Trump mortifies reporter with scathing remark on why he was picked for interview
President Trump humiliated ABC's Terry Moran by revealing why he picked him for 'the break of a lifetime' in getting to interview him on his 100th day in office.
The commander-in-chief put the senior national correspondent in his place during a tense exchange in which Moran challenged him about suspected MS-13 tattoos on deported illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
'Hey, they're giving you the big break of a lifetime, you know you're doing the interview,' Trump said. 'I picked you because frankly, I never heard of you.
'I picked you, but you're not being very nice,' he complained.
The 78-year-old president's comments ended the heated discussion on Abrego Garcia's problematic tattoos.
Abrego Garcia became known after his national-headline deportation from Maryland to his native El Salvador, where he has been locked up since March 15.
Trump brought up the knuckle tattoos on the man's hand, which were purportedly a subtle indication of being a part of the violent Mara Salvatrucha gang.
'Wait a minute, he had 'MS-13' on his knuckles,' Trump said, referring to tattoos on Abrego Garcia's left hand.
'Oh, he had some tattoos that were interpreted that way,' Moran interjected before trying to ask another question.
Abrego Garcia's tattoos in question were sketched on the back left hand — a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, a cross, and a skull.
Some interpreted the random symbols to be a pictorial for 'M S 1 3.'
Moran attempted to change the topic, but Trump persisted in correcting Moran.
'Wait a minute, Terry, Terry, don't do that. It says MS-13,' he said, referring to the graphic released by the White House to explain the meaning of Abrego Garcia's ink.
Moran said the actual lettering on the graphic was photoshopped, despite the president's best efforts to explain himself.
'That was photoshopped? Terry, you can't do that,' Trump said before tearing into the outlet's senior national correspondent, calling him an unknown.
At other points in the interview, Moran had questioned Trump's deportation of suspected gang members without hearings.
'The law is the law,' Moran pressed, but the president insisted that a 'legal process' is being followed.
'They get whatever my lawyers say,' Trump said of the legal rights his administration is affording deportees.
Moran again brought up Abrego Garcia, whom Trump called dangerous.
'This is an MS-13 gang member, a tough cookie, been in lots of skirmishes, beat the hell out of his wife,' Trump said.
Abrego Garcia's wife applied for a protective order against him in 2021 after he allegedly physically abused her.
'OK? This is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland,' he added.
Moran distanced himself from the conversation, saying he was 'not saying [Abrego Garcia] is a good guy.'
'It's about the rule of law,' the ABC host continued.
Tensions heated up again when Moran pressed Trump on whether he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin.
'I don't trust you,' Trump said. 'I don't trust a lot of people.'
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The Australian
35 minutes ago
- The Australian
The White House marching orders that sparked the LA migrant crackdown
Even with the high-profile arrests of suspects by masked immigration agents and the plane loads of migrants swiftly ferried out of the US, President Trump was falling short of the number of daily deportations carried out by the Biden administration in its final year. So in late May, Stephen Miller, a top White House aide and the architect of the president's immigration agenda, addressed a meeting at the headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. The message was clear: The president, who promised to deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, wasn't pleased. The agency had better step it up. Gang members and violent criminals, what Trump called the 'worst of the worst,' weren't the sole target of deportations. Federal agents needed to 'just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,' Miller told top ICE officials, who had come from across the US, according to people familiar with the meeting. Agents didn't need to develop target lists of immigrants suspected of being in the US illegally, a longstanding practice, Miller said. Instead, he directed them to target Home Depot, where day laborers typically gather for hire, or 7-Eleven convenience stores. Miller bet that he and a handful of agents could go out on the streets of Washington, D.C., and arrest 30 people right away. 