As part of President Donald Trump’s contentious order to crack down on crime, Republican Governor Phil Scott has graciously turned down a federal request to send Vermont National Guard troops to Washington, D.C.
The federal government has taken over the capital city’s police department at Trump’s request, sending some 800 National Guard members and 500 federal law enforcement officers to patrol the streets.
If the governor hadn’t rejected an initial request from the Pentagon last week, Scott’s chief of staff, Jason Gibbs, claims that their numbers might have included a few dozen soldiers from Vermont.
“Public safety is a legitimate concern in cities across the country, and the nation’s capital is no exception,” Gibbs said Friday. “The governor simply does not support using the guard for this purpose, and does not view the enforcement of domestic law as a proper use of the National Guard, unless there is an immediate emergency or disaster that local and regional first responders are unable to handle.”
According to Gibbs, if officials in Washington, D.C. had been requesting federal aid for an emergency, the governor’s calculus might have been different. Rather, the city challenged the Trump administration’s takeover of its police department in court on Friday.
However, Gibbs stated that the governor and, I believe, the great majority of Vermonters do not believe that the use of the National Guard would be appropriate and acceptable in this instance due to its hyperpoliticization.
Scott has already turned down the Trump administration’s request to deploy Vermont National Guard members on a domestic assignment. Scott was ordered by the Pentagon late last month to deploy a dozen Guard members to handle administrative tasks in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-run detention centers.
Scott turned down the request, claiming it went against his understanding of the National Guard’s mission.
A group of retired four-star generals and admirals took notice of the Republican governor’s choice and wrote to Scott on Thursday to commend him for it. The letter, which was signed by retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and retired Adm. Steve Abbott, a former acting homeland security advisor to President Trump, claimed that Trump’s recent requests for Guard troops represent a concerning blending of military and civilian law enforcement duties.
They stated, “You defended the safety of Vermonters and the sound civil-military relationship envisioned by our nation’s founders by refusing the Department of Defense’s request to activate the Vermont Army National Guard as an inappropriate use of military resources.”
Although Scott has so far refused all federal requests pertaining to possible Guard actions during the second Trump term, he has complied with other contentious directives.
Scott gave his approval earlier this month for the U.S. Department of Agriculture to obtain the private information of approximately 140,000 low-income Vermonters. Prominent Vermont Democrats and proponents of food security denounced his choice.
According to Scott, his administration’s thorough legal analysis determined that the Trump administration’s request for the data was a valid order.
Gibbs stated on Friday that the governor’s decision-making style over the last seven months on demands from the federal government demonstrates a methodical and clinical deliberate process.
He makes an extremely detailed decision. It’s also not motivated by politics. It isn’t motivated by rhetoric. According to Gibbs, it is not motivated by the media, nor is it by feelings of fear, rage, or frustration.
And that kind of etiquette, in our opinion, is beneficial to all parties and reflects a leadership style in this specific political climate that differs from what we observe on both sides of the aisle.
