'We're happy to have this fight': Trump administration leans into California protests

NBC News

5 hours ago

President Donald Trump's immigration agenda has met a groundswell of opposition in Los Angeles, the country's second-largest city.
At least 56 people have been arrested so far in massive protests against the administration's immigration raids in the city Friday. The demonstrations have spilled over onto one of the region's largest freeways, and federal authorities are facing criticism after they arrested, and apparently injured, a prominent labor leader.
In response, the White House has threatened to arrest California's governor and mobilized Marines to support National Guard troops in defending federal property — even though state officials say they don't want the assistance and are now suing the administration.
For the White House, this scene — Trump battling a blue state over his signature issue — is a win. It's a nationally watched saga of the sort that has long defined his career: a made-for-TV moment.
'We're happy to have this fight,' a White House official said, emphasizing that politically, the administration sees it as a winning issue.
Democrats and immigration activists have broadly blasted the Los Angeles operation as illegal and inhumane and insisted that it's all about politics — and not about sound public policy.
'This Administration's actions are not about public safety — they're about stoking fear,' former Vice President Kamala Harris, a Los Angeles resident who ran against Trump last year, wrote in a statement.
But Trump allies argue that it's simply Trump carrying out the hard-line immigration agenda that was the centerpiece of his campaign. NBC News spoke with four White House officials, in addition to other Trump supporters, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.
'This is what America voted for, period,' a Trump adviser said. 'This is the America First focus that got the president elected and is driven by nothing else than what he promised American voters.'
'Look at the violence, the attacks on law enforcement,' the adviser added. 'If Democrats want to support that, let them. This is why we win elections and they do not.'
Trump advisers also pointed to the fact that the president's immigration policies continue to get high marks in most public polling.
A CBS/YouGov poll conducted just before the Los Angeles immigration raids found that 54% of respondents approved of the administration's ' program to deport immigrants illegally.'
Those numbers help clarify why the administration and more broadly congressional Republicans are politically comfortable leaning into support of the raids over vocal opposition from critics — and a persistent threat of legal challenge.
'I know there's no question places like California have thumbed their nose at the American people and decided they want to be a sanctuary for criminals,' Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said Monday, adding, 'I think he's exercising exactly what he said he'd do and what people elected him' to do.
Trump advisers say the president also points to the fact that he got more votes in California in 2024 than in his previous campaigns, even though he still badly lost the heavily Democratic-leaning state.
The administration's response to the protests does seem to have one eye on the reaction in conservative media, a space increasingly dominated by pro-Trump influencers.
Some of those influencers have been posting from the protests — most notably Phil McGraw, a well-known Trump supporter better known as 'Dr. Phil,' who embedded with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during the Los Angeles raids, as he did during similar immigration raids in Chicago this year.
The Trump adviser, asked about McGraw's involvement, said: 'This is an important moment in American history. People have a right to see it in a way not unfairly skewed by a biased mainstream media.'
The adviser wouldn't elaborate on how McGraw, whose presence was first reported by CNN, was able to have front-line access to the federal immigration operations. A spokesman for McGraw didn't respond to a request for comment.
Republicans more broadly also see the fight as a political winner and say Democrats are functionally taking the bait on an issue in which polling has given Trump an advantage.
'I think it is a symptom of how far left this party has done when you have major Democrats standing on the side of illegal aliens that are torching vehicles,' Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Fox News on Monday.
'It is one of the reasons the Democratic Party is struggling so much nationally,' he added.
Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist and former Trump administration official, said the raids shouldn't be a surprise because immigration is a 'legitimate issue' the voters have signaled they care about.
'There is no political upside in defending or denying the images of burning cars, rioters and looting and the destruction,' he said of Democrats. 'A feeling that things have spun out of control in California and that government can't effectively govern. … It has changed the conversation from illegal immigration to a breakdown in society.'
Still, there has been some disagreement — at least in public messaging — about how far to push in going after California Democrats, a break between what may be politically popular with the base and what's politically realistic.
The clearest example centers on the Trump administration's authorizing the deployment of National Guard troops over the opposition of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have argued that inserting National Guard troops will inflame tensions and potential violence — a response that has led Trump to signal he would consider arresting Newsom if he were to continue what the administration considers to be his interference.
'I would do it if I were Tom,' Trump said, referring to his 'border czar,' Tom Homan. 'I think it's great. Gavin likes the publicity. But I do think it would be a great thing.'
While detaining Newsom would no doubt please Trump's MAGA base, White House officials privately say it's not currently in the cards.
'It's not being actively planned or considered,' a senior White House official said. 'But anyone who breaks federal law puts themselves at risk of being arrested. That's just a basic fact.'
A second White House official said that if either Newsom or Bass, a former Democratic congresswoman, do something at odds with federal immigration law, they could be detained. But the official also acknowledged that the optics of arresting California officials amid an immigration fight they believe most Americans support could backfire with some Republican voters because, at the moment, it doesn't appear they have actually broken any immigration laws.
The official said there isn't some grand strategy to deploy National Guard troops in blue cities across the country; the administration is simply waiting to see whether other protests get out of control.
Meanwhile, Newsom has leaned into the threats, practically daring the administration to arrest him rather than focusing on the protesters.
'He's a tough guy. Why doesn't he do that? He knows where to find me,' Newsom told MSNBC on Sunday. Referring to Homan, he added: 'That kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let's go.'
On Monday, California sued the Trump administration, arguing that Trump's federalizing the state's National Guard is 'unlawful.'
'Let me be clear: There is no invasion. There is no rebellion,' Democratic state Attorney General Rob Bonta said. 'The president is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends. Federalizing the California National Guard is an abuse of the president's authority under the law — and not one we take lightly. We're asking a court to put a stop to the unlawful, unprecedented order.'
Trump supporters have lined up behind him, with some even offering to head to Los Angeles to help, despite having no law enforcement experience.
'Preparing to deploy … to Los Angeles,' vocal Trump supporter Benny Johnson said on X. He followed up with a post to his 3.7 million followers showing him wearing military-style gear with his name on it.
The increasingly contentious political fight over Los Angeles, administration officials admit, is no longer about just deporting those with criminal records, which was Trump's main pitch to voters on the campaign trail.
On Monday, an MSNBC host asked Homan whether everyone ICE has arrested as part of the Trump administration's immigration efforts had criminal records, and he had a blunt response.
'Absolutely not,' he said.