Sorry, That's Not Wyatt Russell in the Viral L.A. Protest Video
As protests over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and arrests in Los Angeles led Donald Trump to deploy 2,000 National Guard troops to the city over the weekend — a decision that California Gov. Gavin Newsom said would trigger a lawsuit from the state — images from the ground have been intense. From torched Waymo robotaxis to mounted LAPD officers apparently spurring their horses to stomp an activist on the ground, it's clear that the city has become a testing ground for how far the Trump administration can push its migrant purge.
One video making the rounds, captured by TikTok user @only__loo, shows a man delivering an impassioned speech to National Guard forces stationed outside a Veterans Affairs building in Downtown L.A.
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'You should be standing here with us!' he declares from a line of protesters and press. 'You're on the wrong side of history. We know you got a job to do. But you took an oath to the Constitution, not the fascists in the White House! Think about what you're doing now, think about what this means, coming into our community. Peaceful fucking community, people working their jobs. They send in men in military fatigues, weapons of war, into our community. And you stand here and you allow it. I'm sick and tired of it. You should be sick and tired of it.'
Bearded, long-haired, and sporting a hoodie from L.A.'s hockey team, the Kings, the man addressing the National Guard has not been conclusively identified, though as the clip made its way across social media, some speculated that it was Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, a former pro hockey player and actor who most recently starred in the Marvel movie Thunderbolts*. The claim got as far as the social channels of Occupy Democrats, an organization known for spreading misinformation to a liberal audience. 'Actor Kurt Russell's son Wyatt just scolded Trump's National Guard TO THEIR FACES in Los Angeles!' read their caption on a Monday post sharing the video to Threads.
But Russell's publicist confirms to Rolling Stone that the individual seen in the footage isn't him at all. 'This is indeed not Wyatt Russell, and we have been working to try and correct the mis-identification,' says Bryna Rifkin of Narrative PR. Furthermore, Russell's own Instagram account hasn't been updated in over a year, and he does not seem to maintain any other social media presence where he might have commented on ICE actions under Trump or the protests against them.
Of course, that hasn't stopped countless people online from either heaping praise on the actor or condemning him in connection with the TikTok of a demonstrator he vaguely resembles. It's not clear who originally made the erroneous claim that Russell had been the one to confront the armed troops stationed in L.A.
Trump on Monday continued to call for a military response to anti-ICE protests in the city while defending his call to mobilize the National Guard, a move that has broadly escalated tensions in the streets. 'If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated,' he claimed in a post on Truth Social. He also on Monday endorsed the idea of having his border czar, Tom Homan, arrest Newsom. 'I think it's great,' Trump said. 'Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing. He's done a terrible job. Look, I like Gavin Newsom, he's a nice guy, but he's grossly incompetent.'
As for Russell, he may not have the time to join a march at the moment. He's slated to appear in Avengers: Doomsday, which is currently in production, and an untitled Steven Spielberg sci-fi film, both set for release in 2026. That would be enough to keep anyone busy for the foreseeable future.
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