Three-day federal trial in SF: Newsom vs. Trump on National Guard deployment

Newsom v. Trump in federal court trial over National Guard

Attorneys for California Governor Gavin Newsom and the Trump administration are battling in federal court in San Francisco over the legality of President Trump's National Guard deployments to Los Angeles. The results of the three-day trial could have national implications. On Monday, President Trump ordered troops to Washington DC, and named other cities including Oakland. Oakland's mayor says Trump's accusation of rising crime rates is false.

SAN FRANCISCO - President Trump announced Monday that he plans to deploy National Guard troops to Washington D.C. to fight crime, and mentioned other cities including Oakland, accusing them of tolerating bad crime.

The announcement came as Trump faced a legal battle in San Francisco's federal court building.

Monday was day one of a three-day trial before U.S. Judge Charles Breyer.

Attorneys for California Governor Gavin Newsom and U.S. Attorneys for the Trump administration argued over the boundaries of the president's legal authority to deploy National Guard troops on domestic soil.

The state is asking U.S. Judge Charles Breyer to rule that Trump's actions violate a federal law, the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act. It bars the president from using military troops to conduct domestic law enforcement.

Oakland, LA

President Trump's remarks Monday included a slam against Oakland, which included a suggestion that he might pursue a similar public safety strategy to the one he announced for Washington, D.C.

"We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad," he said. "You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore there. They're so far gone. We're not going to let it happen. We're not going to lose our cities over this. And this will go further. We're starting very strongly with DC, and we're going to clean it up real quick, very quickly, as they say."

Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee released a statement saying the president's assertions about crime in Oakland are false.

"President Trump's characterization of Oakland is wrong and not grounded in facts, but in fearmongering.... Our comprehensive public safety strategy is working - crime rates are coming down," Mayor Lee said.

Oakland police statistics released last week show homicides down 21% and robberies down 41% compared to the same time last year. Still, after a violent weekend that included six shootings, some residents say they don’t always feel safer.

President Trump criticizes Oakland while announcing plans for public safety crackdown in Washington, D.C.

President Trump's remarks Monday included a slam against Oakland, which included a suggestion that he might pursue a similar public safety strategy to the one he announced for Washington, D.C.

"I don’t feel like it’s working locally, so state would probably be better," said Oakland resident, Javen Johnson. "I just don’t feel like it should be on the federal level."

Others expressed concern about the idea of National Guard troops patrolling Oakland.

Legal experts say Trump could face significant challenges if he tries to apply his Washington, D.C., strategy elsewhere.

"It’s harder to see a legal path in these other places," said David Levine, a professor at UC Law San Francisco. "If he wanted to declare an emergency in, let’s say, Illinois, he would need the governor to go along. I think he would get much pushback if he were to try this in Oakland."

D.C. target of speech

The main target of Trump's speech was Washington, D.C., where he said the murder rate was higher than that of Bogota, Columbia, and Mexico City, and he was placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control.

Trump said he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to deploy members of the National Guard.

Crime is dropping

What Trump failed to mention is that the national crime rate is dropping.

By the numbers:

Police statistics show homicides, robberies and burglaries are down this year when compared with this time in 2024. Overall, violent crime is down 26% compared with this time a year ago.

Specifically, in Oakland, violent crimes like homicide, aggravated assault and robberies are all down.

In a news conference last week, OPD Chief Floyd Mitchell announced that overall crime in Oakland has dropped by 28% in the first six months of 2025 compared to the same time period last year.

According to OPD’s most recent data, there have been 41 homicides in Oakland compared to 54 last year, which represents a 24% decrease. Robberies are down by 41% and car thefts are down by 46%.

What they're saying:

"This is par for the course for Trump," said Oakland civil rights attorney, Adante Pointer. "He continues to target and distort the facts as it relates to crime in American cities, particularly those in blue states run by Black mayors. His administration consistently tries to undermine these Black mayors and indulge followers’ belief that Black leadership is incompetent and unworthy, and that their accomplishments are not based on merit or are somehow by DEI initiative. The facts are these mayors were democratically elected and have led their cities to significant drops in crime."

Homicides in Los Angeles also fell by more than 20% and is on pace to end 2025 with the lowest total in nearly 60 years.

In D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, questioned the effectiveness of using the Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the D.C. Superior Court, some of which have been open for years.

She noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023.

Trump’s weekend posts depicted the district as "one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World."

In addition, Trump in a Sunday social media post had emphasized the removal of Washington’s homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go.

"The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY," Trump wrote Sunday. "We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don’t have to move out. We’re going to put you in jail where you belong."