this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2025
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The National Guard IS the state guard. That's it's official title. Perhaps you're confusing them for the Reserves, which is a federal militia that's only activated as needed.
But the president can activate the National Guard as a federal entity under his control.
When they say Trump is calling in the National Guard, he's not deploying troops to the state; they're already there. He's just activating them and "deploying" them wherever he needs them in the state.
The big problem here is that activating means putting them on active duty (same status as federal military troops) and giving them active duty pay and benefits. But Trump and Pete Hegseth are not currently paying them (claiming the pay will come later) and trying to limit their deployed status so they don't need to pay them full deployment benefits.
It's like a business ensuring you only work 39 hours a week so they don't have to give you medical benefits or full-time employment status. If they don't fix it soon, the National Guard may just join the protestors.
Which may be why Trump is sending in the US Marines too; to keep the National Guard in line. Or he's throwing a bunch of conflicting groups together to start a civil war so he can jump-start his dictatorship. This is how it always starts; declare martial law, deploy troops to every major city to seize control, then start making changes to laws and citizen's rights across the books, with no one able to stop him through courts or uprisings.
Source: I'm a retired US Air Force veteran. Spent 20 years in active duty service, the last few years under Trump's first term. It was an absolute nightmare and we hoped he was gone for good. But here we are again, and he doesn't have a majority Democrat govt to keep him on a leash this time, so we're in for a rough ride.
Oh, it's called the State Defense Force. Different from the national guard. And can't be federalized.
Oh, that's a local volunteer militia. Much different than the organizations at play here. They usually don't have much to do with the state, except that the state govt can choose to activate them to assist with emergencies; in which case they'll be compensated by the State for their time.
They're basically like the Reserves for the state's National Guard. They fill in as requested, but don't have much to do but train. I'm pretty sure Trump can't activate them, as they're strictly a local militia. Federal government has no authority over them.