'Who here thinks they can do it?' Miller said, asking for a show of hands. ICE agents appeared to follow Miller's tip and conducted an immigration sweep Friday at the Home Depot in the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Westlake in Los Angeles, helping set off a weekend of protests around Los Angeles County, including at the federal detention center in the city's downtown. On Saturday, Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to Southern California, despite objections by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Protesters hold up a sign near police in riot gear outside the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in Santa Ana, California. Picture: AFP Law-enforcement officers used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang stun grenades against increasingly unruly crowds. Demonstrators threw tree branches, scooters, fireworks and debris from a freeway overpass onto police vehicles below. The unrest continued Monday and roughly 700 Marines were dispatched to protect federal property and personnel. 'To do this in militaristic gear in L.A. is intended to notch up the image of deportations being in high gear,' said Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute. 'But the actual deportations are paltry compared with the imagery.' Since Miller's meeting with ICE officials, daily arrests have risen, according to ICE officials. There are no written directives, but officers have been told to 'do what you need to do' to make more arrests, according to current and former ICE officials familiar with the directives. The administration's immigration enforcement is a sharp break with past government practices, according to attorneys, immigration advocates and officials from previous administrations. Federal agents make warrantless arrests. Masked agents take people into custody without identifying themselves. Plainclothes agents in at least a dozen cities have arrested migrants who showed up to their court hearings. And across the US, people suspected of being in the country illegally are disappearing into the federal detention system without notice to families or lawyers, according to attorneys, witnesses and officials. In Coral Springs, Fla., at least eight agents in tactical gear, shields and rifles surrounded a home with guns raised to arrest a father with no criminal history. In Irvine, Calif., ICE agents drove a phalanx of military vehicles in the Orange County suburb to arrest a person, though not for illegal immigration. They were seeking a resident's son who had allegedly posted fliers alerting neighbors to the presence of ICE agents. The raid alarmed the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, an organization that defends free speech, which requested a copy of the warrant. 'Criticism of government officials is core protected speech, and to criticize them you have every right to identify them,' said Aaron Terr, the group's director of public advocacy. The Trump administration defends its tactics for arrests, including many documented in cellphone videos and posted on social media. ICE officers have been donning protective gear and concealing their faces because of threats, said Tom Homan, the White House border czar. 'They're simply trying to enforce the law, and they're trying to protect themselves,' he said. 'Keeping President Trump's promise to deport illegal aliens is something the administration takes seriously,' said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman. Breaking glass The Trump administration hopes news reports and other publicity about its tough enforcement actions will prompt immigrants who are in the country illegally to leave the US voluntarily. Migrants have been offered a $1,000 payment if they document their departures. On social media, regional ICE offices post photos of immigrants taken into custody along with photos of burly ICE agents, their faces masked or blurred or their backs turned. 'Over the past 100 days, ICE and our partners have accomplished some amazing feats,' the ICE office in Houston posted on X. The Border Patrol's El Centro sector in Southern California posted photos of a broken car window on Facebook: The caption said, 'This illegal alien is listing his accomplishments for the past week: Refused to open window during an immigration inspection; Got his window shattered for an extraction.' An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent patrols the halls of immigration court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building Picture: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images/AFP Alfredo 'Lelo' Juarez Zeferino, a Washington state farmworkers union organizer, was another ICE target. Agents in an unmarked car stopped him as he was driving his wife to her job at a tulip farm. The agents, who didn't show badges or identification, smashed in his window and pulled him from the car, according to Familias Unidas por la Justica, a farmworker union. ICE has stopped regularly publishing arrest data, and has been accused of overstating the numbers. The Trump administration arrested roughly 66,500 migrants living in the US illegally and deported nearly 66,000 in its first 100 