The Stack: No Kings Backfire Shutdown Standoff And A Ninth Circuit Surprise
The “No Kings” protests sweeping across the country are being sold as a defense of democracy, but Todd Huff calls them what they really are—another emotional outburst from the Left. He dives into who’s actually behind these rallies (spoiler: mostly white liberal women), how Democrats are quietly worrying about losing moderates, and why their messaging keeps backfiring. Meanwhile, the government shutdown grinds into its third week as the Left blames Republicans for gridlock, ignoring their own strategic filibusters.
Todd also breaks down an unexpected Ninth Circuit Court decision that momentarily favors Trump’s authority to deploy the National Guard in Portland. With his signature humor and insight, Todd connects the dots between political theater, media spin, and the deeper struggle for truth in American politics.
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🎧 Listen to Today’s Episode
📰 Stack Links
The Massive No Kings Protests May Mark a New American Political Posture
Police Arrests Low as ‘No Kings’ Protests Remain Largely Peaceful
Ted Cruz Warns GOP About Political Peril After Anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ Protests
Republicans Broach a Longer Stopgap Bill as Shutdown Enters Fourth Week
Federal Appeals Court Allows Trump’s National Guard Deployment in Oregon
U.S. Appeals Court Says Trump Can Take Command of Oregon Troops, Though Deployment Blocked for Now
U.S. Appeals Court Could Reconsider Ruling in Trump’s Favor on Portland Troop Deployment
Trump Can Deploy National Guard Troops to Portland, Appeals Court Says
Ninth Circuit Opinion — Trump v. Oregon (National Guard Federalization)
Democracy Docket Analysis: Trump Portland Military Deployment Ruling
OPB Coverage: Ninth Circuit Lifts Part of Portland Troop Block
Karine Jean-Pierre Claims She Never Saw Biden’s Mental Decline
📝 Transcript: No Kings Backfire Shutdown Standoff And A Ninth Circuit Surprise
The Todd Huff Show – October 21, 2025
Host: Todd Huff
Todd Huff: All right, my friends. Lots of things I want to get to on today's program. Thank you so much for tuning in to America's home for conservative, not bitter, talk. I am your one and only, ever so beloved host here behind the microphone, Todd Huff, the benevolent dictator in fact. I don't know what the No Kings rally would have to say about this program, actually. I do. I do know what they would have to say about it. It'd all be lies and distortions. I'm just having fun here.
Todd Huff: But I welcome you to the program. Thoughts, questions, feedback? Yes, always include the appropriate amounts of adoration and praise as well, which can be a little deceptive because there are times that I need ten to fifteen percent more of that than you might deem necessary. I'm kidding. Take it easy. Email todd@toddhuffshow.com or you can text 317-210-283.
Todd Huff: That reminds me—I'm going to put this in the email newsletter. I forgot about this. I got a phone call, a message actually, two messages, from a guy that obviously wanted to mock me. And I just don't have them queued up. I totally forgot about it until right now. I'll put it in the newsletter. How about that? For those of you that want to hear this, this is the kind of stuff that I get on occasion here behind the scenes.
Todd Huff:
But this guy calls into the number. Actually, it wasn't even that number. It's another number that advertisers or people like that could call. But he left two messages, and he was trying—I think he was trying to insult me for being naive, I guess, because he said he had a bridge over the Ohio River that he wanted to sell me. Just to me, he said. But I think he missed his delivery expectation, so he called and said it again and left the message. I don't know, maybe not even a minute apart. So he left two messages saying the same thing.
Todd Huff: You missed the mark, my friend. You've entertained me. If your purpose was to entertain me, mission accomplished. But anyway, that'll be in today's newsletter, which you can get for free toddhuffshow.com — actually, now innercircle.toddhuffshow.com. Inner Circle — that's the name of the newsletter as we're launching some other things that you might want to know about that we'll talk about there.
