LOS ANGELES _ The awkward dance between California Gov. Jerry Brown and the federal government over the National Guard jerked back toward discord on Thursday, when President Donald Trump said he would refuse to pay for a new deployment of troops _ just hours after his administration said otherwise.
Trump called Brown's decision to approve 400 troops for a mission focused on combatting transnational crime and drug a "charade" in a tweet. "We need border security and action, not words!" the president wrote.
There was no immediate reaction from Brown, whose administration believes the agreement was completed on Wednesday. A spokesman pointed to a tweet written Wednesday night by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, thanking the California governor for his efforts.
Brown was the last of the nation's border governors to respond to Trump's insistence earlier this month that National Guard troops were needed to assist with immigration-related duties at the U.S.-Mexico border. And he has consistently refused to allow California troops to engage in any mission related to federal immigration law.
"This will not be a mission to build a new wall," Brown wrote last week to Nielsen and Defense Secretary James N. Mattis. "It will not be a mission to round up women and children or detain people escaping violence and seeking a better life."
