Trump Snaps at Fox News Reporter Who Tells Him Protests Are Spreading
The president was caught off guard by news that anti-ICE protests exist outside of Los Angeles.
Posing for photos with his wife, Melania Trump, on the Kennedy Center's red carpet Wednesday evening, Donald Trump refused to believe that dissent against his anti-immigration agenda had spread to more than a dozen cities around the country.
'If this turns into another summer of unrest, what are you prepared to do, sir?' asked a Fox News reporter.
'About what?' Trump said.
'Well, the protests have spread now to 16 cities across the U.S.,' she added.
'That's what you're saying, and do I believe you? I don't think so,' Trump said.
'Well, I got that from the Fox News brain room,' the reporter clarified.
But Trump wouldn't address the national reaction. Instead, he was fixated on recalling how his administration had forcibly intervened in the Los Angeles protests—without the express authorization of the California or city government.
'What we have is a situation in Los Angeles that was caused by gross incompetence,' Trump said. 'They didn't have the police to handle it. The police were asking us to come in. They were very late, we had to go in to save a lot of ICE officers, as you know, who were holed up. They were holed up in a building.'
But the Los Angeles Police Department did not request Trump's aid. On Tuesday, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell denied that he had asked the White House for help in handling the protests, telling CNN that the department was 'nowhere near' calling on assistance from the National Guard.
So far, anti-ICE protests have taken root from coast to coast. By Tuesday, NBC News accounted for at least 25 protests in cities across the country, with gatherings in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Diego, Denver, Seattle, Las Vegas, Raleigh, Columbus, Oklahoma City, Washington, and others.
The mass mobilization against Trump's agenda and his illegal decisions to send hundreds of Marines and thousands of National Guard members to Los Angeles's doorstep echoes the civil unrest during the ex–reality TV star's first administration, when an estimated 26 million Americans participated in the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020. Those protests, which amounted to the largest protest movement in American history, were in direct reaction to police brutality against Black people following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Daniel Prude, and countless others.
But the recent wave of protests have already transformed into a symbolic rejection of Trump's authoritarian leanings. In an address to his state and to the nation, California Governor Gavin Newsom urged Americans to 'stand up' to the White House's aggressive and militaristic control, announcing that democracy is 'under assault' under Trump's leadership.
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