Furlough Backpay Not Automatic, Instead – Congress Must Authorize: Leaked WH Memo
Democrats are in a panic today after Axios reported a leaked memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) which challenges a 2019 law widely interpreted to guarantee back pay to furloughed employees during a government shutdown.
According to OMB general counsel Mark Paoletta, the 2019 Government Employee Fair Treatment Act doesn’t guarantee back pay, but instead creates the conditions for Congress to authorize those payments – for which lawmakers must set aside additional funds to compensate workers returning from furloughs – in this case, some 750,000 employees.
“Does this law cover all these furloughed employees automatically? The conventional wisdom is: Yes, it does. Our view is: No, it doesn’t,” an official told the outlet.
If the White House runs with this interpretation, it would ‘dramatically escalate’ pressure on Senate Democrats to end the week-old shutdown, Axios suggests.
“This would not have happened if Democrats voted for the clean CR,” a senior administration official told the outlet.
Last month a FAQ on the White House’s website was amended to exclude reference to the 2019 law, as first reported by Government Executive today.
Prior to Oct. 3, OMB’s Frequently Asked Questions During a Lapse in Appropriations document highlighted the Government Employees Fair Treatment Act, the law enacted in 2019 as part of the deal to end the 35-day partial government shutdown during President Trump’s first term to ensure both furloughed and excepted federal workers receive backpay once government funding has been restored. Prior to the law’s passage, Congress had to OK furloughed workers’ backpay following each individual lapse in appropriations.
When asked about it on Tuesday, President Trump said that it “depends on who we’re talking about.”
NEW: President Trump tells me White House does not believe all furloughed federal workers are necessarily entitled to backpay during the shutdown:
TRUMP: “I would say it depends on who we’re talking about. I can tell you this. The Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk… pic.twitter.com/ZKsxHTbZ81
That said, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)’s shutdown guidance– last updated Sept. 28 – still states that furloughed workers will receive back pay at the conclusion of the shutdown.
“After the lapse in appropriations has ended, employees who were furloughed as the result of the lapse will receive retroactive pay for those furlough period,” reads the guidance. “Retroactive pay will be provided on the earliest date possible after the lapse ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates.”
The OMB memo that @MarcACaputo scoops here saying furloughed workers aren’t necessarily allowed backpay seems to be in direct contradiction to the OPM shutdown guidance the administration issued LAST MONTHhttps://t.co/NQns9i7uxspic.twitter.com/vUuvJqmW01
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention no longer broadly recommends COVID-19 vaccination. The agency now says that each person should take a range of factors into account, and consult with their doctor, before receiving a shot.
“Informed consent is back,” Jim O’Neill, the CDC’s acting director, said in a statement on Oct. 6 after accepting advice from the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel. “CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today.”
The official term for the updated posture is shared clinical decision-making. Under other tiers, vaccination is recommended for everyone or everyone in a certain age or risk group.
“Shared clinical decision-making recommendations are individually based and informed by a decision process between the health care provider and the patient or parent/guardian,” the CDC states on its website.
The CDC for years recommended virtually all people aged 6 months and older receive a COVID-19 vaccine, along with updated versions on an annual basis.
Around 44 percent of people aged 65 or older received a COVID-19 vaccine in late 2024 or early 2025, according to CDC data. About 14 percent of adults aged 18 to 49, 13 percent of children, and 10 percent of health care workers received a vaccine during that time.
Under orders from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the agency in May stopped recommending COVID-19 vaccination for healthy children and pregnant women.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, in September unanimously said that the CDC should change from its near-universal recommendation to shared clinical decision-making, in part because panel members said data supporting vaccine effectiveness is weak.
“At best, the additional protection provided by a seasonal booster is moderate and of short term,” Retsef Levi, chair of the panel’s COVID-19 immunization workgroup, said during the meeting.
Members also said that they were concerned about side effects the vaccines can cause, including myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation.
The panel’s advice is typically accepted by the CDC.
The Food and Drug Administration recently withdrew emergency authorization for the COVID-19 vaccines.
In updated approvals, it cleared the shots for people who are at least 6 months old who have one or more risk factors, as well as for people 65 and older.