Todd Huff: That being said, here's what I want to get to today, my friends. I want to talk about some of the potential fallout from the No Kings protest, some uncertainty that exists there amongst Democrats. I want to talk about day number 21 — now, day number 21 of the government shutdown. Go through some strategy, the length of this thing and what's happening politically again.
Todd Huff: The left wants this to harm Donald J. Trump, his agenda, the Republican Party, as we head into the midterms. We'll talk about that, and then — always time permitting, always time permitting — there was a court ruling by the Ninth Circuit, which is mind-blowing that the Ninth Circuit somehow stumbled into a situation where they favored Trump in a ruling.
Todd Huff: Now, I'll get into the details. It's not as though they ruled in his favor. They simply lifted an injunction that was put in place by a lower court that prevented Trump from deploying the National Guard to Portland, and I'll get to that if time allows. My friends, if not, that'll be covered in the newsletter as well.
Todd Huff: It's one of the things we do there — try to put things that I don't have time to get to. It's totally free. I mentioned how to get that off the top, and you're welcome to sign up if that's something you're interested in.
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Todd Huff: All right, let's get here. Let's start here with the potential fallout from the No Kings protest.
Todd Huff: Now the No Kings protest, as you know and as we talked about yesterday, these were held nationwide. Nationwide. Now, reports are — reports are that there were seven million participants. Now, some people think that that number is blown out of the water, a gross distortion of reality. I don't know.
Todd Huff: I mean, listen. Do I think that there are seven million people who would take to the streets over something? Yes, I do. On the one hand, you could say that’s under five percent of the number of registered voters, and I think that there's a certain percentage of people in this country that have lost their ever-loving minds.
Todd Huff: Now, I've not given up on them. That's one of the reasons we're conservative, not bitter. We come on here, proclaim the truth, try to reach folks who are in this wild state of mind. But I believe that there could be that many.
Todd Huff: Now, other people say it's much less than that. Some people are even estimating under one million people. I'm not going to get into that. You can decide for yourself on that. I don't have an opinion. I believe that there certainly could have been, because again, I think that there are seven million people who would fall for any of this garbage and think that it's the most important thing in the history of their lives to protest and say that Trump's a king and they're trying to stop it and all that sort of stuff.
Todd Huff: A lot of this — a lot of this is rooted in virtue signaling, which is when you try to show the world how virtuous you are by going and protesting things that the narrative says you’ve got to be against.
Todd Huff: This is why, if you ask any of these folks — now, there might be some exceptions — but if you ask a lot of these folks any question whatsoever about what they're protesting, what Trump's ever done to declare himself a king or a dictator, what that even means, you'll find really quickly a lot of these folks have no idea.
Todd Huff: They have no idea. They don't know what they're talking about. Some people can explain — well, they can at least articulate something delusional — but they can at least explain it, even though it’s a straw man, even though it is a delusional argument. It's not here in reality with the rest of us. They can at least verbalize it. But a lot of people can't.
Todd Huff: Now, they've come up with some demographic data of these people who protested. Now, this is from the DC survey — DC Events Survey. Demographic data in that particular event in Washington, DC, is estimated to be: the protesters were estimated to be 86% white. Eighty-six percent white.
Todd Huff: This is whiteness on display. These are white liberals. All that matters — listen, I don't care what the color, the skin color, the ethnicity of the people who were there. It makes no difference to me. What matters to me is the quality of the argument or the content of what they're actually trying to communicate, which is absolute garbage, if you ask me.
Todd Huff: But for the people in the media, people on the left side of the aisle, they are wanting you to believe that the white people in this country are all racists who supported Trump and that the folks who are ethnic or racial minorities are having to defend against Trump's tyranny. But the protesters are 86% white in Washington, DC.
Todd Huff: Fifty-seven percent women. So we're talking about white liberal women. The median age, according to the demographic data that we're seeing here — and I think I found this at RedState, by the way, RedState.com.
Todd Huff: I have every day on the website, if you want to see, we've really spent some time here improving this page. I'm actually pretty happy with it. Every day we post a series of links to articles that are relevant to what we discuss on here. We post the full transcript of the show. We post where you can listen. We post a summary of the show.
