Today, Explained - Trump deploys the National Guard

Episode Date: October 8, 2025

The president is attempting to send the National Guard into two American cities for two (seemingly) different reasons with two (for now) different results. This episode was produced by Denise Guerra and Danielle Hewitt, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and Kelli Wessinger, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Adriene Lilly, and hosted by Noel King. Anti-ICE demonstrators marching in downtown Chicago. Photo by Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu via Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hundreds of Texas National Guard troops have arrived in Illinois and are getting ready to deploy in Chicago. Residents there have been pushing back against ICE. They blocked DHS Secretary Kristi Noem from using the bathroom. That's what Governor Pritzker says is cooperation in keeping people sane. Then actually even more bathroom stuff. They don't even let our ICE officers and our Border Patrol officers use restrooms in facilities. But it's not all bathroom related. You're going to use that gun.

on your people. Shame on you. I hope right now, your ancestors are looking at you. And this tension, combined with President Trump's early morning call for the governor of Illinois to be jailed, has raised fears about what is coming next. And that is coming up on Today Explained from Fox. Support of the show, and it comes from The Guardian. If you listen to our show, my guess is that you value independent voices and perspectives on the news. You want real reporting on real stories, and you don't want to wonder if the news you're getting is being skewed by an unseen hand. The Guardian says they're fiercely independent, too. They aspire to report the whole picture, and their coverage goes beyond the news. They have new perspectives on culture, wellness, sports, and more.

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I'm Noel King with Dan Petrella. Dan's a political writer for the Chicago Tribune. Dan, what's happening in Chicago today? Well, everyone is sort of standing at attention, waiting to see what is going to happen with the National Guard troops who arrived yesterday from Texas. We are seeing that they have gathered at a... a federal facility near Joliet, which is a far southwest suburb of Chicago.

They have yet to be deployed under the streets of the city or any of the suburbs. So that's sort of the next step that everyone is waiting for is seeing how and when these troops might be used. Chicago is a big city, but there have been some high-profile instances of violence in the streets in the last couple of days. What is the mood there like today? Things are very tense. There's reports all over the city and the suburbs of confrontations with agents from U.S. immigration and customs enforcement. New clashes have broken out, mostly outside the suburban ice facility, but also spilling into neighborhoods, hospitals, even outside schools. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials spent another day sailing up and down the Chicago River, leaving onlookers and local officials confused as to what the mission was.

You know, we see videos posted all over social media and hear from sources of folks having encounters with them on the streets. Protests at that same ice facility got heated. That led to multiple arrests and the use of tear gas and pepper balls by DHS agents on those blocking entrances to the facility. And there's a lot of worry about what might happen to escalate the situation if, you know, military troops are sent out under the, you know, ostensible purposes of protecting these federal agents who've been operating at a sort of ramped-up level here in the city and surrounding area for the last month or so. And have you seen what President Trump is saying this morning about the mayor and the governor? I did. And, yes, that he is saying that they should be sent to jail.

Truth Social. should be in jail for failing to protect ICE officers. Governor Pritzker also. Which is not entirely surprising. I mean, I guess we shouldn't excuse that kind of language coming from the president, but it is not unusual from what we've heard from this president directed to these two individuals in particular previously and from throughout his life in politics at all sorts of different political opponents.

All right, let's go back to where this all starts. And it begins with President Trump and something called Operation Midway Blitz. What is this? So this is a title that they have given to this sort of stepped up immigration enforcement activity that they began toward the beginning of September. This came after, you know, a couple weeks of the president talking about violent crime in Chicago. and the possibility of calling up National Guard troops to deal with violent crime that sort of shifted to stepping up immigration enforcement, which is something we've seen from the president before.

You know, they did a round of, you know, sweeps and things like that. In the early days of his administration, you know, even brought Dr. Phil and a camera crew to follow around ICE agents and his borders are Tom Homan as they arrested people. Bring you a citizen? My mother's a citizen? Your mother's a citizen? Yes. We're like a Dr. Phil.

