonner's Ferry, Idaho.
0:28.6	I'm wrapping up the day at my sourdough bakery, shaping dough for the last farmer's market of the season.
0:36.2	This podcast was reported at 1.36 p.m. on Wednesday, October 8th.
0:42.2	Things may have changed by the time you hear this, but I will be busy working on all of the
0:47.4	delicious flavors that fall has to offer. Enjoy the show.
0:57.0	I love, love, love sourdough, and during the pandemic, I had a starter named Sir Yeast a lot.
1:05.6	Sadly, he has passed.
1:08.1	I'm trying to think of the rap lyric for Sur Yistelot.. I like big buns and I cannot lie. Oh, there you go. Hey there. It's the NPR Politics podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Tom Bowman. I cover the Pentagon. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent. And today on the show, we're talking about President Trump's decision to deploy National Guard troops to American cities.
1:30.6	He did it in D.C. Now he's trying to do it in Portland, Oregon, and the Chicago area.
1:36.7	Tom, has the Guard arrived in those cities now? What's the latest?
1:41.4	They've not deployed yet. There are also California National Guard troops that were sent by President Trump.
1:49.0	He's basically taken over the Guard in Oregon.
1:51.9	But a federal judge said, listen, we don't think this is legal.
1:55.5	The Trump administration has appealed.
1:57.6	And in Chicago, we have a couple of hundred Illinois guard ready to take to the
2:03.6	streets. They're going through some training now in crowd control. They could be moving to the
	...

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