Todd Huff: And each page is called The Stack now. It's called The Stack, and you can find it on the website. Again, all this stuff's free. But if you want to read more, dig more into some of this stuff — what I've talked about here — you can find it there.
Todd Huff: I call it The Stack in honor of my personal — I don't want to say hero, but in a sense, just the person I looked up to the most who did this, and that was Rush Limbaugh, who, of course, I try to honor his memory and legacy here on the program from time to time.
Todd Huff: He was wonderful at it. Every day he would bring a stack of papers. Back when he started in 1988, he had to print off or have physical copies of these articles. This was before the digital age hit, so he had a stack of stuff that he was prepared to talk about. This is named in honor of him.
Todd Huff: But if you go there, you'll find The Stack where you can read about this stuff. The average age, the median age of these protesters, is reported to be forty-four years old. So you can say the protesters were very disproportionately white, slightly disproportionately women, and middle-aged.
Todd Huff: So you have middle-aged, white liberal women who are running these No Kings protests — at least in Washington, DC. Now, as I mentioned before, these were largely peaceful.
Todd Huff: Now, when I say largely peaceful, I'm looking at this from a macro level. I'm looking at this from a 30,000-foot level. I'm seeing that they didn't burn cities to the ground — which, unfortunately, in today's world, I have to say kudos to the leftists out there for not setting your cities on fire, for not looting your stores. Let me applaud you here behind the microphone for not doing that.
Todd Huff: That's what I mean. I didn't have to do the “what a protest turns into a riot” bit, which I’ve done on here before, which I enjoy doing — I don’t enjoy why I have to do it, but I enjoy doing it because I have to do it since there literally are riots in our cities that the media call “protests.”
Todd Huff: In fact, Chris Cuomo — I’ll never forget this tough guy — Chris Cuomo, who after leaving CNN has developed a little bit more of a brain on some things, but he's still crazy on some stuff. I’ll never forget when he said, “Where in our Constitution does it say protests have to be peaceful?”
Todd Huff: Well, by definition, Chris, protests are peaceful. If they're not peaceful, they become riots. They become riots! That’s when things like National Guard discussions and deployments and ways to make peace in cities begin to develop and happen, because that's what the result is when you have violence.
Todd Huff:
Violence is not speech, and speech is not violence. Speech can be used to try to incite violence — which it is, oftentimes, at some of these radically deranged riots or protests that are on the verge of becoming a riot. But nonetheless, these were largely peaceful.
Todd Huff: Arrests were minimal. They had some protests in major cities: DC, New York City, Austin, Chicago, San Diego — they’re all over the place. But inside of it, you still found there were people there — some conservatives, grassroots sort of reporters, if you will — who were asking questions. Some of them were certainly dealing with anger and rage and bitterness and a little bit of violence from individual protesters.
Todd Huff: So there was that. I saw videos of that. They don't like to answer questions. They surround people, try to intimidate them, knock their hats off, that sort of stuff. But again, no cities burning to the ground, which I commend. These are big steps of growth for the radical left. We'll see how long this lasts, but at least it lasted for this particular protest.
Todd Huff: Now, this whole thing, as you know, is framed — and the word framed is correct, I think — these are intentional. Think about this as political theater. This is staged. This is framed to look a certain way. It’s supposed to look like a group of grassroots, everyday normal Americans who are rising up to protest the authoritarianism, the tyranny, of one Donald J. Trump that they are supposedly experiencing here in his second term.
Todd Huff: Although they certainly would have said they were experiencing the same thing in his first term. We talked about this a little bit yesterday. But according to this article at RedState, some Democratic senators are privately — and in some cases publicly — expressing concern that the movement’s optics may alienate moderates.
Todd Huff: Well, no kidding. No kidding! You don't think that people who are moderate, who are not brainwashed by the delusional, godless worldview of the radical left, might look at this and think, “What are they protesting?”