Yeah? How do you know me? No, I've seen Dr. Phil, you know, on TV. Yeah? Yeah. They have done a, I would characterize it as a military-style operation at an apartment building in the South Shore neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, where there have been reports of them, you know, detaining and zip-tying,

young children who were there, and then the administration sort of produces these highly produced, almost Hollywood-style videos that they post on social media to, you know, promote their cause and sort of gather support for this operation. And they've said that they've detained about a thousand people. It's really hard to come by. really hard to get them to release actual full information on who they've arrested. There have been several instances where, you know, there have been people who weren't the supposed worst of the worst, but just people who got sort of caught up as collateral detentions. You know, we saw a family in Millennium Park a couple weekends ago that was taken into custody. So it's been very sort of scattershot and chaotic from the point of view of folks out on

the street. The National Guard is not supposed to be deployed without the permission of a state's governor. Governor Pritzker is giving a lot of main character energy the past couple of weeks. To the public servants who have forsaken their oath to the Constitution to serve the petty whims of an arrogant little man. To any federal official who would come to Chicago and try to incite my people into violence as a pretext for something darker, and more dangerous, we are watching and we are taking names. How has he been making his case and how have you seen the tenor change in the last couple days? Yeah, you know, he really has, I think the way you characterize it is very fair.

He has tried to state forcefully and frequently and, you know, on seemingly every national media outlet. He can find a microphone at that there's not a crisis situation here in Chicago. or in Illinois that warrants the use of National Guard. But there is no wide-scale unrest really going on anywhere in the Chicago area right now that would warrant that sort of thing. They are the ones that are making it a war zone. They need to get out of Chicago. If they're not going to focus on the worst of the worst, which is what the president said

they were going to do, they need to get the heck out. So he's really been outspoken about that from the moment that the president started bringing this idea up again. He's somebody who has, you know, been an outspoken of critic of the president all throughout his time in office and frankly ran for governor in the first place because he was upset when Hillary Clinton, who he supported in the 2016 election, lost. Last summer, Dan, I was in Chicago for the DNC, and I spent a couple days reporting from the South Side. And I talked to a lot of people who were very angry about illegal immigration. They said, you know, the South Side has been disinvested for years.

People are coming in from Venezuela and they're getting, they're getting money. What is this? Like, is that they setting up job training for them? Is that a bad thing if they're setting up job training for people? Why are you not setting up job training for us? Many of those people were voting for Donald Trump because of immigration. So I wonder, you said these raids, some of them have been taking place on the South side. Are there people in Chicago who will.

say, this is what I voted for. This is what we wanted. I would say that there is a very loud minority of voices that will say that. And I think, you know, the administration has been very active in highlighting some of those voices, you know, on social media, calling attention to folks who, you know, even groups of people who are sort of known quantities at City Hall, for example, where they show up and speak during public comment at city council meetings and things like that regularly. That is not to say that those voices don't exist. I don't believe that they represent sort of a large swath of the public here in Chicago. I think that, you know, I would note that overall, I think President Trump only improved his vote total in, you know, statewide in Illinois

by about 2,000 votes from 2020 to 24. So, you know, regardless of how it affects voting, there are that people who feel disaffected. And there's been long time. in Chicago between the black community and the Latino community, you know, and I think politicians over the years have sort of stoked those divisions, often, you know, white politicians kind of stoking the divisions to hold on to power themselves. Hmm. There is still at the end of the day a question here about what the point of this is, of sending the guard into Chicago against the governor's wishes.

Some people say it's about optics. President Trump is enjoying, you know, the memes, the chypocalypse now, the posts on truth social. And some people say it looks like the administration is hoping for a confrontation, the likes of which we've seen now over the past couple of days, hoping to ramp things up in Chicago. Now, I am asking you to speculate here, but I wonder you've done deep reporting on this, what do you think the administration is after right now? You know, that is a very good question, and I wish I had a better answer. I think that's part of the problem is that their real aim is sort of unclear. I do think that there is a, you know, sort of shock and awe approach to this, trying to, you know, project this image of power.

And I do think, you know, they've obviously been told in federal court in California that they shouldn't be doing what they've been trying to do with these guard troops. They've been told in federal court in Oregon. We're waiting for a federal judge here in Chicago later this week to rule on the state's request for a temporary restraining order. You know, it's really, really hard to say what the end game is here. And that's honestly one of the questions that the judge, the federal judge here in Chicago, has tried to get the Trump administration to answer in court, you know, where these troops will be sent, what their activities are going to be once they're here. and those answers haven't been provided.

