Trump Says National Guard Will Restore Order, End Unrest in LA
By , María Paula Mijares Torres, and Catherine Lucey
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President Donald Trump pledged Sunday to send whatever is necessary to California to respond to two days of protests in Los Angeles triggered by sweeping immigration raids.
'We're going to have troops everywhere, we're not going to let this happen to our country,' Trump told reporters as he headed to Camp David, adding that he believes what occurred in LA was 'a riot.'
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New York Times
32 minutes ago
- New York Times
Live Updates: Tensions Flare Between Protesters and Law Enforcement in L.A.
News Analysis National Guard troops in Los Angeles on Sunday. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has formally asked the Trump administration to remove them. It is the fight President Trump had been waiting for, a showdown with a top political rival in a deep blue state over an issue core to his political agenda. In bypassing the authority of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, to call in the National Guard to quell protests in the Los Angeles area over his administration's efforts to deport more migrants, Mr. Trump is now pushing the boundaries of presidential authority and stoking criticism that he is inflaming the situation for political gain. Local and state authorities had not sought help in dealing with the scattered protests that erupted after an immigration raid on Friday in the garment district. But Mr. Trump and his top aides leaned into the confrontation with California leaders on Sunday, portraying the demonstrations as an existential threat to the country — setting in motion an aggressive federal response that in turn sparked new protests across the city. As more demonstrators took to the streets, the president wrote on social media that Los Angeles was being 'invaded and occupied' by 'violent, insurrectionist mobs,' and directed three of his top cabinet officials to take any actions necessary to 'liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion.' 'Nobody's going to spit on our police officers. Nobody's going to spit on our military,' Mr. Trump told reporters as he headed to Camp David on Sunday, although it was unclear whether any such incidents had occurred. 'That happens, they get hit very hard.' The president declined to say whether he planned to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, which allows for the use of federal troops on domestic soil to quell a rebellion. But either way, he added, 'we're going to have troops everywhere.' Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, posted on social media that 'this is a fight to save civilization.' Mr. Trump's decision to deploy at least 2,000 members of the California National Guard is the latest example of his willingness and, at times, an eagerness to shatter norms to pursue his political goals and bypass limits on presidential power. The last president to send in the National Guard for a domestic operation without a request from the state's governor, Lyndon B. Johnson, did so in 1965, to protect civil rights demonstrators in Alabama. Image President Donald Trump in New Jersey on Sunday. On social media, he, his aides and allies have sought to frame the demonstrations against immigration officials on their own terms. Credit... Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times But aides and allies of the president say the events unfolding in Los Angeles provide an almost perfect distillation of why Mr. Trump was elected in November. 'It could not be clearer,' said Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker and ally of the president who noted that Mr. Trump had been focused on immigration enforcement since 2015. 'One side is for enforcing the law and protecting Americans, and the other side is for defending illegals and being on the side of the people who break the law.' Sporadic protests have occurred across the country in recent days as federal agents have descended on Los Angeles and other cities searching workplaces for undocumented immigrants, part of an expanded effort by the administration to ramp up the number of daily deportations. On social media, Mr. Trump, his aides and allies have sought to frame the demonstrations against immigration officials on their own terms. They have shared images and videos of the most violent episodes — focusing particularly on examples of protesters lashing out at federal agents — even as many remained peaceful. Officials also zeroed in on demonstrators waving flags of other countries, including Mexico and El Salvador, as evidence of a foreign invasion. 'Illegal criminal aliens and violent mobs have been committing arson, throwing rocks at vehicles, and attacking federal law enforcement for days,' wrote Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. Mr. Newsom, whom the president refers to as 'Newscum,' has long been a foil for Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly targeted California and its leader as emblematic of failures of the Democratic Party. 'We expected this, we prepared for this,' Mr. Newsom said in a statement to The New York Times. 'This is not surprising — for them to succeed, California must fail, and so they're going to try everything in their tired playbook despite the evidence against them.' Image Law enforcement officers and members of the California National Guard engaged protesters in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday. Credit... Gabriela Bhaskar/The New York Times On Sunday, the governor sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth formally requesting that Mr. Trump rescind the call-up of the National Guard, saying federal actions were inflaming the situation. He was echoed by other Democratic officials, who said the mounting demonstrations were the result of Mr. Trump's own actions. The president and his aides 'are masters of misinformation and disinformation,' Senator Alex Padilla of California, a Democrat, said in an interview. 'They create a crisis of their own making and come in with all the theatrics and cruelty of immigration enforcement. They should not be surprised in a community like Los Angeles they will be met by demonstrators who are very passionate about standing up for fundamental rights and due process.' Republicans defended Mr. Trump's moves, saying he was rightfully exercising his power to protect public safety. 'The president is extremely concerned about the safety of federal officials in L.A. right now who have been subject to acts of violence and harassment and obstruction,' Representative Kevin Kiley, Republican of California, said in an interview. He added: 'We are in this moment because of a series of reckless decisions by California's political leaders, the aiding and abetting the open-border policies of President Biden.' Trump officials said on Sunday that they were ready to escalate their response even more, if necessary. Tom Homan, the president's border czar, suggested in an interview with NBC News that the administration would arrest anyone, including public officials, who interfered with immigration enforcement activities, which he said would continue in California and across the country. Image Protesters in Pasadena, Calif., on Sunday. Credit... Alex Welsh for The New York Times Mr. Trump appears to be deploying against California a similar playbook that he has used to punish universities, law firms and other institutions and individuals that he views as political adversaries. Last month, he threatened to strip 'large scale' federal funding from California 'maybe permanently' over the inclusion of transgender athletes in women's sports. And in recent days, his administration said it would pull roughly $4 billion in federal funding for California's high-speed train, which would further delay a project that has long been plagued by delays and funding shortages. 'Everything he's done to attack California or anybody he fears isn't supportive of him is going to continue to be an obsession of his,' Mr. Padilla said. 'He may think it plays smart for his base, but it's actually been bad for the country.' White House officials said there was a different common denominator that explains Mr. Trump's actions both against institutions like Harvard and immigration protests in Los Angeles. 'For years Democrat-run cities and institutions have failed the American people, by both choice and incompetence,' Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement. 'In each instance,' she added, 'the president took necessary action to protect Americans when Democrats refused.'