Todd Huff: If you think about it, they're protesting the rights of people to be here who are supposed to be deported. They are protesting — well, they’re standing in favor of — they’re standing alongside of people who have allowed violence to exist in these Democrat-run cities.
Todd Huff: They have allowed this. That’s the side these protesters are on. What are they really against with President Trump? As I said before, if Trump was a true king, there would not have been any protest.
Todd Huff: If Trump was a true king, he wouldn’t be fighting anything in court. He would just simply move on, make his declarations, his personal wants be the case, and move on with life. The government would not be shut down if Trump were a king.
Todd Huff: This is silly nonsense, and Democratic senators are just now realizing that maybe people in the middle, maybe people who are not blinded by this — again, this morally bankrupt ideology that fuels the radical left — maybe these folks don’t buy into the narrative, which they're not.
Todd Huff: So, of course, the protest coincided with the continuing government shutdown, and that's where we are. So the Left is beginning to ask questions about this. They're in a tough position.
Todd Huff: I don't feel sorry for them. They've created this. They've created this! And so what they've created is a scenario whereby you have to be deranged or a lunatic to be a part of their base.
Todd Huff: Now, you might be in the middle and vote Democrat because you make a tough decision for yourself at the end. But the people who are out there, who are active and mobile, who are part of this grassroots movement, who have bought into this narrative, who are chanting the chants and whatever they're doing out there — these folks are committed leftists.
Todd Huff: They're angry, they're illogical, they don't want to talk. They want to silence either the people that—if you try to speak at one of their rallies, if you try to ask a question at the rally, they come up with a whistle, a bullhorn. They start screaming. They start telling other people not to take your questions.
Todd Huff: I've seen this all over social media and elsewhere. They don't want to engage. They just simply want to throw their tantrum. And as I think about it, throwing a tantrum is a very, very accurate way to describe what is happening with these protests.
Todd Huff: I bet if you asked ten people what they're protesting now, they might say that Trump — “We’re protesting that Trump’s declared himself a king.” Okay, that’s a talking point. What does that mean?
Todd Huff: I bet there’s hardly any consistency as to what you would get in response. You would probably get — if you asked ten people — ten different answers.
Todd Huff: Now, you might say that’s because, “Todd, there are so many examples.” Okay, you can say that, I guess. I think that’s crazy in and of itself. I think that’s a misunderstanding of what a monarchy is, which we talked about yesterday on the program as well.
Todd Huff: But this is what is going on, and you’ve got the base that they need — the base energized. They need the base energized. They need the base to show up in November.
Todd Huff: In twelve months, they need the base to show up to get them reelected, and from their vantage point, to help them win the majority in the House of Representatives. Maybe, who knows, outside chance — majority in the Senate as well. They just want a majority of one of the houses so that they can stop Trump and his agenda.
Todd Huff: Trump, of course, has doubled, tripled, quadrupled down on doing anything he can — legally, ethically, morally — to give himself an advantage to win, which is why he's calling on states to redistrict. Republican states to redistrict.
Todd Huff: In fact, that’s something that the state of Indiana has gotten some pressure to do. We’ll see where that ends up. But to squeeze as many conservative — or at least Republican — seats out of the maps as possible.
Todd Huff: As I've said before, and I stand by it, the Left has done this for a long time, squeezing as many blue states as possible, in many of their states, from their maps — the way they draw their districts and so forth.
Todd Huff: Now that they've squeezed virtually everything they can out of it, they want to prevent Republicans from doing the same. So they suddenly want a truce on gerrymandering. To that I say, listen — too bad, too sad.
Todd Huff: Republicans should absolutely have serious considerations of redrawing their state maps that put things in their favor. I would not hesitate one bit on this. This is the way that it goes.
Todd Huff: If the voters have a problem with this, they can hold the Republicans responsible for redrawing these districts during the next elections. That’s the way that this can happen.
Todd Huff: Anyway, so that’s what’s going on. They’ve got to get the base riled up, very emotional, so that that carries them through with the energy of these midterm elections. But when they do that, when Democrats do that, they risk the very real possibility that they're going to alienate people in the middle.
