Trump Fights Back After Judge Rules His LA Troop Deployment Broke the Law

President Donald Trump isn’t backing down after a federal judge said he crossed a legal line by sending National Guard troops and Marines into Los Angeles to police protests. On Wednesday, Trump filed an appeal, hoping to overturn the ruling that his June deployment violated the Posse Comitatus Act — the 19th-century law that bars the military from acting as domestic law enforcement.

The move came just a day after US District Judge Charles Breyer sided with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sued to block the deployment. Breyer ruled that Trump’s use of thousands of Guard troops and hundreds of Marines amounted to turning the military into a police force — something the law explicitly forbids.

As part of his order, Breyer barred the roughly 300 Guard troops still stationed in LA from making arrests, conducting searches, or engaging in crowd control. He also extended the restrictions to prevent similar deployments anywhere else in California.

In his decision, Breyer warned that Trump’s approach risked creating “a national police force with the President as its chief.”

The ruling has already thrown a wrench into Trump’s broader law-and-order agenda. He has floated plans to deploy Guard units to Chicago and other cities after recently dispatching them to Washington, DC, citing what he calls “out-of-control crime.”

For now, the case heads to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, where Trump will argue he has the authority to use the Guard this way. But Breyer’s warning — and Newsom’s legal win — spotlight the stakes: whether Trump is testing the boundaries of presidential power or flat-out breaking the rules.

The original story by Dan Mangan for CNBC.