We'll see they're supposed to be filing a response in the federal court here shortly, so it'll be interesting to see what the arguments they make there are. You know, it's obvious that the target of all of these movements so far have been cities that are led by Democrats, and there's been a lot of partisan rhetoric from the administration about that, so it's really hard to view it through any other lens. Dan Petrella of the Chicago Tribune. Coming up, the president says Portland is a war zone.

Portland is not so sure about that. Support for the program today comes from Shopify. When you're creating your own business, you have to juggle a lot of roles, marketing, sales, outreach, design. Shopify can simplify all of that. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world, and according to the company, 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. from household names like Mattel and Jim Shark to brands just getting started, like maybe, I don't know, yours. They say they have hundreds of ready-to-use templates to help design your brand style,

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visit td.com slash small business advice to find out more or to match with a TD small business banking account manager. This week on Networth and Chill, we're joined by Susie Welch, the best-selling author and leadership expert who spent decades helping people win at work and life. From climbing the corporate ladder at prestigious publications to co-authoring winning with Jack Welch,

Susie has turned her insights into both career success and serious money. She opens up about navigating major life transitions, why loving your work is actually a wealth-building strategy, and how her view bridge tool can transform your biggest career decisions. I also had voices in my head that were preventing me from betting on myself. I was like, why would I bet on myself? I mean, the moment I finally stepped out and stepped into my purpose, I literally, like, I was alone in my room at night,

and I thought for the first time of my life, I'm going to do this terrifying thing. I'm going to bet on myself. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or watch on YouTube.com slash your rich BFF. This is Today Explained. My name is Isaac Stanley Becker. I'm a staff writer at the Atlantic. And what have you been up to for the past two weeks? Well, I have been in Portland of late, the city that the president says,

Looks like a war zone. And authorized the use of full force by soldiers there. And I get a call from the liberal governor, sir, please don't come in. We don't need you. His efforts to deploy members of the National Guard have been stymied by a federal judge. But I went to Portland to try to fact-check those assertions and try to understand what it actually looked like on the ground. Tell me what you saw. Well, certainly no war zone.

What I saw is a lively and at times raucous and routy protest. at the ice facility in Portland. It's Oregon's only ice facility. One of the things that's important to remember, and the city police chief emphasized this in some of his recent public comments. City of Portland is about 145 square miles. This is one city block.

For anyone who travels there, I think the geography of this is so important to try to get across. There is the area just outside the facility where any given moment there's maybe two dozen at most protesters standing outside, holding signs, shouting at the federal agents coming in and out. And there's a much, much smaller permanent encampment where several people at a time have been camping overnight, spending all their time there. And then at certain moments

when a specific action is called, the crowd gets bigger, but not that much bigger. I think the biggest crowd I saw was on the Sunday after, the day after. The day after. after the president's initial truth social message announcing this. It's maybe 200, 250 people, young people. I'm out here because my parent is an immigrant. I think it's being betrayed in a lot worse way than it actually is. Old people, members of the clergy, labor organizers, people in wheelchairs, a topless woman, dogs, people in costumes. There was music, there was dancing, there was food.

And then as night fell, things got a bit more tense. I put my hands up and I said, I'm just standing here exactly where you asked me to. And then he makes me in the face for three seconds straight with that warning. At some points, they even started to fire pepper balls from the roof. The share of people wearing the black block attire, it's all black, usually with helmets, some type of ski goggles or masking grew. But for even those people, it was somewhat hard to discern their exact intentions. Some of them were presenting themselves as medics.

They had the medic insignia on their clothing. And so it's a diverse and really varied group of people, I think, with wide-ranging motivations, interests, and intentions. Portland, for the past couple of years, has been kind of famous for protests. But walk me through when the most recent protests date to, and what's been going on since the summer? In June is the way that protesters describe the timeline to me. The actions begin to morph into more focused on ice, and that's when a permanent encampment begins just near the ice facility. And when I say encampment, I'm talking about maybe a tent or two, a couple of cots. medical supplies, food, a grill.

I'm not talking about some sprawling kind of no-go zone. And that drew the attention of some right-wing activists who called attention to it. For people who say that there's not violence going on in front of these facilities, what do you say? It's a complete lie. There's lots of violence. Within the city block, journalists have been attacked over and over. Which made it more of a notable symbol outside the facility

that drew larger crowds. And things were pretty rowdy in the summer. There were a number of arrests outside the facility. And I think one of the ironies, and this is one of the ironies that was not lost on the federal judge who enjoined the deployment of the troops, is that things had actually quieted down. Certainly nothing exceedingly violent or out of control in the area. And what the president did by making these threats sort of insert and inject new energy into the demonstrations, which I think for many of the protesters

raised the question of, is this what he wants? Does he want to inflame the situation? Does he want to turn the city into a war zone in order to justify this mobilization? President Trump has been very clear about what he wants in Portland.

