‘Stupid leadership’: Texas leader slams Donald Trump over leaving his state stranded this hurricane season

Texas Democratic congressional candidate Isaiah Martin blasted President Trump for requesting the deployment of the Texas National Guard outside the state during hurricane season, calling what the White House did “beyond STUPID leadership.”

Martin’s post argues that Trump’s order would imperil Texans by diminishing disaster-response capacity when storms threaten communities. Nonetheless, Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently authorized the federal government’s request to deploy Texas National Guard troops to other states to protect federal buildings from protesters demonstrating against federal immigration enforcement.

In particular, a memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth instructed that up to 400 Texas Guard members be federalized and deployed to locations including Oregon, Illinois, and other states.

Trump troop deployment blocked

Martin’s post aside, a federal judge, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, issued a temporary restraining order barring the deployment of any federalized National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, including those being mobilized from other states.

The judge found that moving in troops from states such as Texas violated her earlier order and interfered with state sovereignty, particularly when there was no clear coordination or consent from the affected states.

Martin is a Houston native and a Democratic candidate running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’s 18th Congressional District. Martin is part of the younger wave of progressive politicians in Texas, identifying with Gen Z, combining digital activism with grassroots organizing.

If some Guard units were sent out of state, Martin argues, fewer are available for emergency response within Texas, which Martin says leaves Texans “stranded” when hurricanes strike. Texas is highly vulnerable to hurricanes, flooding, and other natural disasters. For constituents in Texas, the question is: can they trust the state’s leadership to safeguard them when disaster looms? For Martin, the answer is clearly no.