There have always been a few clear break points, rubicon thresholds in the Trump autocracy storyline where the entire legitimacy of the state and the freedom of American citizens could go sideways very, very fast. This has always been one of the most obvious ones. There’s no need here for the Guard. The irritant is the wildly inflammatory raids by militarized ICE squads. But even assuming those continue the Guard still isn’t necessary. The President has triggered this crisis and is now using it to exercise military authority within a state against the wishes of the state’s civilian elected leaders – Mayor, Governor, congressional representatives, etc. This is 100% Trump. He’s created the situation and now he’s exploiting it.

We’re very clearly entering a moment of grave danger.

Trump has also authorized deployment of troops anywhere in the country where protests against ICE are occurring or are likely to occur, even if they are entirely peaceful.