Todd Huff: And this is what happens when you create a base that is radical — because in order to speak to that base, you’ve got to speak to them where they are. You’ve got to give them some red meat to go after. And then if the people who are moderate hear this, they’re going to think, “What on earth is going on in the Democratic Party?”
Todd Huff: And so that’s the dilemma that Democrats are facing. Make no mistake about it, this is a real thing. Now, there’ll be other articles, which you'll also find in The Stack, that talk about how this is an advantage for Democrats and so forth.
Todd Huff: I don't think that. I think there are real problems with navigating this and threading this needle. And I think that more and more people are realizing that the Democrats are not a solution to anything — they're actually the problem.
Todd Huff: And I’m happy to say that because they have caused a lot of havoc for this great country.
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Todd Huff: Quick timeout here, my friends. Back in just a minute.
Todd Huff: Welcome back, my friends. Just a couple of loose ends I want to tie up on these new No Kings protests.
First, we’ve already kind of explained the potential political fallout of this. So do you think this is helpful? I mean, I'm guessing the vast majority of you don't agree that this is helpful to the Left. Because what are they really protesting?
Todd Huff: This is like The Boy Who Cried Wolf. We went through that story here in the Huff household with Arch. I’ve got three children — sixteen, fourteen, and eleven — and my son’s the oldest, and then we’ve got two daughters who are younger.
Todd Huff: And we were talking about it. We have a little family Bible study, and we were talking about The Boy Who Cried Wolf. It came up with one of — I think we were studying Proverbs, and it talked about making sure that… well, I can’t remember the verse exactly, but it was talking about being honest and speaking the truth, something along those lines.
Todd Huff: And one of the kids — we start talking about The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and, of course, one of my daughters is incredibly creative, and so she has a name for the boy who cried wolf. I forget what it is. But she started explaining the story because I said, “What is that story? What did we learn from it? Tell the story.”
Todd Huff: So she told the story in ways that only she can. The point is that that’s exactly what the Democrats have been doing. They’ve been crying wolf about the dangers of Donald Trump for so long that people who are reasonable, who may not even like Trump, may not like his politics, at some point begin to say, “What is the real threat here?”
Todd Huff: “I don’t like his policies, but I’m not going to be used as a political pawn to enter into this nonsensical political theater. I'm not going to be going to these protests screaming like a madman and a lunatic, talking about Trump being a dictator simply because he’s enforcing policies and standing for things that I don't agree with.”
Todd Huff: I mean, that's not me saying that. That’s me summarizing what these other folks — middle-of-the-road folks, folks that still have sense, folks that have not completely accepted the godless, morally bankrupt worldview of the radical Left — would be thinking.
Todd Huff: I have a hard time finding how this will be helpful to their cause. Now, the people on the Left want you — they want the people in the middle to see this as a genuinely pro-democracy, anti-authoritarian, grassroots movement of civil disobedience of sorts, or just people involved in the political process, engaging in speech that returns us, restores us to something they want you to believe Trump has taken us away from.
Todd Huff: People on the conservative side of this, the Republican side of this, see this as a bunch of incoherent temper tantrums. I mean, that’s what I see this as. Rejecting — maybe not rejecting, but at least trying to interfere with the outcome of elections.
Todd Huff: They’re trying to prevent Trump and the Republicans from doing what they were clearly elected to do. And it involves, for them — say, conservatives like myself — temper tantrums where they throw themselves… You’ve all seen this, right?
Todd Huff: Many kids do this — not all, but any kid who’s not disciplined will do this. Some kids who are disciplined will still do this from time to time. You’re at the grocery store, you’re at the mall, some store, they see something they want, you tell them no. They begin to make a spectacle.
Todd Huff: I mean, this is exactly what this is — The Boy Who Cried Wolf combined with a childish temper tantrum. That’s what these rallies, these protests, these No Kings protests are.
Todd Huff: They throw themselves on the ground, they kick, they scream, they basically try to manipulate the adult — the parent, typically — into saying, “Fine, just get it. Stop acting like this. You’re embarrassing me.”
