U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the day of a "One Big Beautiful" event at the White House in Washington, DC., U.S., June 26, 2025. REUTERS/Nathan Howard

President Donald Trump is now finding fewer support from Republican state attorneys general (AGs) over his controversial deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago, Illinois.

Newsweek reported Thursday that while Trump had 22 Republican AGs sign onto an amicus (meaning "friend of the court") brief in support of deploying the National Guard to Washington D.C. filed in September, a new amicus brief has just 18 signatures from his own party's top law enforcement officials. The D.C. amicus brief had the backing of AGs from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and West Virginia.

But according to Newsweek's Robert Alexander, the Illinois amicus brief is missing the signatures of AGs from North Dakota's Drew Wrigley, Ohio's Dave Yost and Virginia's Jason Miyares. Alexander wrote that the absence of their names may signal the "first visible crack" in what had typically been a "united GOP front" backing Trump's "expansive view of presidential power."

"While the two filings use nearly identical legal arguments, the smaller roster suggests that some Republican legal officers are unwilling to endorse federal troops entering a state that didn’t request them, exposing quiet unease within the party’s legal ranks over the limits of Trump’s authority," he wrote.

Typically, a president can only deploy National Guard troops to a state if that state's governor explicitly requests it. 10 U.S.C. §12406 gives the president the power to do so in order to "execute the laws of the United States." But since Illinois Governor JB Pritzker never made such a request of Trump, that presidential power does not apply. Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee was not challenged despite opposition from Mayor Paul Young (D), as Governor Bill Lee (R) made the request.

The governor's legal team made a similar argument before a federal court earlier this week after Trump sent the Texas National Guard to Chicago, and said in September that he planned to take the administration to court in the event Trump sent the guard to the Prairie State against his wishes.

The Department of Justice is expected to soon file its response to Illinois' challenge. And regardless of how U.S. District Judge April Perry (appointed by former President Joe Biden) rules in the case, either side could appeal the decision to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Click here to read Newsweek's full report.