days, a higher pace of arrests compared with 2024, and a slightly slower pace for deportations. Earlier this year, ICE officials set daily arrest quotas and deputized agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law-enforcement agencies. ICE officials eliminated a Biden-era policy that blocked officers from arresting people without proof of legal residency who happened to be in the vicinity of targeted suspects. Raids at schools, churches and hospitals are now allowed. In February, two agents wearing tactical gear entered El Potro's Mexican Cafe and Cantina in Liberty, Mo., while another guarded the front door, according to a lawsuit filed in the US District Court in Chicago. In all, more than 10 agents participated. The ICE agents said they were looking for someone, but didn't say who, or provide a photograph, according to the lawsuit. Agents arrested 12 restaurant employees. The suit against the government alleges that the arrests were made without a warrant or probable cause that the workers would flee. In a court filing, much of which was redacted, the government said the arrests 'were supported by documented, probable cause determinations.' One problem for the administration was that ICE had only about 5,000 officers ready and trained to make arrests, according to an agency official. As ICE officers face more threats, they form ever-larger teams to conduct arrests, officials said. Larger teams means ICE can be in fewer places. Officials from the White House and the Department of Homeland Security have made clear there will be consequences for not hitting arrest targets. Top officials at DHS have pushed out one acting ICE director and are threatening a second. Late last month, the top ICE official overseeing arrests and deportations, Kenneth Genalo, resigned rather than fire deputies for poor performance, said people familiar with the matter. One reason deportations haven't picked up might be that ICE operations have received so much attention, prompting migrants to be more cautious, according to agents and leaders. Last kiss On a recent morning, half a dozen SUVs waited in the dark of a suburban neighborhood in San Antonio. Agents joked over the radio about how easy they were to spot: They had struggled to turn off their automatic headlights, and two neighbors drove around the block, peering into the agents' windows before returning to their driveways. Minutes later, their target, a Cuban father who worked at a local candy factory, began loading two young children into a red SUV. The agents initially planned to follow and arrest him after he had dropped the children at school. Instead, they decided to arrest him immediately because the children's mother was also in the car. With lights flashing, the SUVs converged on the car. The man stepped from the driver's seat with his hands up while the woman in the passenger seat scolded the agents for arresting him in front of the children. She asked if she could give her husband a kiss before they took him. None of the agents responded. The agents next tailed a yellow pickup through a taqueria restaurant drive-through line before arresting the driver. They let him go when he showed a Global Entry card proving he was a US citizen. Agents said they may have confused the man with his son. Elsewhere, Americans detained by ICE have said they were held for hours or longer before being allowed to prove their citizenship. Courthouse arrests have become a nationwide strategy, according to DHS officials and lawyers. They allow ICE to boost arrest numbers with fewer resources. It also puts migrants in a corner: Should they risk arrest by following the legal process and appearing in court? At a court in Phoenix last month, attorney Isaac Ortega said prosecutors requested dismissals for a string of cases, including that of his client, a Venezuelan man who had entered the US legally under a Biden administration program terminated by Trump. A Dominican man, left on the ground, and an activist are detained by plain clothes officers with ICE after an immigration hearing inside the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building in New York. Picture: AP /Yuki Iwamura After the man left the hearing room, agents arrested him. They refused to identify themselves, answer questions or show a warrant. 'It was completely out of the norm,' Ortega said. Other lawyers say clients have been denied access to legal counsel. Luis Campos, a Tucson-based attorney, said a Border Patrol agent physically blocked him from seeing a woman on the maternity ward who had just given birth. The woman and her family had requested that she have counsel, Campos said. ICE said all laws and procedures were followed. In some jurisdictions, agents said their supervisors have allowed them to more frequently seek criminal warrants to arrest targets. Administrative warrants are typically used for illegal immigration, which is a civil, not a criminal, violation. Criminal warrants allow agents to break down doors and forcibly enter homes. Maksim Zaitsev, a 36-year-old Russian citizen with a pending asylum case, said he was beaten by ICE agents after calling for his wife when the agents arrested him during an immigration check-in at an ICE office. 