California Democrat urges Kristi Noem to use South Dakota National Guard to combat far-right extremists

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem was among the stars of the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in February, and the Republican Trumpista has not been shy about pledging her loyalty to MAGA World. Noem, in a decidedly Trump-inspired stunt, vowed to use Republican donor funds to send South Dakota National Guard troops to the U.S./Mexico border — inspiring California State Sen. Tom Umberg, a Democrat, to ask Noem to use those troops to combat hate crime and far-right extremists in his state.

Umberg was obviously being facetious; he knows that Noem wouldn't do that. But the California Democrat got his point across when, on July 1, he tweeted, "I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this win/win situation with you or your staff."

Umberg, who is a retired U.S. Army colonel, also tweeted, "Hey @KristiNoem, if the @SDArmyNG is up for bid, we have some ideas in California!"

The border state that Noem specifically has in mind for the South Dakota National Guard troops is Texas; the other three states on the U.S./Mexico border are New Mexico, California and Arizona. Texas is the most Republican of the four.

Umberg told the Orange County Register, "I do think that this is a political stunt on behalf of the governor of South Dakota. But if she is serious about lending their National Guard, then we should take her at her word and get in on the bidding."

Although Umberg doesn't seriously believe that Noem would use South Dakota National Guard Troops to protect non-White Americans in California from violent far-right extremists, he realizes that the domestic terrorist threat that those extremists pose is quite real. White supremacists have a long history of domestic terrorism in the United States, going back to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction after the American Civil War of the 1860s. And a long list of terrorist activity by White supremacists and White nationalists in recent years — from the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building to a plot to kidnap and possibly murder Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — underscores the threat that they pose from a national security standpoint.

Umberg told the Register, "The highly trained and skilled men and women of the South Dakota National Guard would be excellent warriors against extremism in California."