Just hours after President Donald Trump vowed not to pay for the California National Guard deployment that Gov. Jerry Brown announced this week, the Guard said it’s received written confirmation of federal funding from the Pentagon.
At approx 11:30am PDT today, we received written confirmation from the Pentagon that it'll continue to fund the @theCaGuard mission & personnel mobilized to combat transnat'l crime consistent w/the order issued by @JerryBrownGov - & agreement announced w/the fed gov't - yesterday https://t.co/ipybWycSET
— CaliforniaGuard (@theCaGuard) April 19, 2018
Brown authorized the deployment Wednesday, but only to combat transnational crime such as drug smuggling and human trafficking. He ruled out using California troops for any immigration enforcement.
The president tweeted Thursday morning that Brown is deploying the Guard “to do nothing,” adding that the federal government will not pay for what he called the governor’s “charade.”
Governor Jerry Brown announced he will deploy “up to 400 National Guard Troops” to do nothing. The crime rate in California is high enough, and the Federal Government will not be paying for Governor Brown’s charade. We need border security and action, not words!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 19, 2018
He added another critique of California later in the day while touring a task force in Florida that's fighting drug smuggling.
"Look at what’s happening in California with sanctuary cities, where the people are really going the opposite way," Trump said. "They don’t want sanctuary cities. And there’s a little bit of a revolution going on in California."
The president then praised the task force’s work fighting drug smuggling and human trafficking, the precise mission of the California National Guard deployment for which he criticized Brown.
The White House, the Pentagon’s National Guard Bureau, and the Department of Homeland Security have not returned requests for comment.