Todd Huff: That never worked with my mother, I’ll tell you that. If I threw a temper tantrum as a little kid, it happened once or twice because we’re not going to win that battle with my mother. Yet some people — some kids — never grow up because it works for some people.
Todd Huff: And if it works, you’re encouraged to continue doing it. That, by the way, just FYI, little tidbit here — that’s one of the reasons why losing or suffering defeat is actually one of the best things you can have.
Todd Huff: A great experience, while it may not feel like it at the time, causes you to change your behavior — the things that you're doing — so that you're able to win, you're able to grow.
Todd Huff: But people who have been encouraged and never discouraged from throwing these temper tantrums are out there now, in the streets of our cities, doing that very thing again.
Todd Huff: Again, I don't know the numbers. They say there were seven million. I’m incredibly skeptical of that. I've also seen people who say there weren't more than a million. I'm skeptical of that as well. I don't know. It probably was between those numbers combined that were showing up at these protests.
Todd Huff: But nonetheless, we’ll see if this impacts the midterms. Will this resonate with any people in the middle? Will this only serve to motivate and encourage and light an emotional flame under those who are already sold out to the godless cause of the radical Left? That’s my instinct.
Todd Huff: But hey, we’ll see. Time, my friends, will tell. So that's all I want to say about that today. I want to get into the government shutdown here in just a moment.
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Todd Huff: All right, let's move on here. The government shutdown is now in day number 21 as we’re on October 21. This is one of the longest full government shutdowns in U.S. history.
Todd Huff: The Senate has repeatedly failed to pass a continuing resolution, not because they don't have a majority of senators, but because they don't have a supermajority, which is required — three-fifths, or 60 votes in the Senate — to give an issue to the floor for a vote. It's being filibustered.
Todd Huff: Now, that's what's preventing this. So again, all the people who claim — and this is so superficial and so overly simplified — but you'll hear leftists. I've seen Jasmine Crockett say this. I've seen a lot of people, Bernie Sanders, AOC say something along these lines.
Todd Huff: They say Republicans have the majority. If they have the majority, they can do whatever they want. They didn’t keep the government open; ergo, Republicans don't want the government open. They want it to be shut down. That, of course, is a distortion of reality.
Todd Huff: We've gone through this in previous episodes because Republicans have a majority but they don't have a supermajority. So that means in order to have an issue called to a floor vote — which, by the way, they don’t have to filibuster. There's nothing written that says you have to filibuster every issue.
Todd Huff: You can say, “Let's call this to a vote,” and then when it’s voted on, vote against it. But see, they don’t want to do that because they know Republicans will pass it, which, again, is strategic. But I want to say something that is not — well, it’s just, I probably shouldn’t say it on here, but…
Todd Huff: Don't try to convince us that you're fighting to keep the government open when quite literally your vote was to keep the government closed when you voted against the continuing resolution.
Todd Huff: National Nuclear Security Administration has furloughed 1,400 workers. Treasury estimates that there is a $15 billion per week economic hit, an economic loss, because of the shutdown.
Todd Huff: The Republicans are internally discussing, debating, a longer stopgap bill. Remember, their first bill was supposed to take us through November 20 or something. I forget the exact date now, but it was seven weeks. Seven weeks from the start of this shutdown, so it would have taken us through around getting close to Thanksgiving.
Todd Huff: Now there’s talk of having this stopgap bill go longer into 2026 to buy time to handle the real negotiation. Remember, all the Republicans are trying to do is say, “We’re going to keep the government open at current levels, and then we’ll negotiate all these other things that Democrats are wanting to negotiate now. We'll negotiate those during that period between when the government reopens and the ultimate deadline — whatever deadline they choose for that next continuing resolution to come to an end.”
Todd Huff: I've come to the end, my friends, of this segment. Sit tight. You're listening to Conservative, Not Bitter, Talk. I'm your host Todd Huff. Back in just a minute.
