Kristi Noem raises ethical concerns with privately bankrolled National Guard border deployment
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem announced Tuesday that she will deploy up to 50 National Guard troops to the Mexico-U.S. border - a mission not funded by South Dakota or the federal government but a billionaire GOP megadonor with a staunch commitment to "protect America."
"The Biden Administration has failed in the most basic duty of the federal government: keeping the American people safe,"Noem, a Republican, said. "The border is a national security crisis that requires the kind of sustained response only the National Guard can provide.
"We should not be making our own communities less safe by sending our police or Highway Patrol to fix a long-term problem President Biden's Administration seems unable or unwilling to solve. My message to Texas is this: help is on the way."
The deployment, which will reportedly last between 30 and 60 days, is currently being bankrolled by Willis Johnson, the founder and chairman of Copart Inc., a global corporation that facilitates vehicle auction and remarketing services.
Johnson, who hails not from South Dakota but Tennessee, told Politico that he's "trying to help out the governor and help America."
In another interview, The Capital Journal asked Johnson whether he thought it was appropriate for a private donation to sponsor military action. "This is America, buddy. I fought in Vietnam," he responded. "I don't think this is a, this is America. It's not private. You sound real negative. I don't want to talk to you, bye."
The megadonor's philanthropic organization, the Willis and Reba Johnson's Foundation, has in the past donated to a number of churches and the National Rifle Association, according to 2018 tax filings uncovered by The Washinton Post. The Daily Beast also found that the foundation has also given money to Alpha Pregnancy Center, which advises women against having abortions. Individually, Johnson has donated to the campaigns of various Republicans, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, and former president Donald Trump.
Though the billionaire told The Post that 100% of the investment will go to Noem's border mission, it remains unclear precisely how large the donation was.
Noem's move has sounded alarms amongst military ethics and policy experts not only because it circumvents established levers of state power, but because the South Dakota governor is also on the shortlist of potential GOP presidential candidates in 2024.
Asked whether the governor has the legal authority to launch a privately-funded national security mission of this nature, Noem spokesperson Ian Fury told Politico: "The Governor has authority under SDCL 5-24-12 to accept a donation if she determines doing so is in the best interest of the State. The Governor has additional authority to accept donated funds for emergency management under SDCL 34-48A-36." The Army Times noted that the privately bankrolled mission appears to be the first of its kind in American history.
Currently the U.S. has stationed roughly 3,600 National Guard troops along the southern border. The troops were originally sent there as part of a Trump administration directive back in 2018 to address what he referred to multiple times as an "invasion" of Central American immigrants attempting to cross the border by caravan. The Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security continue to work in concert to secure the border.
Last month, the U.S. saw a record 180,000 border crossings, a surge that has sparked concern from mainstream Democrats and Republicans alike. Over the past year, the Biden administration has fought to unwind many of Trump's more stringent border policies, though the recent uptick has emerged as a complicating factor in finding more permanent policy solutions.
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This sounds more like a vigilante deployment than a national security deployment.
It is a national security deployment.
Only partisan fools would think otherwise
C'mon, Greg... let's think this through together...
Who decides immigration policy - or any other policy - in America? The precedent that's being set here is "Anyone with billions of dollars can set policy and hire the US Army to enforce it."
Is that really what you want?
You may like this particular immediate result - National Guard on the border - but who knows what the next billionaire will want?
Yeah, definitely sets a concerning precedent.
It's aboot time you Yanks turned the National Guard into a private military ... Fence Force One ... Foohrah Fubar Ole!
So now the NG is a mercenary unit.
There 3600 National Guardsmen on the border already, but she thinks 50 more will make a difference. Privately funded by a conservative billionaire no less.
This is a publicity stunt to keep her name in the news as she positions for a possible 2024 presidential run.
A little thing like it's ethical dubiousness won't deter a go-getter like Kristi Noem.
So what is Biden doing about the problem, other than pretending that it doesn't exist?
He's not doing a Kristi Kabuki dance for starters.
Whattabout?
Whattabout?
Whattabout?
So other than bitching about Biden, what do you think about rich guys hiring the national guard for their own purposes?
Don’t know don’t care, the principle behind it is my only concern. Our military (yes the NG and reserves are included) should in no way, shape, or form be made/permitted to conduct ANY operation funded by or at the behest of a private citizen or any person not acting outside of their official government capacity. And yes, that includes funding for any operation.
Possibly nothing. But there is a history of rich people providing funding to up & coming politicians in the hopes of future favors. And you have to admit that Kristi is an up & comer.
You are willingly not understanding the problem and I am not going to waste my time explaining when I already know you are not interested in an honest conversation, because you never are.
the great Charlie Pierce weighed in
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South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem Sends National Guard to Border With Billionaire Funding (esquire.com)
Excuse me, but just what in the unholy, unshirted, bearded fck is this all about, then? From the AP (via the Military Times ):
This is just crazy-go-nuts for a lot of reasons. First of all, having the wingnut welfare apparatus funding think tanks and nurturing Ben Shapiros and Brett Kavanaughs is one thing. But using that money essentially to rent out another state’s National Guard as a private army for a political stunt to benefit the Republican Party and the future political plans of the governor of South Dakota is one very long step down a road that other republics have traveled, never to be seen again. As an important politician once observed, no man can truly be called rich if he can’t maintain his own army on his income. That was Marcus Licinius Crassus, one of the central figures in Rome’s long slide from republic to empire. Of course, he didn’t have a billionaire used-car salesman to foot the bill for him.
Pan out and things get far more serious. Here we have a cabal of Republican governors using their law-enforcement apparatus—and now, their National Guard troops—in a coordinated exercise in political gamesmanship, if not outright sabotage. The exercise is independently funded to prevent political blowback at home. What’s to prevent this band of ghouls from putting this kind of thing together to take more, ah, “active” measures against the administration in the future? The last time governors decided to use their states’ military as an argument in national politics, people wound up ducking behind things in Fort Sumter. People like Kristi Noem don’t care, but they are activating forces in this country that they don’t understand, and that they never will be able to fully control. Biden should federalize the South Dakota National Guard immediately and then order it to stay where it is. Let Noem scream into the prairie winds about it. This is a lot bigger than her futile ambitions.
What I am wondering is how in the fuck is this NOT illegal? I mean maybe because no one thought someone would actually try to turn the NG into a mercenary outfit and a governor would go along. Either way this needs to be shut down immediately.
I'm wondering what the soldiers are thinking. They've been hired out as mercenaries. Did they sign up for that?
From Politico :
Kristi Noem Waiting For Trump To Serve Her Lunch