Trump Just Ordered the Arrest of Gavin Newsom. California Is Suing.

California just sued Trump for deploying troops without consent. No law. No precedent.

Hey everyone, it’s Adam Mockler. Thanks for supporting independent journalism. This work exists because of readers like you. If you’re reading this, you’re the reason I keep going.

Let’s get into it.

This morning, Donald Trump stood outside the White House and said he supports the arrest of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

No charges. No legal basis. Just a statement from a former president that one of his political opponents should be put in handcuffs.

Within the hour, Governor Newsom responded — not with words, but with action. California filed a lawsuit against Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, calling the order to federalize the California National Guard unconstitutional and dangerous.

“This is a manufactured crisis. He’s creating fear and terror to take over a state militia and violate the U.S. Constitution.” — Gavin Newsom

And he’s right.

Trump invoked 10 USC §12406, which allows the president to federalize a state’s National Guard. The problem? This statute has only been used once before in modern history — during the 1970 postal strike. It’s never been used to override a sitting governor’s authority without consent.

But that’s exactly what Trump is doing.

There are no boundaries in the order

Trump’s memorandum doesn’t name a geographic limit. That means the precedent applies everywhere. Any state. Any governor. At any time.

Newsom warned that every governor — red or blue — should reject this. Because if Trump gets away with it in California, he’ll try it in Michigan. In Pennsylvania. In New Jersey. In Georgia.

This is a direct assault on the basic structure of American federalism.

And the justification? There isn’t one.

Fox News aired live footage from “protests” in Los Angeles that showed… a band playing.

That didn’t stop Trump from deploying 2,000 National Guard troops to California against the wishes of local law enforcement and the governor himself.

This isn’t about safety. It’s about power.

ICE raids in Latino neighborhoods triggered small protests. Then MAGA influencers like Stephen Miller and Tom Homan flooded the airwaves warning about “unrest.” That manufactured crisis became the excuse for Trump to send in troops — despite the protests being mostly peaceful and isolated.

This is a loop of escalation.
Create fear. Provoke response. Justify crackdown. Repeat.

And now he’s escalating again — calling for the arrest of a governor.

The lawsuit lays it out clearly:

• Trump’s order violates the Constitution by federalizing the Guard without a request or consent.

• It deprives California of emergency response resources in the event of disaster.

• It overrides the governor’s role as commander-in-chief of the state National Guard.

• It sets a precedent for military control of domestic affairs based on political grievances, not legitimate threats.

And it’s worth repeating: this is the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state’s National Guard without the request of the state’s governor. That was when Lyndon Johnson sent troops to protect civil rights marchers in Alabama.

Now Trump wants to do the same — not to protect civil rights, but to punish dissent.

And here’s the bottom line

This isn’t hypothetical. It’s happening. And it’s not just about California. It’s about whether we still have a functioning democracy.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, Navy veteran and frontrunner in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, said it plainly in our interview:

“The military is trained for war. Not to police our cities. Not to manage protests. This is a dangerous misuse of force.”

She’s right. And she’s not alone. Multiple flag officers — including General Milley, Admiral McRaven, and former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper — have all warned that Trump’s use of the military for domestic political purposes is unconstitutional and destabilizing.

This is not how democracies function. This is how they collapse.

We either fight it now or we normalize it forever.

I’ll keep covering every angle of this story. But I need your help.

We’re living through one of the most dangerous political moments in modern American history. If we don’t name it, expose it, and resist it — it becomes the new normal.

Thanks for being here. Thanks for backing this work.

More soon,
Adam