Two of the shots are made by Moderna. One is made by Pfizer and BioNTech. The other is made by Novavax.
Some outside groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, still recommend COVID-19 vaccination for broader populations, including all children aged 6 to 23 months.
Subpar 3Y Auction Stops Through Despite Pullback In Foreign Buying
The week’s first coupon auction just priced, and it was quite solid, taking advantage of the broader risk off mood.
At 1pm ET, the Treasury sold $58BN in 3Y paper, at a high yield of 3.576%, up from 3.485% last month but not that far off the lowest high yield in the past three years. The auction stopped 0.8bps through the 3.584% When Issued, the biggest stop since February.
The bid to cover was 2.663, down modestly from 2.726 last month but above the six auction average of 2.550.
The internals were a tad soft, with Indirects taking 62.7%, down from 74.2% in Sept and also below the 64.1% six-auction average.
And with Directs jumping to 26.6% from 17.4%, that left just 10.7% to Dealers, just shy of the lowest on record.
Overall, this was a softish auction which despite the pullback in foreign buyers, did not have a problem stopping through amid the broader risk off that has seen yields slide for much of the session and hit a LOD just after the auction priced.
Trump Calls Off Diplomacy With Maduro As Secret DOJ-Approved Kill List Revealed
Several significant developments this week have paved the way for more likely US military escalation off the coast of and in Venezuela, at a moment of unprecedented numbers of Pentagon assets parked in the Caribbean.
First, President Trump has called off diplomatic efforts to reach an agreement with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, The New York Times reported Monday. The president called his special envoy, Richard Grenell, who had been leading the efforts to negotiate with Maduro, informing him the US halting all diplomatic outreach with the Venezuelan government.
As of about two weeks ago, Grenell confirmed that contacts with the Maduro government had been ongoing, however, this statement caught other top members of the administration – especially Secretary Marco Rubio – off guard.
Another big development, following the Pentagon’s at least four strikes thus far on boats believed involved in drug smuggling operations, is the revelation of a classified legal opinion from the DOJ providing cover to use military force against an expanding list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers.
“The opinion, which was produced by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel and has not been previously reported, argues that the president is allowed to authorize deadly force against a broad range of cartels because they pose an imminent threat to Americans,” CNN reports. “The list of cartels goes beyond those the administration has publicly designated as terrorist organizations, the people familiar with the opinion said.”
It essentially gives the US carte blanche for an open-ended war against these groups on the secret list, which hearkens back in parallel to the Obama years of secret drone wars in the Middle East, particularly Yemen.
Indeed analysts cited in the CNN report which broke the story compared the classified list to similar ones in the immediate yeas after 9/11.
“If the OLC opinion authorizing strikes on cartels is as broad as it seems, it would mean DOJ has interpreted the president to have such extraordinary powers that he alone can decide to prosecute a war far broader than what Congress authorized after the attacks on 9/11,” Sarah Harrison, a senior analyst at the Crisis Group, told the outlet.
“By this logic, any small, medium or big group that is trafficking drugs into the US – the administration could claim it amounts to an attack against the United States and respond with lethal force,” added Harrison. So far the US has been engaged in shoot to kill actions of the Venezuelan coast targeting ‘narco-terrorists’ and traffickers.
🚨| ÚLTIMA HORA: El gobierno de Trump publica un video mostrando la operación que arrestó a miembros de la pandilla venezolana El Tren de Aragua en EE.UU. 🇻🇪🇺🇸 ¡Malas noticias para los chavistas, para Nicolás Maduro y Diosdado Cabello que cada vez se quedan con menos peones! pic.twitter.com/DwFoBdr3EQ
According to the NY Times there are plenty of officials in the administration outright gunning for full regime change in Caracas. “Some top aides to Mr. Trump want him to approve a military operation to remove Mr. Maduro from power,” it reports.
“The proponents of a regime-change push include Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser; John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director; and Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s chief domestic policy and homeland security policy aide,” the report adds.
Hajnen Payson is a highly valued internet search and marketing expert. He’s worked for companies such as Experian, UFC, LifeLock/Norton, international banks and big companies that hold government contracts that require top security clearances. Governments and companies around the world are rushing into Artificial Intelligence (AI). Some big names are hiring Payson to navigate the pathway to incorporate AI into just about everything you see, touch and feel.