Todd Huff: Welcome back, my friends. Third and final segment of today's program. Oz just told me during the break — Oz just told me that the boy who cried wolf's name, according to our eldest daughter when she retells the story, his name was Jeremy.
Todd Huff: That's what she said. She said, “Now listen, I'm sorry if your name’s Jeremy out there.” But she said that just sounds like something Jeremy would do. I don't know why. She doesn’t even know a Jeremy, she said. But yeah, she's got some strong feelings about that. Anyway…
Todd Huff: So last segment here, I want to again put the shutdown — I just kind of wanted to give you an update on that last segment. I mentioned off the top that I wanted to get to a court ruling in the Ninth Circuit, and that's what I want to get to this segment — a court ruling in the Ninth Circuit.
Todd Huff: First of all, it's a little bit surprising to me, given that the Ninth Circuit Court — I think Rush used to call it the “Ninth Circus Court,” just a leftist court — but they voted two to one to effectively lift the block. Boy, this is a little hard to explain, but basically the lower courts said that they were enforcing an injunction that would prevent the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard to Portland.
Todd Huff: The Ninth Circuit Court heard this and they voted to lift the injunction. So they didn't say outright that the Trump administration won this argument. They basically said we're lifting the injunction, which opens up the door, at least for a period of time, for Trump to do this very thing where he could actually, in theory, send the National Guard into Portland. Maybe he will. I don't know.
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Todd Huff: All right, so let's talk about this really quickly. The District Court in Portland initially issued two temporary restraining orders blocking the federalization of the Oregon National Guard and any deployment of Guard troops into Portland.
Todd Huff: Then yesterday, the Ninth Circuit panel voted two to one. They issued a stay of the first temporary restraining order — the federalization block. So they issued a stay, basically saying that the ruling by the lower court that prevented Trump from federalizing the Oregon National Guard was temporarily lifted.
Todd Huff: So there’s nothing, according to current court rulings, preventing that right now. The majority said, quote, “It was likely the President lawfully exercised authority under” — and then there’s some legal mumbo jumbo here, the code and so forth — that he exercised his authority.
Todd Huff: This would temporarily, or it does temporarily, allow President Trump to federalize the Guard, but does not permit deployment because the second temporary restraining order is still in effect, which prevents the deployment of Guard troops into Portland.
Todd Huff: This can be confusing. That’s my current understanding of this, as many issues are today in this politically volatile world that we’re living in. That’s where we find ourselves. That's my understanding of where this stands right now.
It's an active case. The panel’s decision is not final. The full Ninth Circuit may rehear this case en banc.
Todd Huff: And the dissent — there was one judge in this particular case — said that allowing federalization, quote, “risks eroding constitutional boundaries between state and federal authorities.” So as with most things, we’ll see where this ends up, my friends.
Todd Huff: But this is at least a temporary victory, especially in a very unlikely place, for President Trump and his authority — his discretion to use National Guard troops, to federalize them, and to help protect and clean up some of these cities. And that's the issue.
Todd Huff: I don't have a lot of time here, but it is remarkable to me — I mean, I understand. I've been a conservative for a long, long time. I have been a guy that is in favor of limited government for a long, long time, and I'm still a guy who’s in favor of limited government.
Todd Huff: But limited government does not mean that there is no federal authority or that the president doesn’t have constitutional discretion and powers that he can execute and use in situations like this.
Todd Huff: We went through this a little bit yesterday on the program, talking about how the founders framed the Constitution and that government is force — and that the executive branch has a certain amount of power, that it can actually put some meat behind some of these things.
Todd Huff: So it's just bizarre and wild to me to stand for the lawlessness and crime that we have in some of these cities. But I'm out of time here. Got to go. Thanks for listening, SDG.
Todd Huff: So just to wrap this up, friends — the Ninth Circuit’s action doesn’t mean that Trump “won” outright, but it’s a step toward restoring some measure of sanity in how the law gets interpreted. The fact that the so-called “Ninth Circus” acknowledged any lawful authority for Trump is a huge moment. It reminds us that even liberal courts can occasionally stumble into constitutionality.