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Gavin Newsom asks Trump to withdraw troops from Los Angeles as protests intensify
National Guard soldiers stand in front of the federal building in downtown Los Angeles, on June 8, 2025. President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 troops to handle escalating protests against immigration enforcement raids in the Los Angeles area, a move the state's governor termed "purposefully inflammatory." (Photo by Frederic J. Brown, AFP via Getty Images) This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Hundreds of California National Guard soldiers are deployed in downtown Los Angeles in an escalation of the Trump administration's rolling immigration enforcement action throughout Southern California. Their deployment comes over the objections of California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who say that local law enforcement agencies are more than capable of keeping the peace in the city. He wrote a letter on Sunday afternoon to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth requesting that the administration withdraw the troops and questioning the legality of their deployment. The National Guard is usually called in at the request of a state's governor; a president has not deployed troops without a governor's requests since 1965. 'There is currently no need for the National Guard to be deployed in Los Angeles, and to do so in this unlawful manner and for such a lengthy period is a serious breach of state sovereignty that seems intentionally designed to inflame the situation,' he wrote. The governor had previously spoken to Trump on the phone for about 40 minutes on Friday night, a spokesperson said. This morning, rifle-toting National Guard soldiers patrolled a federal building downtown. They also brought heavy military vehicles. Tensions intensified by midafternoon, when a protesters neared the complex. Los Angeles Police Department officers pushed them away from the building and fired dozens of less-than-lethal rounds into the crowd. The deployment followed two days of unrest after immigration sweeps downtown and in the city of Paramount. In one incident, officers arrested David Huerta, the leader of a California janitors' union, who was protesting a raid. He remains in custody. Trump's order deploying the troops cited 'incidents of violence and disorder' following immigration enforcement actions and the Border Patrol on social media has called attention to an incident in which someone threw rocks at their vehicles in Paramount, breaking a window. After the raids, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement published a list of what they called 'the worst of the worst' offenders caught in the immigration raids. The release also accused 'California politicians and rioters' of 'defending heinous illegal alien criminals.' The escalation could be a turning point for a state where Democratic politicians had started the year fairly quiet on Trump's immigration crackdowns, at least compared to his first time in office. With the state facing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, lawmakers and Newsom were antsy about losing federal funding, and Newsom especially was depending on a relatively harmonious relationship with the federal government to secure aid for Los Angeles wildfire recovery. But California Democrats have since struck a more defiant tone. Last week they advanced numerous bills to discourage warrantless ICE visits to hospitals, schools and shelters. Over the weekend, they condemned the raids and sided with protesters, especially after federal agents arrested prominent union president Huerta on Friday during a clash with protesters outside an immigration raid of a garment company's warehouse. Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, called the raids 'an authoritarian assault on our immigrant communities.' 'We will not allow (Los Angeles) to become a staging ground for political terror,' he wrote in a statement. His counterpart in the state Senate, Healdsburg Democrat Mike McGuire, said the National Guard deployment 'reeks of fascism.' Bill Essayli, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California — which includes Los Angeles — told KNBC-TV that immigration enforcement agents were under duress while conducting raids in Paramount and Compton. 'You have thousands of people forming and gathering in crowds, rioting, attacking our agents, throwing rocks, throwing eggs, throwing Molotov cocktails,' Essayli told the news station. Marissa Nuncio, director of the Los Angeles-based Garment Worker Center, said garment workers were reeling after immigration enforcement agents detained 20 of them in a raid at Ambiance Apparel in the city's Fashion District on Friday. The amassing of troops downtown made her members worry about a second raid. The Garment Worker Center held a know-your-rights seminar on Saturday, one day after the raid. Attendees 'wanted to know, how can we stop this,' Nuncio said. 'How can we resist these attacks on our community? They wanted to know if it's safe to go to work, to go to church, to go to the clinic.' Garment workers are particularly vulnerable because they are often employed in illegal production facilities that pop up and then disappear overnight. They're paid by the piece, usually 5 cents to 12 cents per piece of clothing, a controversial practice that has drawn scrutiny from the Legislature. Their weekly take-home pay is about $300, or $5.50 per hour, paid in cash. 'We feel the best we can do is inform workers of what's going on,' Nuncio said, 'and remind them that they have power in their rights.' CalMatters reporter Joe Garcia contributed to this story. This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Anti-ICE protests stop traffic on California's 101 Freeway
California demonstrators protesting the federal immigration raids blocked traffic on a major Los Angeles freeway. NBC News' David Noriega reports on the continuing anti-ICE protest.
