Vermont’s Republican Gov. Phil Scott on Thursday criticized President Donald Trump’s deployment of national guard troops to Chicago, Illinois, and Portland, Oregon, against the will of officials there — and said he thinks Trump’s actions violate the U.S. Constitution.
“From what I’m seeing, I just think it’s unnecessary. It further divides and threatens people,” the governor said at a press conference in Waterbury. “We need stability right now in this country — we don’t need more unrest.”
As of that afternoon, Trump had called up 500 guard members from Illinois and Texas to the Chicago area, some of whom were seen at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility west of the city’s downtown. Trump also ordered 200 members of Oregon’s national guard to deploy into Portland, Oregon, but that plan was in a holding pattern following two rulings from federal judges. The status of the Chicago deployment was not entirely clear, either, with its own legal challenge pending in federal court.
“I don’t think our guard should be used against our own people. I don’t think the military should be used against our own people. In fact, it’s unconstitutional,” Scott said. “Unless, of course, there’s an insurrection, much like we saw Jan. 6 a few years ago,” he said, referring to the attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of Trump in 2021.
Trump has said the deployments to both Democratic-led cities are necessary to crack down on crime, though data shows rates of violent crime in Chicago and Portland have not been getting worse in recent years. The president has also said the deployment is meant to protect ICE’s operations in those cities from protestors.
Scott indicated that he would reject a similar request to use Vermont’s national guard, if Trump made such an ask. The governor has declined two requests from the White House to use Vermont’s guard in recent months — one to aid immigration enforcement in Vermont, and another for Trump’s crackdown on Washington, D.C.
On Wednesday, Trump said on social media that Chicago Mayor Brandon Jonson, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, should be jailed “for failing to protect” ICE agents there.
Scott said Thursday of Trump’s threat to jail a sitting governor that the president “uses words in those kinds of ways all the time,” but if Trump were to make good on his threat, Scott would be “on the forefront” of pushing back against the president’s actions.
“I just think it’s wrong on many, many different levels,” he said of the jailing threat.
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A ‘clean’ funding extension
The governor’s comments came several days after he faced criticism from the state’s Democratic Party leadership over a letter he sent to top U.S. senators urging them to come to a deal that would have avoided a federal government shutdown. Scott sent the letter to U.S. Senate Democratic and Republican leadership on Sept. 29, two days before Congress’ deadline to pass a funding bill.
Since then, both parties have dug in their heels. Democrats, including all three members of Vermont’s Congressional delegation, say they won’t agree on a plan to reopen the government unless Republicans agree to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire. Without the subsidies, millions are estimated to lose health coverage.
In the letter, Scott urged the Senate leaders “to pass a bipartisan, clean funding extension” that would keep the government’s lights on temporarily while lawmakers worked out a longer-term deal. A “clean” extension generally means a short-term funding agreement that keeps federal spending at or around its current levels and does have politically-motivated policy changes attached.
In a statement Monday, May Hanlon, head of the state’s Democratic party, said Scott’s letter was advocating for a resolution to Congress’ funding stalemate that stripped away health care. State officials have estimated 45,000 people in Vermont could lose coverage from the lapse of the subsidies and recent changes to Medicaid eligibility and procedures. Both are currently written into federal law.
“The proposal he would support codifies deep health care cuts that put Vermonters’ lives at risk,” Hanlon said. “Performative neutrality in the face of clear harm is not leadership.”
But Scott pushed back on that assessment at Thursday’s press conference.
After a reporter asked about Hanlon’s critique, Scott pulled out a paper copy of his letter to the senators and read it in its entirety, “just so you understand how we got to where we are today and how words are sometimes twisted,” he told the gathered press.
He contended that he meant for his letter to call for a “clean” resolution that, also, included an extension of the subsidies. That’s because he used the word “bipartisan,” he said, referring to how the subsidies are a Democratic demand.
“My intent was, continue to do what we’re doing today, and work on the budget that needs to be passed separately,” Scott said. “But, don’t harm people in the meantime.”
