Trump orders thousands more troops to Los Angeles despite police warnings
The moves escalates a military presence that local officials and California governor Gavin Newsom do not want and the police chief says creates logistical challenges for safely handling protests.
An initial 2,000 Guard troops ordered by Mr Trump started arriving on Sunday, which saw the most violence during three days of protests driven by anger over the Republican's stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are breaking apart migrant families.
Monday's demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention centre where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city.
Mr Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and Mr Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. They say he is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they do not need the help.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was confident in the police department's ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the Marines' arrival without coordinating with the police department would present a 'significant logistical and operational challenge' for them.
Mr Newsom called the deployments reckless and 'disrespectful to our troops' in a post on the social platform X.
'This isn't about public safety,' Mr Newsom said. 'It's about stroking a dangerous President's ego.'
U.S. Marines serve a valuable purpose for this country — defending democracy. They are not political pawns.
The Secretary of Defense is illegally deploying them onto American streets so Trump can have a talking point at his parade this weekend.
It's a blatant abuse of power.…
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 10, 2025
The protests began on Friday in downtown Los Angeles after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city.
The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown on Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening on Monday in several other cities including San Francisco and Santa Ana in California and Dallas and Austin in Texas.
In Austin, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a post on X that more than a dozen protesters were arrested, while in Santa Ana, a spokesperson for the city's police department said the National Guard had arrived in the city to secure federal buildings.
California attorney general Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters in his announcement that Mr Trump had 'trampled' the state's sovereignty.
'We don't take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilising California National Guard troops,' Mr Bonta said. He sought a court order declaring Mr Trump's use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment.
US officials said the Marine troops were deployed to protect federal property and personnel, including federal immigration agents.
Mr Trump's Monday order put more National Guard members on active duty, but one US official warned that the order was just signed and it could take a day or two to get troops moving. T
Despite their presence, there has been limited engagement so far between the Guard and protesters while local law enforcement implements crowd control.
Ms Bass criticised the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines as a 'deliberate attempt' by the Trump administration to 'create disorder and chaos in our city'.
She made a plea to the federal government: 'Stop the raids.'
On Monday, thousands flooded the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for arrested labour leader David Huerta, who was freed a few hours later on a 50,000 dollar bond.
Mr Huerta's arrest on Friday while protesting agaisnt immigration raids has become a rallying cry for people angry over the administration's crackdown. He is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state's janitors, security officers and other workers.
Early protests had a calm and even joyful atmosphere at times, with people dancing to live music and buoyed by Huerta's release.
Protesters linked hands in front of a line of police officers outside the downtown federal detention centre where Mr Huerta was being held. Religious leaders joined the protesters, working with organisers at times to de-escalate moments of tension.
There was a heavy law enforcement presence in the few square blocks including the federal detention facility, while most in the immense city of some 4 million people went about their normal business on peaceful streets.
Chanting against a line of National Guard troops with Homeland Security officers behind them surrounding the federal buildings ramped up in the afternoon as people yelled, 'Free them all!' and 'National Guard go away'.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
American carnage revisited as Trump plays president of permanent emergency
Donald Trump was hundreds of miles away from the White House on Tuesday, visiting one the country's most venerable military bases, Fort Bragg in North Carolina, partly to big-up Saturday's forthcoming celebration of America's armed might in Washington – a parade spectacular ostensibly held in honor of the US armed forces' birthday. But also his own. With a new setting came the chance for a new theme. Instead the president chose an old one – American carnage. It was the same discordant melody he had gone off on in his memorably dark first inauguration speech of January 2017, prompting George W Bush – who has kept an otherwise sphinx-like silence on things Trumpian in recent years – to murmur that it was 'some weird shit'. Given the martial setting, it would have been worthier, though unquestionably duller, to hum a tune of virtue and valor. But with Los Angeles, long his favourite city whipping boy, in the spotlight – by dint of his having dispatched 4,000 national guards troops there on dubious pretext to confront protesters against his immigration roundups – there was never a chance of that. Confrontation on the streets of what is sometimes called Tinseltown but is more noted by the president's Maga followers as the capital of 'woke' handed Trump the chance to adopt his most favoured posture – the president of permanent emergency. Having used economic emergency powers to adopt, against all sound advice, tariffs, and other legislation designed to be applied only in wartime to unleash the furies on undocumented migrants, he now had the perfect setting to expound on the extraordinary measures he planned to take against domestic unrest. 'I want to say a few words about the situation in Los Angeles, California,' he told his audience of uniformed active servicemen. Context and setting, you understood, was everything here. What were once considered policing matters would require, not to put too fine a point on it, military solutions. 