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California Guard Says Federal Funding Approved Even As Trump Tweets Criticism

A member of the National Guard checks on his colleague inside a Border Patrol Skybox near the U.S.-Mexico border in Hidalgo, Texas, in this 2011 photo. President Trump is calling for troops on the southern border, something the last five presidents have all done.
Delcia Lopez AP
A member of the National Guard checks on his colleague inside a Border Patrol Skybox near the U.S.-Mexico border in Hidalgo, Texas, in this 2011 photo. President Trump is calling for troops on the southern border, something the last five presidents have all done.

Just hours after President Donald Trump vowed not to pay for the California National Guard deployment that Gov. Jerry Brown announced this week, the Guard said it’s received written confirmation of federal funding from the Pentagon.

Brown authorized the deployment Wednesday, but only to combat transnational crime such as drug smuggling and human trafficking. He ruled out using California troops for any immigration enforcement.

The president tweeted Thursday morning that Brown is deploying the Guard “to do nothing,” adding that the federal government will not pay for what he called the governor’s “charade.”

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He added another critique of California later in the day while touring a task force in Florida that's fighting drug smuggling.

"Look at what’s happening in California with sanctuary cities, where the people are really going the opposite way," Trump said. "They don’t want sanctuary cities. And there’s a little bit of a revolution going on in California."

The president then praised the task force’s work fighting drug smuggling and human trafficking, the precise mission of the California National Guard deployment for which he criticized Brown.

The White House, the Pentagon’s National Guard Bureau, and the Department of Homeland Security have not returned requests for comment.