Todd Huff: And that, my friends, shows how far off course things have gone. It used to be normal for courts to recognize a president’s ability to protect the public. Now it’s treated like some scandalous overreach. What does that say about our culture? About our commitment to law and order?
Todd Huff: Look, limited government means there are boundaries — but it also means there are legitimate functions. Protecting citizens from riots, keeping order in our cities, that’s part of the federal government’s role. It’s not tyranny. It’s leadership.
Todd Huff: Yet the Left twists everything. If Trump acts, he’s a dictator; if he doesn’t act, they say he’s weak or negligent. You can’t win with people whose worldview is built on emotional reaction instead of reason.
Todd Huff: And honestly, this ruling — even though small — gives hope that maybe, just maybe, there are still judges out there who can rise above the narrative and look at the law. And that’s what we’ve been saying here for years: Truth still matters. Facts still matter. You can only ignore reality for so long before it bites you.
Todd Huff: Now, to those who think this will suddenly turn Portland around — let’s be realistic. The city’s leadership, and many others like it, have allowed chaos to thrive. You can’t fix that overnight. But when the federal government says, “We’re not going to let mob rule stand forever,” that’s a good start.
Todd Huff: This country is stronger than the noise. We’re still a people that believe in law, in family, in faith — even if we don’t shout as loudly as the radicals. That’s the heart of being conservative, not bitter. We don’t scream; we build. We don’t burn down; we restore.
Todd Huff: And that’s what I want to leave you with today, my friends. Amid all the noise — the protests, the media, the shutdown, the court rulings — don’t lose sight of the truth. America is still worth defending. Common sense is still common somewhere out there. And as long as we keep speaking up, that truth will cut through.
Todd Huff: I’m grateful for you listening, for sharing, for reading The Stack, for joining the Inner Circle. You make this possible. And if you’re new to this program — welcome home.
Todd Huff: We’ll keep standing for truth, for liberty, and for good humor in the process. That’s what being conservative, not bitter, is all about.
Todd Huff: Friends, that’s about all the time I’ve got today, but I just want to close with this thought. If you’re tired of the noise, tired of the drama, tired of seeing your country dragged through the mud by people who claim to be saving it while they’re tearing it apart — don’t lose hope.
Todd Huff: We’re seeing cracks in the narrative. The “No Kings” crowd can yell all they want, but the American people still have common sense. They see the hypocrisy. They see the media play along like it’s all grassroots, when really it’s organized outrage with a PR team behind it.
Todd Huff: And the Democrats? They’ve boxed themselves in. They need the radical base to stay loud and angry, but every time that base shows its face, moderates run for the hills. You can’t build a winning coalition when your message sounds like a tantrum.
Todd Huff: Meanwhile, Trump keeps gaining ground — not because he’s perfect, not because everyone loves his tweets, but because he’s standing in the gap between chaos and order. Between globalism and America First. Between the loud and the logical.
Todd Huff: And as for the rest of us? We’ve got to stay engaged — not bitter, not cynical, but engaged. Speak truth. Vote smart. Be salt and light in your communities.
Todd Huff: Because if we don’t, the people screaming in the streets, the ones carrying those “No Kings” signs while living under the delusion that freedom means getting their way all the time — they’ll fill that void.
Todd Huff: And I, for one, refuse to let that happen.
Todd Huff: So sign up for the newsletter — InnerCircle.ToddHuffShow.com. Stay informed, stay grounded, and remember what we always say around here: We’re conservative, not bitter.
Todd Huff: That’s it for today, my friends. Thank you for listening, as always. I appreciate your time, your trust, your good humor, and even your occasional tolerance of my sarcasm.
Todd Huff: Until next time, take care of yourselves. Be strong, be faithful, and don’t fall for the tantrums. You are the remnant of common sense in an age of emotional chaos.
Todd Huff: I’m Todd Huff — this is Conservative, Not Bitter, Talk. Have a great day, my friends.
Todd Huff: SDG.