He says he wants to get Antifa. Look, the politicians are afraid for their lives. That's the only reason that they say like, there's nothing happening. And you've seen it. The place is burning down. People in the know have responded, Antifa is like, it's not like a club, right? We don't know who Antifa is.

What are these protesters telling you about Antifa? Do they identify as such? The word has been used so promiscuously in recent years. Antivo is a very small group of losers and misgrants and buffoons. Antifa is terrible. Of course, it's a contraction of anti-fascist. And one of the interesting things about Portland is that it is home to, one of the oldest known Antifa groups in the country, Rose City, Antifa.

What our group does is we engage in community self-defense against fascists and white supremacist groups, and that includes disrupting their activities whenever we can. One of our points of unity is that we don't depend on the cops or the courts to do the work of opposing white supremacy. But even that organization, if you want to call it that, is diffuse, and it's kind of hard to understand exactly its leaders, its membership. And one of the things that some locals pointed out to me, me is that, you know, a number of years ago when there were, you know, quite violent protests and really sort of roving street brawls that popped up in parts of the city between left-wing protesters and right-wing activists.

In all-out brawl in the streets of Northeast Portland, by the looks of it, Antifa in the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, clashing at what was advertised as a Mayday after party. Make no mistake about it, these two groups do not like each other. This man came back bloody and angry after a confrontation with Antifa members. He wouldn't be the only one hurt by the end of the day. A number of these actors went to prison or felt the threat of going to prison, which has taken down the temperature significantly. I think the feelings about this really ranged.

Some of them who said, look, I'm engaged in anti-fascist protest. I believe that ISIS conduct. its tactics and the president's directives to ICE resemble fascist regimes. They also, though, felt that the term has been emptied of all of its meaning and that it's being used by the president to try to criminalize anti-fascist protest. They both wanted to combat that by embracing it, but also wanted to distance themselves because they felt that this is a term that's just talked about by people who aren't in it, don't really know what it is, and just see political opportunism in it.

All right, so a judge temporarily blocked the National Guard from coming to Portland. The governor and I imagine the local authorities, mayor are probably on high alert. What they are doing and how they are approaching the situation is actually escalating it. I would ask them to stand back and focus on de-escalating the situation because it is not coming from the folks who are demonstrating. What do we understand about what? is going to happen next? So the administration has appealed this, and there's going to be a hearing, I believe, on Thursday before the Ninth Circuit.

So we'll have to see whether the judge's decision is reversed, and also whether there are other ways in which the administration tries to work around it. But I think, you know, for the time being, it's really worth listening to the words of this judge, who, again, is a Trump appointee, a Republican. and who said that this is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law, and called the president's statements and actions untethered from the facts. These are striking words from the judge in justifying this order that she issued, and, you know, really worth listening to as we consider what it means

that the president is attempting to mobilize active duty soldiers into an emergency. American City against the wishes of city and state leaders and based on a rationale that a judge that he himself put on the federal bench is saying are untethered from the facts. That was the Atlantic's Isaac Stanley Becker. He's been reporting from Portland. Today's show was made by Danielle Hewitt, Denise Gera, Amina El Sadi, Laura Bullard, Patrick Boyd, and Adrian Lilly. Congratulations are pouring in for Sean and his wife Lori, who had a baby last night. Beyonce, that was such a beautiful email. Thank you from all of us. Sean is going to be back in five months. I will be here. We'll have some other great fill-in hosts.

Until tomorrow, I'm Noelle King. It's today explained. Support for today's Support for today, Explain, comes from Sacks Fifth Avenue. Fall is here. Might be time to find from Sacks Fifth Avenue. Fall is here. Might be time to find some nice new pieces. You can wear again and again. With Sacks Fifth Avenue, it can be a breeze to shop for your personal style, like maybe a relaxed Prada Blazer or Gucci Loafer's that are great for both work and the weekend. This is very Sean. This is very Sean-coded. Gucci loafers.

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