Payson explains, “This, right now, is the very beginning of the AI Revolution…”
“ I work with industry peers, executives and marketing experts daily.
Half believe that AI integration was not as bad and won’t be as bad going forward because this year was not a disaster. However, the other half believe it was a disaster because they experienced department cuts and hiring freezes all due to AI.
In fact, I have a good friend where her son was denied work as an intern this summer before college because AI took the job.”
Payson goes on to say, “If we look at this and say what should younger people do? There is no easy answer here…”
” We are at the very beginning of the AI Revolution, and that is exactly what this is. This is no different than the Industrial Revolution. This is going to be a time where we are changing. This is just like Google revolutionized what happened in search . . . AI is going to revolutionize everything. The difference is there will be no sector, no category that will not be touched by AI. . . . For decades, businesses cut cost by offshoring and outsourcing . . .. In both cases, people still did the jobs. This time is different. AI does not hand the work to another human. It deletes the need for humans in entire categories of work. This shift will be bigger, faster and more permanent than all waves combined.”
Payson brought some real-world sources to back up what he is finding. Payson says, “The International Monetary Fund says 40% of jobs globally are exposed to AI...”
In closing, Payson says, “Geoffrey Hinton is considered the grandfather of AI, and he is also a Nobel Prize winner in physics…”
” He resigned from Google in 2023 so he could speak freely about AI, which he could not do while working for Google. He compares the dangers of AI to nuclear weapons…
Sam Altman is the cofounder of Open AI, and he said that AI could cause lights out for all of us.”
There is much more in the 46-minute interview.
Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on One with search and marketing strategist Hajnen Payson of DriveGrowthHQ.com with a new newsletter giving you a free deep dive on the AI Revolution that is just getting started.
“Matters Of Corruption”: Biden Staff Blocked CIA From Distributing Hunter-Ukraine Concern Memo
Newly declassified memoranda show then-Vice President Joe Biden’s staff intervened in February 2016 to block the Central Intelligence Agency from circulating an intelligence report to policymakers that summarized how senior Ukrainian officials perceived his son’s business dealings and his December 2015 trip to Kyiv.
According to the documents, the request came from the vice president’s national-security adviser and was relayed inside the intelligence community by Biden’s Presidential Daily Brief briefer: “I just spoke with VP/NSA and he would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated. Thanks for understanding.”
A senior CIA official described the intervention as “extremely rare and unusual,” saying the material otherwise met the threshold for distribution to U.S. officials working on Ukraine policy.
The report compiled reactions from officials in the government of then-President Petro Poroshenko following Mr. Biden’s visit. Those officials “privately mused” about U.S. media scrutiny of Hunter Biden’s business ties in Ukraine and “viewed the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President’s family to corruption in Ukraine as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power,” the CIA relayed. The same officials “expressed bewilderment and disappointment” that the vice president did not engage in expected substantive discussions with Mr. Poroshenko or other senior figures, Just the News reports.
Today, I declassified @CIA intelligence regarding Ukraine after determining it is in the public interest.
— CIA Director John Ratcliffe (@CIADirector) October 7, 2025
At the time, Biden had been designated President Barack Obama’s point person on Ukraine policy after the Maidan Revolution and Russia’s seizure of Crimea. His December 2015 trip has drawn scrutiny because the vice president decided then to press for the dismissal of Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, warning that a substantial U.S. loan guarantee would be withheld if the move wasn’t made. Mr. Shokin was investigating Burisma and its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky; Hunter Biden had formally joined Burisma’s board in May 2014.
Prior to the trip, then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt warned Mr. Biden’s top advisers that Washington considered Burisma corrupt. Mr. Pyatt later told his successor, Marie Yovanovitch, that Hunter Biden’s role “undercut the anti-corruption message the VP and we were advancing in Ukraine,” echoing what Ukrainian officials were thinking, according to the CIA.
A senior CIA official told Just the News that, in the agency’s assessment, the report merited dissemination at the time it was drafted and would have been useful to U.S. officials dealing with Ukraine because it reflected the views of multiple senior Ukrainian figures. It was also “extremely rare and unusual,” the official said, for someone outside the intelligence community to weigh in on whether to distribute such a product; typically that decision is made within the community. The documents offer no indication of how the vice president’s office learned of the report before intervening.
