More importantly, asylum seekers are seeking to turn themselves over to immigration officials at the border to begin their claims, not run away from them. What Trump’s stunt could also do is set up the administration for litigation, because when has Trump ever been cautious of the law: “A post-Civil War law explicitly prohibits the use of military troops for law enforcement, and a host of laws and Defense Department regulations have extended that law to further clarify that troops cannot be used to participate in activities such as making arrests and conducting searches, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis”:

Past presidents haven't tested these boundaries and therefore courts have not weighed in, though the Trump administration has thus far not answered explicitly whether it will keep troops from performing immigration enforcement duties. In a call with congressional staff after the deployment was announced Wednesday an administration staffer said the issue was being looked at. In a call with reporters, another official said lawyers were examining it. "Lots of different options are available in terms of lawful and appropriate ways to utilize the National Guard and other state and federal resources," the official said.

Or maybe spend more time finding more “appropriate ways” for Border Patrol agents, the actual immigration enforcement agents paid by U.S. tax dollars, to do their jobs. As Trump is claiming the border and Border Patrol agents are under siege, Border Patrol agents have spent their time stalking a 10-year-old Texas girl with cerebral palsy after emergency gallbladder surgery, detaining vetted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, and destroying jugs of water left by humanitarian groups for migrants dying in the searing border desert. Oh, there’s definitely a danger at the border, but it’s not asylum seekers.

Of course, Trump doesn’t really care about what the National Guard does when they get to the border, how they’ll spend their time, if they’re bored, or how our resources—or any taxpayer resources, for that matter—will be spent. As columnist Charles M. Blow wrote earlier this week, "Trump is afraid of abandonment, so he tosses his base red meat." This is the red meat, still bloodied and raw. He can boast about sending troops to the border to stop the nonexistent invasion, his base will believe he stopped the nonexistent invasion, and Trump can continue on to a Trump-branded golf resort for the weekend.