'It was like I was in a washing machine,' Zaitsev said in an interview from a detention facility in Adelanto, Calif. Photographs in court filings show Zaitsev with bruises and scabs on his face. Zaitsev was charged for biting an officer, but a federal judge dismissed the assault case, citing government misconduct. Zaitsev said it was self-defense. 'We came to the United States for protection because of what we encountered in Russia,' he said. 'It seems that we are encountering here what we fled.' Videos shared on social media show plainclothes men, one masked, arresting people at a courthouse in Albemarle County, Va., without identifying themselves or their agency. That prompted James Hingeley, the county's elected commonwealth attorney, to launch an investigation. ICE said in a statement that the arrest was a lawful operation by its agency and bystanders who attempted to intervene would be prosecuted. Hingeley said arrests by officers who don't identify themselves pose a threat to the people being taken into custody, as well as to bystanders. 'If you operate as if you're a street gang,' he said, 'you create a danger to yourself and the public.' Read related topics: Donald Trump
7NEWS
4 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Prince Harry duped by ‘Greta Thunberg' hoax in embarrassing royal prank call scandal
It's one thing to fall for a prank call — it's another for it to make international headlines. Prince Harry, raised in the spotlight with royal training, was left red-faced after being tricked into a revealing phone conversation with Russian pranksters posing as Swedish climate and political activist Greta Thunberg. The hoax calls took place on New Year's Eve and again on January 22, 2020, just shortly after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's dramatic exit from royal duties. Prince Harry was under the impression he was speaking with Ms Thunberg and her father, Svante Thunberg, as he openly shared his views on everything from climate change to his family's royal fallout, according to the Daily Mail. Prince Harry was completely unaware that the voices on the other end of the phone belonged to Russian prank duo Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov. The pair, known for similar stunts involving high-profile figures including Elton John and Bernie Sanders, later animated the calls and posted them on YouTube. The calls were made to Harry's landline in Vancouver, Canada, bypassing Buckingham Palace's security protocols. In one awkward exchange, 'Greta' claimed she was trying to rescue 50 penguins from Belarus customs. Prince Harry offered to help, responding: 'I do have a man who deals with the North Pole' — seemingly unaware that penguins live in the South Pole. The prankster did not stop at environmental jokes. Prince Harry was coaxed into condemning US President Donald Trump, claiming he had 'blood on his hands' over his climate policies. He also urged 'Greta' to seek meetings with Trump and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whom he called 'a good man' capable of being persuaded. When asked about Prince Andrew's links to Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Harry distanced himself diplomatically: 'Whatever he has done or hasn't done is completely separate from me and my wife. We operate in a way of inclusivity and focus on community.' Biographer Robert Lacey, who detailed the calls in his book Battle of the Brothers, said Prince Harry had been 'coaxed into embarrassingly frank disclosures' and criticised the Sussexes' lack of security vetting after leaving the royal system. 'The hoaxers would never have got through Buckingham Palace's switchboard,' Mr Lacey noted. Despite the fallout, Mr Lacey wrote that Prince Harry 'emerged with a certain amount of credit' for speaking from the heart. During the calls, Prince Harry said his military service had made him 'more normal than my family would like to believe' and reflected on his and Meghan's decision to step back from royal life. 'Marrying a prince or princess isn't all it's made up to be,' he said. 'Our new life is much better.' Prince Harry also took the opportunity to lash the press, blaming UK tabloids for what he saw as a campaign to destroy him and Meghan. 'They're scared because we are some of the first people willing to stand up to their bullying,' he said. The scandal was quickly overshadowed by the outbreak of COVID-19, but its legacy lingered. Prince Harry's wariness of the media deepened, and the incident reportedly shaped the couple's ongoing push for tighter personal security.