The memos surfaced after a review of CIA databases that began in late 2024 under the prior administration. CIA Director John Ratcliffe has framed the disclosure within a broader push to curb politicization: “Mr. President, the CIA is being restructured at your direction to focus on our core mission and to eliminate the political – the well-documented politicization that has taken place in the intelligence community from bad actors in the past to focus on our core mission and to Make America Safe Again,” he said at a Cabinet meeting in April. The senior CIA official said Mr. Ratcliffe views the 2016 intervention as part of that politicization and opted to release the document in the interest of transparency.
The episode also intersects with long-running debates over Ukraine policy.Just the News previously reported that Biden’s push to oust Mr. Shokin “broke” with State Department and European Union assessments that the prosecutor’s progress on anti-corruption reforms was sufficient to warrant new loan guarantees. Following that reporting, fact-checkers revised their narrative and concluded that Joe had “called an audible” aboard Air Force Two on the way to Kyiv, deciding to call for Mr. Shokin’s removal.
What remains uncontested in the newly released records is the unusual nature of the vice president’s office weighing in on an intelligence-distribution decision. As the senior CIA official summarized, the information would ordinarily have been shared – absent external intervention – because it captured contemporaneous thinking among Kyiv’s senior leadership about a visiting U.S. principal and the sensitivities surrounding his family’s business ties.
Rabobank: Gold Confirms The World Has Passed The Fiscal Event Horizon
By Benjamin Picton, Senior Market Strategist at Rabobank
France is once again engulfed in political crisis following the resignation of Prime Minister Lecornu just hours after his cabinet was sworn in. Lecornu lasted less than a month in the job, a tenure that makes Liz Truss look like Lord Liverpool. Jordan Bardella, President of the right-wing National Rally, has urged President Macron to dissolve the National Assembly and call fresh elections.
Lecornu’s is the third French government to collapse in the last 12 months. Former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier lost the Premiership in December following failed attempts to pass budget measures and Francois Bayrou similarly lost a no-confidence vote last month after his attempts to rein in France’s runaway deficit were rejected by parties on the left and right.
French 10y OAT yields rose 6bps to 3.57% while 10y Bunds were comparative outperformers with yields rising just 2bps to 2.72%. The 10y OAT spread of 85bps is now 2bps wider than the spread between 10y Italian bonds and the equivalent Bund, highlighting Italy’s newfound status as an island of (comparative) political stability on the continent.
Equity markets took a similarly dim view of the latest evidence that France lacks the political capacity to pull the country out of its fiscal nosedive. The Euro Stoxx 50 fell by 0.41% to underperform all of the major American indices as well as the Nikkei, KOSPI, CSI300, ASX200 and TAIEX. The picture was even gloomier when drilling down into the performance of the CAC 40, which recorded a 1.36% fall on the day while the German DAX closed flat.
The Euro fell by 0.26% to 1.1711 while Sterling – presumably operating on the ‘least dirty shirt’ theory of comparative value (though, the British public finances and political apparatus are little better than the French) – rose slightly to close at 1.3485. The Dollar and gold were the big winners on Monday. The DXY index gained 0.39%, while gold rose another 1.92% to close at (another) all-time high of $3,960/oz and USDJPY gapped higher following news that Abe-acolyte Sanae Takaichi had won the LDP leadership race in Japan.
The S&P 500 also hit a fresh all-time high to close at 6,740 as chipmaker AMD surged 24% on news that it had struck a multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI to build AI data centers with AMD chips. The deal involves OpenAI purchasing 6 gigawatts worth of chips and also receiving warrants for up to 160 million AMD shares if certain milestones for chip deployment are reached. This kind of circularity is becoming a feature of the AI frenzy, with NVIDIA (the market leader in AI chips and AMD’s main competitor) recently announcing a $100bn investment in OpenAI, the proceeds of which would be used to buy – you guessed it – NVIDIA chips.
