Donald Trump’s call for Republican states to send National Guard troops to Texas to help Governor Greg Abbott control the southern border, along with Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt’s suggestion that three southern states are prepared to deploy their National Guards, has sparked a wave of concern on social media.
On Thursday, Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, termed the influx of migrants an “invasion,” adding: “We encourage all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of Illegals, and to remove them back across the Border.”
Appearing on conservative-leaning network Newsmax, Stitt described the situation in Texas as a “powder keg worth of tension,” insisting “we certainly stand with Texas on the right to defend themselves.”
He added: “You’ve got Oklahoma and Florida and Tennessee, and you’ve got all these other states that would send our National Guard to help and to support the efforts of Governor Abbott because every state is a border state.”
The suggestion that Republican, and in particular southern and former Confederate states, could deploy their National Guards to Texas sparked concern on social media, with some commentators arguing it could amount to an insurrection against federal authority. Texas, Tennessee and Florida were among the 11 states that rebelled against federal authority to create the Confederate States of America, sparking the American Civil War in 1861.
Newsweek reached out to the White House and representatives of Donald Trump for comment at 5:30 a.m. ET. This article will be updated with any response.
Adam Parkhomenko, a Democratic activist and advisor to self-styled “pro-democracy” media outlet MeidasTouch, shared Trump’s statement on X, formerly Twitter. He commented: “Trump appears to be inciting another insurrection.”
Responding to the former president’s words, Rick Wilson, a co-founder of the anti-Trump conservative group The Lincoln Project, said: “Look, it’s not the first time this guy tried to start a civil war.”
Radio host Dean Obeidallah posted: “Trump is mobilizing a new Confederate Army. Why is Trump not already in prison?!”
Leigh Vogel/Jason Kempin/Brandon Bell/Getty
One of the hosts of the Pardon The Insurrection podcast, which covers the cases of Trump supporters arrested after the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, wrote: “The Confederate states mobilizing all of their national guard troops under the auspices of challenging the federal government seems a lot like planning an insurrection to me.”
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that federal agents can remove razor wire installed along the Texas-Mexico border on the orders of Governor Abbott.
Two days later, Abbott published a furious open letter calling the migrant surge an “invasion” and asserting “Texas’s constitutional authority to defend and protect itself.” His defiance triggered calls from a number of Texas Democrats for the state National Guard to be federalized by President Biden, removing it from Abbott’s control.
Illegal migration across the southern border has increased substantially over the past couple of years, with Trump hoping to capitalize on the issue in November’s presidential election.
The 2023 fiscal year saw 2.4 million recorded encounters between migrants and law enforcement across the U.S.-Mexico border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, up from 1.7 million in 2021.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.