Americans Oppose National Guard Deployment Without Governors’ Consent
On June 7, President Trump issued a memo moving thousands of National Guard units from state control into federal service. This action was purportedly in response to immigration protests in Los Angeles.
The president sidestepped California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who called the deployment “unlawful” and “a serious breach of state sovereignty” meant to inflame the situation. This is the first time in six decades that a president has federalized a state’s National Guard without a governor’s permission.
The president cited a provision of federal law that allows a president to federalize National Guard troops when there is—or there is a threat of—a foreign invasion or a domestic rebellion, or the president “is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws.” The memo goes beyond California, paving the way for the president to deploy National Guard or regular military units in other nonconsenting states.
On June 9, California sued the Trump administration over the deployment. Later in the day, 700 Marines from Twentynine Palms, California, were ordered to Los Angeles by the administration.
The president’s move is not only outside of democratic norms and typical procedures, but it also clashes with Americans’ wishes.
According to a States United survey, Americans overwhelmingly agree that Trump should not be able to use the U.S. military to stop Americans from protesting. Further, very few Americans think that the National Guard should be deployed in a state without the governor’s consent.
This analysis is based on a national survey conducted in partnership between States United and YouGov of 1,524 U.S. adults in March 2025.
- Americans oppose deploying the National Guard without governors’ consent.
- Americans overwhelmingly oppose utilizing the military to quell protests.
Less than a quarter of Americans think that Trump should be able to deploy the National Guard in a state without the consent of that state’s governor.
Less than half of Republicans think the president should use the National Guard in this way. Only 21% of Republicans strongly support it.
Seventy percent of Americans say they disagree that Trump should be able to use the U.S. military to stop Americans from protesting. Over half of Americans strongly disagree with that possibility.
Opposition to misuse of the military is consistent across party lines: Majorities of Democrats, Republicans, and independents all disagree with it. Just 5% of Americans say they strongly agree the president should be able to use the military to stop protests.
The survey done between March 4-6, 2025 is based on 1,524 interviews conducted on the internet of U.S. adults. Participants were drawn from YouGov’s online panel. Respondents were selected to be representative of American adults. Responses were additionally weighted to match population characteristics with respect to gender, age, race/ethnicity, education of registered voters, and U.S. Census region based on voter registration lists, the U.S. Census American Community Survey, and the U.S. Census Current Population Survey, as well as 2020 presidential vote. The margin of error is approximately ± 2.7 percentage points, though it is larger for the analysis of partisan subgroups described above. Therefore, sample estimates should differ from their expected value by less than the margin of error in 95% of all samples. This figure does not reflect non-sampling errors, including potential selection bias in panel participation or measurement error.