BORDER/CALIFORNIA/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Gov. Gavin Newsom is halting the California National Guard’s deployment at the U.S.-Mexico border, framing the pivot as the state’s latest repudiation of President Donald Trump. Newsom has been sharply critical of Trump’s immigration policies, noting that the president’s proposed border wall is unpopular in California and assailing Trump’s State of the Union speech for “stoking fear and spreading hatred” by ‘manufacturing a border crisis.’ He plans to offer a similar explanation during his State of the State address on Tuesday, when he will reject participating in what he calls ‘political theater’ that “has been thrust on us by Washington’…But Newsom is citing Trump’s recent move to send another 3,750 troops to the border as a reason to redeploy the Guard. He said Guard members will be shifted to helping with wildfire suppression and bolstering drug enforcement. His decision comes days after another Democrat newly elected to lead a border state, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, said she would pull most of her state’s National Guard personnel from the border in what she called a rejection of Trump’s ‘charade of border fearmongering.'”
–Jeremy B. White, “Newsom removing National Guard from border in latest Trump jab,” Politico, February 11, 2019 5:01 am