President Donald Trump was accused of telling yet another untruth on Wednesday after suffering a serious legal defeat in court over the use of the National Guard.
On Tuesday, a federal court ruled that Trump failed to meet the legal requirements needed to take control of the California National Guard. The judge ordered that control be returned to Gavin Newsom, making it clear that the federal government did not have the authority to step in the way Trump had attempted. This decision came shortly after another blow at the Supreme Court of the United States, where justices raised serious doubts about the legal arguments Trump’s lawyers were using to justify deploying troops across different states.
Following the rulings, Trump posted a message on Truth Social, claiming his administration was “withdrawing” the troops as if it were his own decision. He suggested the move was voluntary and warned that the troops could be sent back in the future if crime increases. In his post, Trump insisted that crime would rise again sooner or later and attacked Democratic mayors and governors, calling them incompetent and questioning why they would want federal forces to leave.
That explanation was quickly challenged by J.B. Pritzker, who responded on Bluesky. Pritzker said Trump was lying about the situation and made it clear that the president did not choose to stand down. According to Pritzker, Trump was forced to back off only because he lost in court after Illinois and other states pushed back against what they saw as an attempt to militarise American cities using the National Guard.
Newsom also responded strongly, posting on X that Trump had finally admitted defeat. He said California had been saying from the very beginning that the federal takeover of the state’s National Guard was illegal and unconstitutional.
Other commentators weighed in as well. Political scientist David Darmofal described the ruling as a major loss for Trump, arguing that it struck at the heart of what he called one of the central policies of Trump’s second term. He said the defeat showed that state leaders were willing and able to stop the president when he overstepped his authority.
Entrepreneur Spencer Hakiman also reacted online, calling Trump’s court loss humiliating and saying it exposed the weakness of the administration’s legal strategy.
Taken together, the reactions made it clear that many see Trump’s claims of a voluntary withdrawal as misleading. Instead, critics say the court rulings forced his hand and marked a significant setback for his efforts to expand federal control over state-run National Guard forces.