'The police in LA, who are very good, but they weren't aggressive, like our soldiers. Our soldiers really were aggressive,' he said. Weird shit indeed. The national guard and active Marine Corps deployments in LA, he strongly hinted, would not be the last. 'I will be calling you early, as I see this happening,' he said, expanding his horizons to other settings, taking the opportunity to target Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota – running mate of Kamala Harris, Trump's defeated Democratic opponent in last year's presidential election. 'Because, you know, in theory,' he said, warming – revealingly – to his theme, 'I guess you could say a governor could call, but they don't call. They let their city burn, like in Minneapolis.' Walz, Trump went, had refused to deploy the national guard in Minneapolis after violence flared in the city amid protests in 2020 following the murder of a Black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer, Derek Chauvin. 'I called the guard and I saved it, but I wish I would have called it the first day,' he said. In fact, local media reports say records confirm that it was Walz who called in the national guard. But no matter, Trump had made his intent clear. The US military – buoyed with its new $1tn budget announced in Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' and a pay rise announced in his speech – had a new enemy, and it lay inside America's borders. Those troops on duty on the streets of Los Angeles were setting the template others could honorably follow. 'Not only are these service members defending the honor of citizens of California, they're also defending our republic itself,' he said. 'And they are heroes. They're fighting for us. They're stopping an invasion, just like you'd stop an invasion. The big difference is, most of the time when you stop an invasion, they're wearing a uniform. In many ways. It's tougher when they're not wearing a uniform, because you don't know exactly who they are.' For Gavin Newsom, California's Democratic governor, and Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, there was some ominous 'enemy within' language of the type Trump resorted to on last year's campaign trail. 'They're incompetent, and they paid troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists,' he said. 'They're engaged in this willful attempt to nullify federal law and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders.' It was a tour of Trump's darkest horizons – all the bleaker for being leavened with a comical parting serenade. As he exited the stage, the PA boomed out his favorite anthem, the Village People's YMCA. The president drew the biggest cheer of the day from the watching troops by playful indulging in his trademark little dance, culled from distant memories of late nights at Studio 54. Then he waddled off stage, like some aging dystopian disco king.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
The Documentary Podcast No, there isn't a ‘white genocide' in South Africa
On 12 May, 59 Afrikaners arrived in Washington to receive 'refugee' status. At a press conference, President Trump said he had acted because Afrikaners - the white minority community that ruled South Africa during apartheid - face an existential threat. His words echoed the views of his South African born former adviser, Elon Musk, who has repeatedly used his X platform to amplify false claims of a 'white genocide'. Many South Africans, including several Afrikaners that we have spoken to, dismiss the idea that they are under attack as wild misinformation. So where does the idea that white South Africans are being uniquely targeted come from? And what impact is it having on the diplomatic relationship between the White House and Pretoria? This episode of The Documentary, comes to you from BBC Trending in-depth reporting on the world of social media.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Hillary Clinton turns comments off after posting her take on LA riots
Hillary Clinton turned off comments after she fired a post to X condemning Donald Trump for deploying the National Guard to what she called 'peaceful demonstrations' in Los Angeles. The former Secretary of State and First Lady slammed Trump in the Tuesday afternoon post. ' California Governor Newsom didn't request the National Guard be deployed to his state following peaceful demonstrations. Trump sent them anyway. It's the first time in 60 years a president has made that choice,' she wrote. 'Trump's goal isn't to keep Californians safe. His goal is to cause chaos, because chaos is good for Trump,' she added. Many noted that Clinton turned off the comments on her post, not allowing anyone to reply to her opinion. However, they could still quote tweet and expressed their displeasure with the one-time Democrat nominee for president. 'A public figure and a fraud like herself shouldn't be able to lock her replies,' wrote one, tagging X CEO Elon Musk at the end. 'Turn on your replies. Let the world really see what we think about what you've got to say,' wrote another. Another asked: 'Ever notice that only leftists disable comments?' 'Nothing shouts accountability like limiting comments,' added another conservative. One more questioner asked what was on everyone's mind: 'Why are you hiding from comments?' Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revealed the military will stay in Los Angeles for 60 days to combat violent 'rioters, looters and thugs'' during the immigration riots. The chaos began on Friday when anti-ICE protesters seized on a handful of police raids across the city, taking to the streets to burn cars and march against what they say are unfair deportations. Local business owners are outraged as destructive looters continue to target downtown stores as the protests rage on. President Donald Trump is deploying another 2,000 National Guard troops, along with 700 Marines, to LA today after Monday marked a fourth day of destructive protests. California has filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters that Trump had 'trampled' the state's sovereignty. Trump claims the city would have been 'completely obliterated' if he had not deployed the Guard. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass appeared to threaten the looming World Cup as she begged Trump not to deport more migrants on Tuesday. Bass, speaking at a press conference, said the city's economy will 'collapse' if Trump deports more illegal migrants, and taunted him: 'Don't you want the World Cup to be a success for you?' She insisted the city is not 'in flames' but slammed vandals spraying graffiti and destroying businesses.
