Trump allies equate Democrats with 'terrorists'

[Rhetoric, from A1] is to specifically target Democrats.

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WHITE House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has said the president has unchecked authority to protect federal lives and property.

(EVAN VUCCI Associated Press)

As of Monday afternoon, it was unclear exactly how many federal workers or what federal agencies would be targeted.

“We don’t want to see people laid off, but unfortunately, if this shutdown continues layoffs are going to be an unfortunate consequence of that,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Levitt said during a news briefing.

Karin Immergut, a federal judge appointed by Trump, said this weekend that the administration's justification for deploying California National Guard troops in Portland was “simply untethered to the facts.”

“This country has a longstanding and foundational tradition of resistance to government overreach, especially in the form of military intrusion into civil affairs,” Immergut wrote, chiding the Trump administration for attempting to circumvent a prior order from her against a federal deployment to the city.

“This historical tradition boils down to a simple proposition,” she added: “This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law.”

The administration is expected to appeal the judge’s decision, Leavitt said, while calling the judge’s ruling “untethered in reality and in the law.”

“We're very confident in the president's legal authority to do this, and we are very confident we will win on the merits of the law,” Leavitt said.