Laura Kelly stands up for states by calling out Trump’s abuse of power in LA | Opinion

The first thing you need to know about President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy National Guard troops in California is that this moment was always coming.

Always.

Back in 2023, long before Trump was elected to a second term as president, media outlets such as The Washington Post reported that his team was planning to “potentially invoke the Insurrection Act on his first day in office to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations.”

Trump didn’t end up invoking the Insurrection Act — he used a different legal authority — and he waited a few months instead of rolling out the troops on his first day. But that documented history suggests the president came to office looking for a pretext, an excuse, to do what he already wanted to do.

He found one.

Trump announced over the weekend that would deploy the Guard against anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles, over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. No surprise there.

The surprise: Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly quickly joined the pushback.

Kelly, a Democrat governing a red state, has always handled Trump delicately. She even earned his praise at one point in 2020 for her governance during the pandemic.

On Sunday, though, hers was the first name on a list of Democratic governors criticizing Trump’s move as an “abuse of power” and that deploying troops “without consulting or working with a state’s governor is ineffective and dangerous.”

Would GOP object to National Guard here?

Kansas Republicans immediately criticized Kelly.

“This is wrong,” Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican running to replace her next year, wrote on X.

“Kansans deserve better,” said Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson.

Kelly “is picking the side of violence and lawlessness!” Kansas Young Republicans added.

You wonder: Would they be saying the same thing if troops were being deployed in Kansas?

It could happen.

There are, after all, tens of thousands of undocumented migrants in the Sunflower State — estimates vary as to the precise numbers — and in many cases those folks are vital members of their communities, friends and neighbors to native-born Americans.

Some of those Kansas communities are likely to speak up if those friends and neighbors are threatened with deportation by ICE agents.

Just look next door to Missouri, where the Trump-loving community of Kennett reacted angrily when Carol Hui, a longtime resident and a Hong Kong native sometimes simply referred to as “Carol” in media coverage, was detained by immigration authorities.

“Ninety-five percent of the people in here support Trump,” said one resident, adding: “But this is wrong,”

Last week, Hui was released from detention and returned home — yes, home — to Kennett.

The protesters in Los Angeles? They’re defending the Carols in their lives.

And a lot of communities, in red states and blue, in Kansas and Missouri, have lots of Carols.

What about next Democratic president?

Is Kansas immune from a troop deployment? Is Missouri?

Maybe. They’re red states after all. And Trump sure seems to want to make an example of the biggest, bluest state on the block.

But as other critics have noted, the presidential memorandum authorizing the National Guard deployment didn’t limit the use of troops just to California. Instead, The Bulwark pointed out this week, it authorizes the secretary of defense “to mobilize as many troops as he wishes for as long as he wishes, and to deploy them anywhere he wishes within the United States.”

If you’re a governor, such as Laura Kelly or even Missouri’s Mike Kehoe, that has to be alarming.

Especially since Trump is making it clear in California that he can and will send in the troops no matter what local authorities say. That isn’t unprecedented in American history, but it is rare.

And it is provocative. Trump’s move does little to lower the temperature, but it does — as Kelly and the other Democratic governors said in the weekend statement — make it more difficult for local authorities “to do their jobs without the chaos of this federal interference and intimidation.”

Republicans — including Kansas Republicans — often tend to be in favor of local control and states’ rights.

Now that Trump is in charge, though, they would rather score political points against Kelly. Ask yourself, though: Will they be so eager to support troop deployments on American soil the next time a Democrat is in charge?