National Guard Push Used by Trump and Vance to Attack 2028 Rivals
www.military.com

... President Donald Trump said that his federal crime crackdown will sully the records of contenders for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination, drawing an explicit link between his deployment of National Guard troops and boosting the Republican Party's political prospects.

Trump and Vice President JD Vance lambasted California's Gavin Newsom, Illinois' JB Pritzker and Maryland's Wes Moore on Monday as governors who are weak on crime, defending plans to possibly expand the Guard's presence from Washington, DC to cities and states run by Democrats nationwide.

"All of their potential candidates are doing a bad job," Trump told reporters on Monday.

Moore "doesn't have what it takes," Trump said, adding that he "can't imagine Pritzker even being a candidate" because "he's not temperamentally suited" and is a "slob." Newsom, the president continued, is a "disaster."

The Oval Office appearance, during which Trump signed executive orders targeting cashless bail and flag burning, offered Vance a chance to burnish his credentials as the president's successor-in-waiting by hammering home his law-and-order message. ...