Given the confluence of events and price action in gold and equities on Monday, perhaps some European investors have been reading Bloomberg and are now adopting the ‘Turkish portfolio’ of 50% gold, 50% equities as their formerly developed markets behave more and more like an emerging market?
AI sceptics (including yours truly) have regularly made comparisons to the ‘irrational exuberance’ that characterized the dotcom boom and subsequent bust. There are many similarities, whether it be the classic ‘new era thinking’ (usually a harbinger of impending doom), the techno-optimism or the eyewatering P/E levels. But there are differences, too. This time around the companies driving the boom do actually have earnings, and perhaps it makes sense to pay very high valuations to get a slice of those earnings if you are afraid that your country has passed the fiscal event horizon and the only way out is a general inflation via debasement of the currency that will obliterate the value of your wages and savings.
The gold price (and arguably stock prices, and arguably house prices in many markets) is sending a signal that such a general inflation is already underway. Some might quibble with that characterization, pointing to EM central bank buying as a the main driver of the gold price rally, but why are those central banks buying gold in the first place? Does the breakdown of the liberal globalized trading system that drove inflation lower and lower for decades presage lower, or higher, inflation in the future? Perhaps the answer to that question explains why the 10y Treasury yield busted through the top of a 40-year trend channel in 2022 and has stayed up there ever since?
Signs of breakdown of the globalized trading system are not hard to find. Fears have been stoked in Australia after China’s state-owned China Mineral Resources Group placed a ban on Dollar-denominated purchases of iron ore from Australia’s BHP. Australian politicians have sought to downplay the action as a “commercial matter” related to pricing, but the real tell is that iron ore shipments denominated in Chinese Yuan continue to flow.
The international market for iron ore is monopsonistic – China is the only buyer of scale because China produces ~54% of global steel output. The market has also, historically, been oligopolistic, with Australia and Brazil being the two suppliers of scale who could feed China’s insatiable demand for the raw material. However, that is changing as Chinese demand moderates and supply sources are diversified by Belt and Road-backed (not a coincidence) Simandou mine in West Africa coming online. Those factors have seen China gain market power over Australia, and it appears that China is now using that market power to pressure Australia to receive payment for what is (by far) it’s most important export in CNY, rather than USD.
This episode is likely to be much larger than a commercial disagreement between a mining company and an importing company (whose state-backed nature should not be forgotten). Xi Jinping was clear at last month’s Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit that he wanted to increase the global role of the CNY, and thereby chip away at the USD’s position as the world reserve currency. That would weaken the US’s ability to use the Dollar as a weapon by applying sanctions, increasing the cost of Dollar-denominated borrowing or cutting other countries out of the SWIFT payments system.
A logical next step could be for Chinese exporters to require Australian importers to pay for manufactured goods in CNY, rather than Dollars. Using China’s market power as a major exporter of goods would create demand for the currency that they are offering in exchange for Australia’s exports, and pry Australia further away from the Dollar. Of course, the United States does not want this to happen and neither does Australia, because it wants Dollars to pay for its imports from every other country and also to pay for the AUKUS submarines that it has committed to buy from the United States.
Is China about to tell the Land Down Under that it is time to choose? We’ve been warning of those sorts of risks in this missive for years now. Economic statecraft (not collaborative free trade policed by the WTO) is the law of the jungle, and it’s eat or be eaten.
Ford Shares Hammered On Report Aluminum Plant Fire May Disrupt Ford F-150 Production
A devastating fire at a major aluminum plant in New York in mid-September is set to roil the U.S. auto industry and could even disrupt production of Ford Motor’s F-150 pickup trucks, according to a new Wall Street Journal report.
The Novelis aluminum mill in Oswego, New York, suffered a fire on September 16 that destroyed the building housing the hot mill, rendering the plant inoperable until at least early 2026. This part of the facility is where sheet aluminum used by the auto industry is produced.
The plant supplies about 40% of all aluminum sheet used by U.S. automakers, making it a very critical production node for America’s auto industry. WSJ noted that Ford is the mill’s largest customer and primarily uses the lightweight industrial metal for its top-selling and most profitable model, the F-150 pickup.
Shares of Ford in New York were hammered on the news by midday, down 7%, marking the worst intraday decline in eight months.
