'These animals proudly carry other countries' flags but only burn the American flag': Trump condemns 'foreign invasion' as he prepares full anti-immigration assault on five US cities and LA enters lockdown

Daily Mail​

a day ago

Donald Trump told army soldiers at Fort Bragg yesterday that Los Angeles has been invaded by 'animals burning the American flag' as he defended his decision to deploy thousands of National Guard troops to quell protests against ICE arrests.
The US President was at the North Carolina military base to recognise the 250th anniversary of the US Army, but spent much of the speech railing against 'foreign enemies' trying to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from detaining immigrants.
'What you're witnessing in California is a full blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty... with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country. We're not gonna let that happen,' he said.
'We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That's what they are.
'These are animals, but they proudly carry the flags of other countries, but they don't carry the American flag. They only burn it.'
The president went on to call LA 'a trash heap' with 'entire neighborhoods under control' of criminals, adding the government would 'use every asset at our disposal to quell the violence and restore law and order.'
'We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again,' Trump said.
The ICE raids have sparked protests that brought Los Angeles to its knees, leading the mayor to introduce a lockdown from 8pm to 6am.
But Trump is now set to deploy yet more ICE agents to five Democrat-run cities for sweeping arrests.
The military-style units are set to storm New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia and northern Virginia, MSNBC reported. Four of those five are heavily blue cities, while northern Virginia contains the Democrat enclave of Alexandria.
The reports came as California governor Gavin Newsom last night delivered a harrowing prediction for the rest of the country as he blasted Trump's deployment of troops to LA in a nationally televised address.
'Look, this isn't just about protests here in Los Angeles, when Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard. He made that order apply to every state in this nation,' Newsom said, as he teared up.
'This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived.'
US President Donald Trump addresses a crowd of servicemen and women during a celebration open to the public in honor of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army on June 10, 2025 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Donald Trump is set to deploy ICE tactical units to five Democrat-run areas after the riots in Los Angeles have put the city on lockdown
Newsom accused Trump of 'taking a wrecking ball to our founding fathers' historic project' of three co-equal branches of government.
He blamed the federal government for the ongoing crisis in LA and issued a chilling warning that chaos could soon engulf other states too.
'Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves, but they do not stop there,' Newsom warned.
'This is a president who in just over 140 days, has fired government watchdogs that could hold him accountable, accountable for corruption and fraud. He's declared a war, a war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself. Databases, quite literally, are vanishing.'
DailyMail.com reached out to the White House for a response.
Some of what has happened in Los Angeles has spread to the rest of the country.
In New York, at least 45 people were arrested Tuesday as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets near Foley Square in Manhattan, The New York Post reported.
The NYPD ordered a level three authorization against the marchers, many of whom also carried Palestinian flags in addition to signs calling for the abolishment of ICE.
Police pepper sprayed some of the demonstrators, while they threw water bottles at officers.
The city's Public Advocate Jumaane Williams - second in line to the mayor's office - spoke in favor of peaceful demonstrations.
Demonstrators smash the windshield of a vehicle next to a burning Waymo vehicle as protesters clash with law enforcement in the streets surrounding the federal building during a protest following federal immigration operations in Los Angeles, California
Thousands of protesters also took to the streets of downtown Chicago, vandalizing cars and clashing with police on Tuesday.
A driver plowed into a group of protesters in the Loop, striking at least one pedestrian, as thousands marched through downtown Chicago protesting the Trump administration's ongoing immigration raids.
The driver was stuck between police vehicles on State Street. Officers wanted to guide her away from the crowd and asked her to turn right on Monroe Street, but she ignored their orders and turned left, speeding into the crowd.
No information was available at the driver and its not clear the extent of any injuries suffered, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
In Portland, a small group of protesters set up camp outside an ICE facility and said they weren't leaving until their claims were addressed, KGW reported.
Tons of marchers were also seen in the liberal city of Austin in deep red Texas.
And in Atlanta, video showed protesters throwing fireworks at police officers as tear gas was seen being deployed.
Newsom did briefly chastise protesters, whom he warned will be put in jail, during the speech trashing Trump as the state's biggest city goes on lockdown.
The riot-ravaged Downtown area will be a no-go zone from 8pm to 6am on Tuesday and will continue indefinitely after violent demonstrators set fire to cars, looted buildings and attacked officers with rocks, fireworks and cement bricks in harrowing scenes of destruction.
LAPD squads in riot gear began storming the streets immediately surrounding the Federal Building on Los Angeles St. in downtown Los Angeles shortly after Mayor Karen Bass's 8pm curfew went into effect.
Police cars blocked off streets and uniformed officers fast marched to the location. Agitators were forced back half a block from the location but still swarmed the area.
