A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
All right. Let's take a closer look at President Trump's decision to federalize parts of California's National Guard troops. And for that, we wanted to hear from someone with institutional knowledge. We called up William Enyart. He's a former Democratic congressman and a retired major general who led the Illinois National Guard as a state's adjutant general between 2007 and 2012. Major General, you've seen what's happened in Los Angeles. Did what you see warrant the deployment of National Guard troops?
WILLIAM ENYART: Well, frankly, they've thrown the entire playbook out. The -there is - you know, the National Guard has got decades of experience handling civil disturbances. And as a result of that, we've developed a playbook that is used throughout the nation by local law enforcements, as well as by the National Guard. And the process is that the local chief executive, whether it be a mayor or a county supervisor, is the person who makes the decision whether local law enforcement is overwhelmed or not. And then that local chief executive notifies the governor of the state and requests that the National Guard be sent in.
Why does it work that way? It works that way because the people on the ground know what the situation is. They know what the threat is. They know what their resources are. And they know whether those resources have been overwhelmed. By elevating this - excuse me - from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., you've skipped every layer of local knowledge. And the president is imposing his political will here, not any kind of local knowledge as to what the situation actually is.
MARTÍNEZ: But doesn't the president technically also have people on the ground as well that are reporting to him telling them maybe what they need to?
ENYART: Well, the - yes, as a matter of fact. And the Department of Homeland Security's spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, said there were 800 protesters. Now, that's significantly more than the mayor said. The mayor said there were 300 protesters. Well, let's split the difference between 300 and 800 and call it 600, OK? Six hundred protesters is hardly a revolution. Six hundred protesters is not going to overwhelm the 8,000 police officers that Los Angeles has, as well as all the federal folks who are on the ground.
So what the president is doing, he has escalated this into a distraction so that he can remove the debate from his horrendous tax bill - it's giving all these breaks to the billionaires - and taking attention away from the fact that in 2022, during Biden's administration, soybean prices, which are really important to the agricultural economy of this country - soybean prices adjusted for inflation were about $19.50 a bushel. Today, under Trump's tariff plan, they're $10.58 a bushel. Now, what is that going to do to the farm economy, those farmers...
MARTÍNEZ: Well, yeah.
ENYART: ...Who buy John Deere tractors?
MARTÍNEZ: I think...
ENYART: So...
MARTÍNEZ: ...We're getting off the plane a little bit there, General, 'cause I wanted - because here's the thing. President Trump's proclamation is that the National Guard troops will play a supporting role by protecting ICE officers. So if that is the limitations of the National Guard's scope in these situations, what would be wrong with using presidential powers to protect federal officers?
ENYART: Well, first of all, there are local law enforcement officers there who can do the same task. And as I pointed out earlier, what you do not do - you do not call the National Guard in until such time as local resources are overwhelmed or no longer able to control the situation and you have the consent and the request of the local authorities, including the governor. Trump has entirely disregarded this. It's the way the process is supposed to work.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, you were in the National Guard in Illinois for 30 years. How do troops feel about being deployed in an American city and not part of disaster recovery?
ENYART: Well, frankly, it's another mission that is added to an already heavily burdened National Guard. Now, the National Guard has been used for so many things over the last 30 years. In Illinois, we were happy to be called out for blizzards. We were happy to be called out for tornadoes. We were happy to be called out for floods. And we were for each of those natural disasters during my tenure as commander. But the Guard does not particularly like to be called in to do civil disturbance. Why? We're not trained for it. At best, a National Guard soldier gets four hours of training a year to do civil disturbance operations.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. That's retired Major General William Enyart, former Democratic congressman who also served and led the Illinois National Guard. Major General, thank you very much.
ENYART: You're welcome. Glad to be with you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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