WSJ cited industry analysts who warned the impacts of the mill’s closure are widespread:
Novelis produces more than 350,000 metric tons of sheet aluminum annually for the automotive industry, according to industry analysts. Around a dozen automakers get aluminum from Novelis, including Ford, Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Jeep maker Stellantis, according to a regulatory filing.
Kaustubh Chandorkar, an aluminum-industry analyst, said this incident “represents a serious question for the production of F-150 because that’s the aluminum that comes out of Oswego.” He pointed out that the automaker switched the F-150’s exterior skin from steel to aluminum about a decade ago.
“Since the fire nearly three weeks ago, Ford has been working closely with Novelis, and a full team is dedicated to addressing the situation and exploring all possible alternatives to minimize any potential disruptions,” a Ford spokesperson stated.
Novelis, owned by India’s Hindalco Industries, is preparing to mitigate production losses in the U.S. by sourcing the metal from overseas plants in Europe, Brazil, and South Korea. However, a 50% tariff on imported aluminum complicates things.
This incident could trigger one of the most severe supply shocks for North American automakers in years. All eyes are on Ford’s upcoming earnings call for more details on the situation, as well as on its Dearborn Truck Plant and Kansas City Assembly Plant, for any signs of slowing production that would only signal snarled supply chains.
German Mayor Stabbed By ‘Gang Of Men’ In Broad Daylight, Manhunt Underway
A large-scale manhunt is underway after a newly elected mayor of a town in the western-central part of Germany was found critically injured in her apartment on Tuesday.
Iris Stalzer, who a mere weeks ago became the mayor of Herdecke in North Rhine-Westphalia and is a center-left Social Democrat, sustained multiple stab wounds and is reported to be fighting for her life after being airlifted to the hospital.
Emergency responders discovered her alive but in a life-threatening condition, after one or more attackers tried to kill her, after which she was still conscious enough to crawl inside of her home. German sources report she was “attacked in front of her residence around midday and managed to drag herself inside before collapsing.”
Within hours after the attack, there is still no suspect or known motive for the attack, which could be deemed an assassination attempt of an elected official. It’s also unclear if there was a political motive.
A ‘gang of men’ has been mentioned as behind the attack, according to further emerging details of the brutal crime:
Iris Stalzer, 57, a member of the centre-Left Social Democrats party, was found by her son in her apartment with multiple stab wounds. She told him she had been attacked by a group of men, German tabloid Bild reported.
…The attack, which, according to German media, is being investigated as an attempted murder, took place around lunchtime on Tuesday.
Ms Stalzer managed to get back inside her home, where she lives with her adopted son, 15, and her daughter, 17, after being repeatedly stabbed.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed shock and condemned the assault. “We have received news of a heinous act from Herdecke. It must now be quickly clarified. We fear for the life of the designated mayor, Iris Stalzer, and hope for her full recovery,” Merz wrote on X. “My thoughts are with her family and loved ones.”
SPD parliamentary group leader in Berlin, Matthias Miersch, issued a statement saying he hopes she will “survive the terrible act” – but offered no further details in terms of circumstances or possible motive.
President Donald Trump has announced his intent to send National Guard troops to major cities across the United States in an effort to combat criminal activity.
In response, some government officials have alleged that he’s exceeding his legal authority by disregarding certain limits Congress placed on his ability to federalize the National Guard.
The resulting controversy has raised questions about the balance of power between state and federal governments.
Trump has already encountered legal battles over his attempts to federalize state National Guard troops, in part due to a law known as 10 U.S.C. § 12406. In that law, Congress set limits on presidents’ ability to federalize the National Guard—specifically requiring either an invasion, rebellion or danger of rebellion, or an inability by the president to execute the law with regular forces.
This law has already come up in lawsuits from California, Oregon, and Illinois and could resurface depending on how state and local governments respond to future deployments.
Here are some of the key things to know about the battle over National Guard deployments to Portland, Ore., Chicago, Memphis, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.
Portland
War Secretary Pete Hegseth called 200 members of the Oregon National Guard into service but a judge quickly ruled against it.
According to the Trump administration, federal immigration enforcement within Portland has been targeted with violence in recent weeks. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during an Oct. 6 briefing that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility had been “under siege.”