The Advertiser
5 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Trump has long speculated about using force against his own people. Now he has the pretext to do so
"You just [expletive] shot the reporter!" Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi was in the middle of a live cross, covering the protests against the Trump administration's mass deportation policy in Los Angeles, California. As Tomasi spoke to the camera, microphone in hand, an LAPD officer in the background appeared to target her directly, hitting her in the leg with a rubber bullet. Earlier, reports emerged that British photojournalist Nick Stern was undergoing emergency surgery after also being hit by the same "non-lethal" ammunition. The situation in Los Angeles is extremely volatile. After nonviolent protests against raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began in the suburb of Paramount, US President Donald Trump issued a memo describing them as "a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States". He then deployed the National Guard. As much of the coverage has noted, this is not the first time the National Guard has been deployed to quell protests in the US. In 1970, members of the National Guard shot and killed four students protesting the war in Vietnam at Kent State University. In 1992, the National Guard was deployed during protests in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers (three of whom were white) in the severe beating of a Black man, Rodney King. Trump has long speculated about violently deploying the National Guard and even the military against his own people. During his first administration, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, former Secretary of Defence Mark Esper alleged that Trump asked him, "Can't you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?" Trump has also long sought to other those opposed to his radical agenda to reshape the United States and its role in the world. He's classified them as "un-American" and, therefore, deserving of contempt and, when he deems it necessary, violent oppression. During last year's election campaign, he promised to "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country". Even the Washington Post characterised this description of Trump's "political enemies" as "echoing Hitler, Mussolini". In addition, Trump has long peddled baseless conspiracies about "sanctuary cities", such as Los Angeles. He has characterised them as lawless havens for his political enemies and places that have been "invaded" by immigrants. As anyone who has ever visited these places knows, that is not true. It is no surprise that in the same places Trump characterises as "disgracing our country", there has been staunch opposition to his agenda and ideology. That opposition has coalesced in recent weeks around the activities of ICE agents, in particular. These agents, wearing masks to conceal their identities, have been arbitrarily detaining people, including US citizens and children, and disappearing people off the streets. They have also arrested caregivers, leaving children alone. As Adam Serwer wrote in The Atlantic during the first iteration of Trump in America, "the cruelty is the point". The Trump administration's mass deportation program is deliberately cruel and provocative. It was always only a matter of time before protests broke out. In a democracy, nonviolent protest by hundreds or perhaps a few thousand people in a city of 10 million is not a crisis. But it has always suited Trump and the movement that supports him to manufacture crises. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a key architect of the mass deportations program and a man described by a former adviser as "Waffen SS", called the protests "an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States". Trump himself also described protesters as "violent, insurrectionist mobs". Nowhere does the presidential memo deploying the National Guard name the specific location of the protests. This, and the extreme language coming out of the administration, suggests it is laying the groundwork for further escalation. The administration could be leaving space to deploy the National Guard in other places and invoke the Insurrection Act. Incidents involving the deployment of the National Guard are rare, though politically cataclysmic. It is rarer still for the National Guard to be deployed against the wishes of a democratically elected leader of a state, as Trump has done in California. This deployment comes at a time of crisis for US democracy more broadly. Trump's longstanding attacks against independent media - what he describes as "fake news" - are escalating. There is a reason that during the current protests, a law enforcement officer appeared so comfortable targeting a journalist, on camera. The Trump administration is also actively targeting independent institutions such as Harvard and Columbia universities. It is also targeting and undermining judges and reducing the power of independent courts to enforce the rule of law. Under Trump, the federal government and its state-based allies are targeting and undermining the rights of minority groups - policing the bodies of trans people, targeting reproductive rights, and beginning the process of undoing the Civil Rights Act. Trump is, for the moment, unconstrained. Asked overnight what the bar is for deploying the Marines against protesters, Trump responded: "the bar is what I think it is". As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie recently observed:" We should treat Trump and his openly authoritarian administration as a failure, not just of our party system or our legal system, but of our Constitution and its ability to meaningfully constrain a destructive and system-threatening force in our political life." While the situation in Los Angeles is unpredictable, it must be understood in the broader context of the active, violent threat the Trump administration poses to the US. As we watch, American democracy teeters on the brink. This article was updated on June 9, 2025 to correct information about Rodney King. "You just [expletive] shot the reporter!" Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi was in the middle of a live cross, covering the protests against the Trump administration's mass deportation policy in Los Angeles, California. As Tomasi spoke to the camera, microphone in hand, an LAPD officer in the background appeared to target her directly, hitting her in the leg with a rubber bullet. Earlier, reports emerged that British photojournalist Nick Stern was undergoing emergency surgery after also being hit by the same "non-lethal" ammunition. The situation in Los Angeles is extremely volatile. After nonviolent protests against raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began in the suburb of Paramount, US President Donald Trump issued a memo describing them as "a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States". He then deployed the National Guard. As much of the coverage has noted, this is not the first time the National Guard has been deployed to quell protests in the US. In 1970, members of the National Guard shot and killed four students protesting the war in Vietnam at Kent State University. In 1992, the National Guard was deployed during protests in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers (three of whom were white) in the severe beating of a Black man, Rodney King. Trump has long speculated about violently deploying the National Guard and even the military against his own people. During his first administration, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, former Secretary of Defence Mark Esper alleged that Trump asked him, "Can't you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?" Trump has also long sought to other those opposed to his radical agenda to reshape the United States and its role in the world. He's classified them as "un-American" and, therefore, deserving of contempt and, when he deems it necessary, violent oppression. During last year's election campaign, he promised to "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country". Even the Washington Post characterised this description of Trump's "political enemies" as "echoing Hitler, Mussolini". In addition, Trump has long peddled baseless conspiracies about "sanctuary cities", such as Los Angeles. He has characterised them as lawless havens for his political enemies and places that have been "invaded" by immigrants. As anyone who has ever visited these places knows, that is not true. It is no surprise that in the same places Trump characterises as "disgracing our country", there has been staunch opposition to his agenda and ideology. That opposition has coalesced in recent weeks around the activities of ICE agents, in particular. These agents, wearing masks to conceal their identities, have been arbitrarily detaining people, including US citizens and children, and disappearing people off the streets. They have also arrested caregivers, leaving children alone. As Adam Serwer wrote in The Atlantic during the first iteration of Trump in America, "the cruelty is the point". The Trump administration's mass deportation program is deliberately cruel and provocative. It was always only a matter of time before protests broke out. In a democracy, nonviolent protest by hundreds or perhaps a few thousand people in a city of 10 million is not a crisis. But it has always suited Trump and the movement that supports him to manufacture crises. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a key architect of the mass deportations program and a man described by a former adviser as "Waffen SS", called the protests "an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States". Trump himself also described protesters as "violent, insurrectionist mobs". Nowhere does the presidential memo deploying the National Guard name the specific location of the protests. This, and the extreme language coming out of the administration, suggests it is laying the groundwork for further escalation. The administration could be leaving space to deploy the National Guard in other places and invoke the Insurrection Act. Incidents involving the deployment of the National Guard are rare, though politically cataclysmic. It is rarer still for the National Guard to be deployed against the wishes of a democratically elected leader of a state, as Trump has done in California. This deployment comes at a time of crisis for US democracy more broadly. Trump's longstanding attacks against independent media - what he describes as "fake news" - are escalating. There is a reason that during the current protests, a law enforcement officer appeared so comfortable targeting a journalist, on camera. The Trump administration is also actively targeting independent institutions such as Harvard and Columbia universities. It is also targeting and undermining judges and reducing the power of independent courts to enforce the rule of law. Under Trump, the federal government and its state-based allies are targeting and undermining the rights of minority groups - policing the bodies of trans people, targeting reproductive rights, and beginning the process of undoing the Civil Rights Act. Trump is, for the moment, unconstrained. Asked overnight what the bar is for deploying the Marines against protesters, Trump responded: "the bar is what I think it is". As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie recently observed:" We should treat Trump and his openly authoritarian administration as a failure, not just of our party system or our legal system, but of our Constitution and its ability to meaningfully constrain a destructive and system-threatening force in our political life." While the situation in Los Angeles is unpredictable, it must be understood in the broader context of the active, violent threat the Trump administration poses to the US. As we watch, American democracy teeters on the brink. This article was updated on June 9, 2025 to correct information about Rodney King. "You just [expletive] shot the reporter!" Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi was in the middle of a live cross, covering the protests against the Trump administration's mass deportation policy in Los Angeles, California. As Tomasi spoke to the camera, microphone in hand, an LAPD officer in the background appeared to target her directly, hitting her in the leg with a rubber bullet. Earlier, reports emerged that British photojournalist Nick Stern was undergoing emergency surgery after also being hit by the same "non-lethal" ammunition. The situation in Los Angeles is extremely volatile. After nonviolent protests against raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began in the suburb of Paramount, US President Donald Trump issued a memo describing them as "a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States". He then deployed the National Guard. As much of the coverage has noted, this is not the first time the National Guard has been deployed to quell protests in the US. In 1970, members of the National Guard shot and killed four students protesting the war in Vietnam at Kent State University. In 1992, the National Guard was deployed during protests in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers (three of whom were white) in the severe beating of a Black man, Rodney King. Trump has long speculated about violently deploying the National Guard and even the military against his own people. During his first administration, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, former Secretary of Defence Mark Esper alleged that Trump asked him, "Can't you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?" Trump has also long sought to other those opposed to his radical agenda to reshape the United States and its role in the world. He's classified them as "un-American" and, therefore, deserving of contempt and, when he deems it necessary, violent oppression. During last year's election campaign, he promised to "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country". Even the Washington Post characterised this description of Trump's "political enemies" as "echoing Hitler, Mussolini". In addition, Trump has long peddled baseless conspiracies about "sanctuary cities", such as Los Angeles. He has characterised them as lawless havens for his political enemies and places that have been "invaded" by immigrants. As anyone who has ever visited these places knows, that is not true. It is no surprise that in the same places Trump characterises as "disgracing our country", there has been staunch opposition to his agenda and ideology. That opposition has coalesced in recent weeks around the activities of ICE agents, in particular. These agents, wearing masks to conceal their identities, have been arbitrarily detaining people, including US citizens and children, and disappearing people off the streets. They have also arrested caregivers, leaving children alone. As Adam Serwer wrote in The Atlantic during the first iteration of Trump in America, "the cruelty is the point". The Trump administration's mass deportation program is deliberately cruel and provocative. It was always only a matter of time before protests broke out. In a democracy, nonviolent protest by hundreds or perhaps a few thousand people in a city of 10 million is not a crisis. But it has always suited Trump and the movement that supports him to manufacture crises. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a key architect of the mass deportations program and a man described by a former adviser as "Waffen SS", called the protests "an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States". Trump himself also described protesters as "violent, insurrectionist mobs". Nowhere does the presidential memo deploying the National Guard name the specific location of the protests. This, and the extreme language coming out of the administration, suggests it is laying the groundwork for further escalation. The administration could be leaving space to deploy the National Guard in other places and invoke the Insurrection Act. Incidents involving the deployment of the National Guard are rare, though politically cataclysmic. It is rarer still for the National Guard to be deployed against the wishes of a democratically elected leader of a state, as Trump has done in California. This deployment comes at a time of crisis for US democracy more broadly. Trump's longstanding attacks against independent media - what he describes as "fake news" - are escalating. There is a reason that during the current protests, a law enforcement officer appeared so comfortable targeting a journalist, on camera. The Trump administration is also actively targeting independent institutions such as Harvard and Columbia universities. It is also targeting and undermining judges and reducing the power of independent courts to enforce the rule of law. Under Trump, the federal government and its state-based allies are targeting and undermining the rights of minority groups - policing the bodies of trans people, targeting reproductive rights, and beginning the process of undoing the Civil Rights Act. Trump is, for the moment, unconstrained. Asked overnight what the bar is for deploying the Marines against protesters, Trump responded: "the bar is what I think it is". As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie recently observed:" We should treat Trump and his openly authoritarian administration as a failure, not just of our party system or our legal system, but of our Constitution and its ability to meaningfully constrain a destructive and system-threatening force in our political life." While the situation in Los Angeles is unpredictable, it must be understood in the broader context of the active, violent threat the Trump administration poses to the US. As we watch, American democracy teeters on the brink. This article was updated on June 9, 2025 to correct information about Rodney King. "You just [expletive] shot the reporter!" Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi was in the middle of a live cross, covering the protests against the Trump administration's mass deportation policy in Los Angeles, California. As Tomasi spoke to the camera, microphone in hand, an LAPD officer in the background appeared to target her directly, hitting her in the leg with a rubber bullet. Earlier, reports emerged that British photojournalist Nick Stern was undergoing emergency surgery after also being hit by the same "non-lethal" ammunition. The situation in Los Angeles is extremely volatile. After nonviolent protests against raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began in the suburb of Paramount, US President Donald Trump issued a memo describing them as "a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States". He then deployed the National Guard. As much of the coverage has noted, this is not the first time the National Guard has been deployed to quell protests in the US. In 1970, members of the National Guard shot and killed four students protesting the war in Vietnam at Kent State University. In 1992, the National Guard was deployed during protests in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers (three of whom were white) in the severe beating of a Black man, Rodney King. Trump has long speculated about violently deploying the National Guard and even the military against his own people. During his first administration, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, former Secretary of Defence Mark Esper alleged that Trump asked him, "Can't you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?" Trump has also long sought to other those opposed to his radical agenda to reshape the United States and its role in the world. He's classified them as "un-American" and, therefore, deserving of contempt and, when he deems it necessary, violent oppression. During last year's election campaign, he promised to "root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country". Even the Washington Post characterised this description of Trump's "political enemies" as "echoing Hitler, Mussolini". In addition, Trump has long peddled baseless conspiracies about "sanctuary cities", such as Los Angeles. He has characterised them as lawless havens for his political enemies and places that have been "invaded" by immigrants. As anyone who has ever visited these places knows, that is not true. It is no surprise that in the same places Trump characterises as "disgracing our country", there has been staunch opposition to his agenda and ideology. That opposition has coalesced in recent weeks around the activities of ICE agents, in particular. These agents, wearing masks to conceal their identities, have been arbitrarily detaining people, including US citizens and children, and disappearing people off the streets. They have also arrested caregivers, leaving children alone. As Adam Serwer wrote in The Atlantic during the first iteration of Trump in America, "the cruelty is the point". The Trump administration's mass deportation program is deliberately cruel and provocative. It was always only a matter of time before protests broke out. In a democracy, nonviolent protest by hundreds or perhaps a few thousand people in a city of 10 million is not a crisis. But it has always suited Trump and the movement that supports him to manufacture crises. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a key architect of the mass deportations program and a man described by a former adviser as "Waffen SS", called the protests "an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States". Trump himself also described protesters as "violent, insurrectionist mobs". Nowhere does the presidential memo deploying the National Guard name the specific location of the protests. This, and the extreme language coming out of the administration, suggests it is laying the groundwork for further escalation. The administration could be leaving space to deploy the National Guard in other places and invoke the Insurrection Act. Incidents involving the deployment of the National Guard are rare, though politically cataclysmic. It is rarer still for the National Guard to be deployed against the wishes of a democratically elected leader of a state, as Trump has done in California. This deployment comes at a time of crisis for US democracy more broadly. Trump's longstanding attacks against independent media - what he describes as "fake news" - are escalating. There is a reason that during the current protests, a law enforcement officer appeared so comfortable targeting a journalist, on camera. The Trump administration is also actively targeting independent institutions such as Harvard and Columbia universities. It is also targeting and undermining judges and reducing the power of independent courts to enforce the rule of law. Under Trump, the federal government and its state-based allies are targeting and undermining the rights of minority groups - policing the bodies of trans people, targeting reproductive rights, and beginning the process of undoing the Civil Rights Act. Trump is, for the moment, unconstrained. Asked overnight what the bar is for deploying the Marines against protesters, Trump responded: "the bar is what I think it is". As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie recently observed:" We should treat Trump and his openly authoritarian administration as a failure, not just of our party system or our legal system, but of our Constitution and its ability to meaningfully constrain a destructive and system-threatening force in our political life." While the situation in Los Angeles is unpredictable, it must be understood in the broader context of the active, violent threat the Trump administration poses to the US. As we watch, American democracy teeters on the brink. This article was updated on June 9, 2025 to correct information about Rodney King.
