California National Guard 'to get federal funding' despite Trump’s claim to the contrary

After initially lauding California for seeking to deploy National Guard personnel, Donald Trump has blasted the state for imposing limitations

Members of the California National Guard patrol the Rancho Bernardo neighbourhood of San Diego amid a wildfire fight (REUTERS/John Gress )

The California National Guard said it had received an assurance of federal funding for a campaign against transnational crime, knocking down Donald Trump’s claim to the contrary.

“We received written confirmation from the Pentagon that it’ll continue to fund” a mission announced earlier in the week by California Governor Jerry Brown, the guard said in a tweet.

Hours earlier, Mr Trump had announced on Twitter that the “Federal Government will not be paying for Governor Brown’s charade”, likely reacting to Mr Brown prohibiting national guard members from aiding in Mr Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The Pentagon did not immediately confirm that it offered California a funding commmitment.

Long at odds over immigration policy, the Trump administration and California have clashed in recent weeks over the scope of the California National Guard mission.

Earlier this week, Mr Brown said he would draw on federal funds to deploy up to 400 people to combat criminal gangs and crack down on trafficking in guns, drugs and humans.

While some of them would be deployed to the US-Mexico border, Mr Brown explicitly said none would be used to enforce immigration laws or help construct a border wall.

Those limitations shattered an apparent truce between California and the Trump administration. The president had rare words of praise for Mr Brown last week, saying he was “doing the right thing” in sending National Guard members to the border.

But he quickly shifted to anger and blame, first saying in a tweet that Mr Brown “cannot come to terms for the National Guard to patrol and protect the Border” and the next day saying the governor was attempting to “back out”.

Even as Mr Trump was accusing Mr Brown of reneging on his pledge, Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was offering assurances. On the same day Mr Trump said California was backing out, Ms Nielsen said she had spoken to Mr Brown by phone about the terms of a deployment.

Liberal California has long served as a foil for Mr Trump, particularly when it comes to the president’s immigration agenda.

In response to Mr Trump’s election, California passed a sweeping law intended to wall off local law enforcement from immigration authorities. Mr Trump has lambasted California as a law-defying haven of crime and his Justice Department has sued over the law; Mr Brown has responded by decrying a federal “war” on his state.