“We saw again a guillotine rolled out in front of this federal building,” she said. “And so the President wants to ensure that our federal buildings and our assets are protected, and that’s exactly what he’s trying to do.”
Agitators in Portland could be heard yelling explicit comments and death threats towards federal agents. “The guillotine would be ready for them,” one wearing black-bloc clothing shouted. Some yelled “ICE out of Portland,” while a crowd of pro-ICE supporters were also seen over the weekend—with one holding a sign that read “God Bless ICE.”
The state of Oregon and city of Portland acknowledged activity outside of the ICE facility but denied that it was the kind of protest that justified federal intervention.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut agreed when she issued a temporary restraining order on Oct. 4. She recounted incidents such as individuals shining flashlights on drivers and setting up a makeshift guillotine. While these incidents were “inexcusable,” she said, “they are nowhere near the type of incidents that cannot be handled by regular law enforcement forces.”
The administration also violated the 10th Amendment, she said, by unlawfully attempting to federalize the troops. “Because the President is federalizing the Oregon National Guard absent constitutional authority, his actions undermine the sovereign interest of Oregon as protected by the Tenth Amendment,” she said.
The case became more complicated when the administration attempted to deploy members of the California National Guard to Portland—something California Gov. Gavin Newsom called a “breathtaking abuse of power.” That too was blocked by Immergut in a subsequent order on Oct. 5.
Trump and Republicans have long held up Chicago as an example of a crime-ridden city in the United States. Trump criticized Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on social media in August for not controlling crime in his state.
“He better straighten it out, FAST, or we’re coming!” Trump wrote at the time.
By Oct. 4, Hegseth had invoked Section 12406 to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard. As in Portland, Hegseth also tried to federalize troops from another state—this time Texas—and bring them to Illinois.
On Oct. 5, two people were charged over their alleged attempt to use their vehicles to strike another from Customs and Border Protection. That followed a lawsuit the administration filed but lost over Illinois’ and Chicago’s sanctuary policies.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has accused ICE of trying to violate residents’ constitutional rights and signed an order to establish what he called an “ICE free zone” in the city.
Like their counterparts in Oregon, Illinois’ and Chicago’s governments quickly responded to Trump’s recent actions with a lawsuit alleging that the president exceeded his authority under the law.
A judge has yet to rule on the state’s request for a temporary restraining order but the eventual decision will likely touch on similar legal issues as Immergut did. As those cases build, along with the one challenging Trump’s deployment in California, they could prompt involvement from higher courts to decide major legal questions surrounding the president’s authority.
Illinois’ lawsuit argued that Trump can’t use federal troops for civilian law enforcement because of a law known as the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits such use. However, the Trump administration argued that it doesn’t prevent the president from using troops to protect federal assets, such as an ICE facility.
While protests have occurred at an ICE facility near Chicago, the lawsuit said the protests would be a “flimsy pretext” for sending in troops. “ICE continues to operate the facility to process the hundreds of individuals it has detained in recent weeks,” it said.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson has defended the president’s actions.
In a statement provided to The Epoch Times, Jackson accused Pritzker of inaction. “President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities,” she said.
Memphis
Trump has initiated a multi-pronged approach to tackling crime in Memphis, where violent crime was six times higher than the national average in 2024. For that year, the city ranked first in the nation for per capita violent crime as well as property crime.
Part of Trump’s approach involves sending the National Guard, but it’s unclear if they have started operations in the city.
Trump appeared to have the support of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, who joined the president in the Oval Office last month when Trump signed an order establishing the “Memphis Safe Task Force.”
“We’ve made significant investments to address crime throughout my seven years in office, and thanks to President Trump’s leadership, the Memphis Safe Task Force will ensure we have every resource at our disposal to create significant change,” Lee said.
National Guard troops remain in the nation’s capital nearly two months after Trump initially deployed them over concerns about crime. Leavitt said on Oct. 6 that troops remain in Washington because both the mayor and Trump recognize their presence helps keeps the city safe.
The commanding general, Brig. Gen. Leland D. Blanchard II, said the National Guard will extend its encampment through Nov. 30. The nation, Blanchard said, deserved an effort to keep people safe on the streets of the city.