The intense tactical operation continued as officers, including mounted police, created so-called skirmish lines to push rioters away from other federal buildings on the same block.
DailyMail.com witnessed cars with their lights off pulling up a block away. Four agitators wearing matching black hoodies and face masks piled out of each vehicle and began moving towards the lines of police.
Despite the curfew order having been called, some protestors - waving flags and yelling - defiantly stared down police who watched on and stood their ground rather than make arrests.
One protestor, a man aged in his early 20s with a Mexican flag draped over his shoulders, told Daily Mail: 'I know my own rights and am willing to be arrested unjustly. I have a right to be here and protest.'
People began chanting and cheering as motorcyclist performed donuts and burnouts in front of officers. White LAPD buses arrived on scene at 8:50pm as officers made plans to make arrests.
A tipping point was reached at 9:05pm as police began making arrests outside the Federal Building.
About a dozen people were arrested by cops and made to face a wall with their hands behind their backs and tied with zip ties before being marched on a white LAPD bus.
Bizarrely, public buses still operated two blocks away from the dramatic scene.
Bass said the curfew is expected to last several days and will encompass a square mile radius around the epicenter of the violence in Downtown LA.
'If you do not live or work in downtown LA avoid the area. Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted,' Bass said.
For five days now, rioters have wreaked havoc on communities as they railed against Trump 's efforts to rid the city of illegal migrants.
They were only further enraged when Trump gave orders to send 700 Marines and 4,100 National Guard troops in to take over policing efforts and assist the LAPD.
Bass revealed at least 23 businesses have been looted during the ongoing violence and condemned some of the horrifying images which have emerged from the days of carnage.
But Bass said the curfew was contained to where the violence was most apparent, noting: 'Some of the imagery of the protests and the violence gives the appearance as though this is a city wide crisis and is not.'
She hopes that by imposing a curfew and declaring a local emergency, she can 'stop the vandalism, stop the looting.'
'A curfew has been in consideration for several days, but clearly after the violence that took place last night and just the extensive widespread nature of the vandalism, we reached a tipping point.'
While Bass refrained from locking down the entire Downtown, the LAPD has this week repeatedly issued alerts listing Downtown Los Angeles as 'unlawful assembly' zones in an effort to rid the area of any and all protesters.
The regions impacted by the lockdown span from the five freeway to the 110 freeway, and from the 10 freeway to the point where the 110 and the five merge.
The development comes as Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to stop the LA rioters, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the United States to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations.
'If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We'll see. But I can tell you, last night was terrible. The night before that was terrible,' Trump said.
He repeatedly referred to 'bad, sick people' and 'agitators' he said were paid to wreak havoc.
'There are certainly areas of Los Angeles you could have called it an insurrection,' Trump said. It was terrible.'
A curfew is the natural next step in efforts toward regaining control of the city, as the LAPD ramps up arrests and cracks down on protesters breaching unlawful assembly orders.
Hordes of protesters were zip-tied and forced onto LAPD buses en masse as authorities sought to bring an end to days of chaos and destruction.
LAPD chief Jim McDonnell said protests had grown more violent as the week progressed.
There were just 27 arrests on Sunday, with 40 on Sunday, 114 on Monday and nearly 200 by 6pm on Tuesday.
He said public safety personnel, journalists and homeless people would be exempt from the order.
The arrival of Trump's military reinforcements brought its own set of challenges on Tuesday, with furious Governor Newsom filing an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order.
'I just filed an emergency motion to block Trump's illegal deployment of Marines and National Guard in Los Angeles,' he said on X.
'Trump is turning the U.S. military against American citizens. The courts must immediately block these illegal actions.'
The state said the order would 'prevent the use of federalized National Guard and active duty Marines for law enforcement purposes on the streets of a civilian city.'
'Federal antagonization, through the presence of soldiers in the streets, has already caused real and irreparable damage to the City of Los Angeles, the people who live there, and the State of California,' the filing stated. 'They must be stopped, immediately.'
A judge denied the motion and instead granted the Trump administration an extension of time to respond to Newsom's filing.
The federal government now has until 2pm on Wednesday to file its response. Newsom will then have an opportunity to file its opposition ahead of a hearing at 1.30pm Thursday.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles will cost at least $134 million and last 60 days.
'We stated very publicly that it's 60 days because we want to ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we're not going anywhere,' he said.
'Thankfully, unlike the previous administration, we've got a 13 percent increase in our defense budget, and we will have the capability to cover down on contingencies, which is something the National Guard and the Marines plan for.
'So we have the funding to cover down on contingencies, especially ones as important as maintaining law and order in a major American city. As far as training, all of the units on the ground have been fully trained in their capabilities of what they're executing on the ground.'