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Lujan Grisham sends more National Guard troops to aid police, even as she distances self from Trump's similar move

Lujan Grisham sends more National Guard troops to aid police, even as she distances self from Trump's similar move
An infantryman with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 200th Infantry Regiment with the New Mexico Army National Guard during a battalion attack scenario at Camp Roberts, Calif., June 24, 2023. Credit: The National Guard on Flickr via Creative Commons

President Donald Trump is sending troops into the streets of Washington D.C., ostensibly to curb crime in the nation’s capital. But it is the latest example of Trump’s growing authoritarianism.

Trump previously sent National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles in an attempt to quell large-scale protests against his mass deportation efforts.

They left without doing much.

Now, after the alleged assault on a member of DOGE, he has done the same in Washington D.C., where the federal government has a wider discretion to pull such stunts.

Earlier this year, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, at the request of the leadership of the city, sent National Guard members to Albuquerque to aid police.

Then on Wednesday, she ordered the National Guard to assist police in Rio Arriba County, the city of Española and area Pueblos. 

“When our local leaders called for help to protect their communities, we responded immediately with decisive action,” Lujan Grisham said. “We are making every resource available to support our local partners on the ground and restore public safety and stability to these areas that have been hardest hit by this crisis.”