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Interim summary
If you are just tuning into the latest development in Los Angeles, here is a handy summary to bring you up to speed.
The LAPD says it has made ‘mass arrests’ in downtown LA after the Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a curfew for the city’s downtown area following several days of intense protests against Ice raids. The protests have been marked by clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement, widespread vandalism and some looting. The curfew began at 8pm local time on Tuesday and will last until 6am local time on Wednesday. It will apply to a one-square-mile area in downtown.
California governor Gavin Newsom delivered a searing rebuke of the Trump administration on Tuesday evening, accusing the government of “pulling a military dragnet” across LA and warning democracy is “under assault before our eyes”. The Democratic governor’s remarks come after Trump ordered the deployment of nearly 5,000 troops, including National Guard and Marines, to the nation’s second-largest city.
Protests against the Trump administration’s newly intensified immigration raids, centred on Los Angeles, spread across the country on Tuesday, with demonstrations in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Omaha and Seattle. Thousands attended a protest against the federal government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in New York City’s Foley Square.
A federal district court judge declined California’s request to issue an immediate temporary restraining order that would bar Marines and National Guard troops dispatched to Los Angeles from doing anything other than guarding federal buildings. The judge instead scheduled a hearing for Thursday on the state’s request for a restraining order.
Trump delivered a deeply partisan, political speech to the avowedly non-partisan US army at Fort Bragg, where he called Los Angeles “a trash heap”, repeated baseless conspiracy theories and announced he was not yet done changing the names of military bases back to honour confederates. Trump said he would “liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again”.
Trump denied accusing California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, of paying agitators to turn the protests in the city violent. Video footage from his speech at Fort Bragg just hours earlier, shows him clearly making the accusation.
Updated
“Donald Trump was hundreds of miles away from the White House on Tuesday, visiting one the country’s most venerable military bases, Fort Bragg in North Carolina, partly to big-up Saturday’s forthcoming celebration of America’s armed might in Washington – a parade spectacular ostensibly held in honor of the US armed forces’ birthday. But also his own.
With a new setting came the chance for a new theme. Instead the president chose an old one – American carnage.
Read the full compelling political sketch by the Guardian Robert Tait below.
In a post earlier today on his social media platform, Truth Social, president Trump described the tensions in Los Angeles as “Third World Lawlessness”.
Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our Country be destroyed by invasion and Third World lawlessness here at home, like is happening in California. As Commander in Chief, I will not let that happen.”
LAPD says 'mass arrests' underway in downtown LA
In a post on X, the LAPD says:
Multiple groups continue to congregate on 1st St between Spring and Alameda. Those groups are being addressed and mass arrests are being initiated. Curfew is in effect.”
Texas Governor says national guard will be deployed across the state
Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has said he will deploy the Texas National Guard to locations across the state to “ensure peace & order,” warning that the national guard will “use every tool & strategy to help law enforcement maintain order.”
Peaceful protest is legal. Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest.”
Earlier, a San Antonio police spokesperson said that members of the state’s National Guard were being sent to the city in advance of protests expected this week, but added they had no details about their deployment
Soldiers were “on standby in areas where mass demonstrations are planned in case they are needed,” Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said Tuesday evening.
Benjamin Alvarez, a correspondent for German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, has been reporting from the Federal Building in downtown LA, the site of continued protests and in an area now under a curfew.
He has documented a large and growing police presence, while other media have reported that arrests of some activists began soon after the curfew came into effect.
🚨 The Downtown Los Angeles curfew from 8:00pm to 6:00am is now officially in effect. pic.twitter.com/KphEWcN1EK
— Benjamin Alvarez (@BenjAlvarez1) June 11, 2025
He has since posted video of a large number of activists leaving the downtown area with a police helicopter hovering above them.
An LAPD helicopter flies over a group of protesters leaving the Los Angeles downtown area that is currently placed under a curfew. pic.twitter.com/pUDMX8kGoF
— Benjamin Alvarez (@BenjAlvarez1) June 11, 2025
Protests have continued to spread across the US and while many have been peaceful, others have resulted in clashes with law enforcement as officers made arrests and used chemical irritants to disperse crowds, AP reports.
Activists are planning more and even larger demonstrations in the coming days, with a “No Kings” events across the country on Saturday to coincide with Trump’s planned military parade through Washington.
About 150 protesters gathered outside the federal detention center in Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon and marched to Ice headquarters for speeches and then back to the detention center, according to Philadelphia police.
Fifteen people were arrested, one on allegations of aggravated assault on police, and the rest for disorderly conduct, police said. About 20 people remained peacefully gathered outside the detention center as of Tuesday night, police said.
About 200 protesters gathered outside the San Francisco immigration court after activists said several arrests were made there.
About 50 people gathered outside the immigration court in downtown Seattle, chanting with drums and holding up signs that said, “Free Them All; Abolish ICE” and “No to Deportations.” Protesters began putting scooters in front of building entryways before police arrived.
A number of people rallied in lower Manhattan on Tuesday evening to protest deportations and federal immigration policy. Demonstrators gathered outside two federal buildings that house immigration courts and began marching amid a heavy police presence.
New York City police said multiple people were taken into custody. There were no immediate charges.
In Chicago, a small crowd gathered outside an immigration court in downtown and called for an end to Trump administration immigration sweeps and military presence in California.
The demonstration had grown to at least a thousand protesters by late Tuesday, remaining relatively peaceful with limited engagement between the group and police officers.
A reminder about the scope of the curfew:
The curfew covers a 1 square mile (2.5 square kilometer) section of downtown. The city of Los Angeles itself encompasses roughly 500 square miles (nearly 2,300 square kilometers).
The curfew will run from 8pm on Tuesday until 6 am on Wednesday.
Earlier, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said that police had made 197 arrests on Tuesday, including 67 who were taken into custody for unlawfully occupying part of the 101 freeway.
CNN is reporting that arrests are taking place in downtown LA as the Los Angeles police department enforce the curfew.
A CNN reporter Nick Watt said the situation was fairly calm. He estimated between 10 to 20 people had been arrested.
There is some reaction rolling in from the Trump administration to California governor Gavin Newsom’s address.
Deputy assistant to the president and principal deputy communications director Alex Pfeiffer, meanwhile, wrote on X: “Gavin Newsom and his foot soldiers can continue to try to impede ICE. This Administration is not deterred. America’s laws will be enforced. ICE is out in the streets of LA 24/7 arresting criminals.”
Summary
There has been a flurry of activity in the past few hours – here is a wrap up of some key moments:
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a curfew for the city’s downtown area following several days of intense protests against Ice raids that saw clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement, widespread vandalism and some looting. The curfew began at 8pm local time on Tuesday and will last until 6am local time on Wednesday. It will apply to a one-square-mile area in downtown.
California governor Gavin Newsom delivered a searing rebuke of the Trump administration on Tuesday evening, accusing the government of “pulling a military dragnet” across LA and warning democracy is “under assault before our eyes”. The Democratic governor’s remarks come after Trump ordered the deployment of nearly 5,000 troops, including National Guard and Marines, to the nation’s second-largest city.
Protests against the Trump administration’s newly intensified immigration raids, centred on Los Angeles, spread across the country on Tuesday, with demonstrations in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Omaha and Seattle. Thousands attended a protest against the federal government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) in New York City’s Foley Square.
A federal district court judge declined California’s request to issue an immediate temporary restraining order that would bar Marines and National Guard troops dispatched to Los Angeles from doing anything other than guarding federal buildings. The judge instead scheduled a hearing for Thursday on the state’s request for a restraining order.
Trump delivered a deeply partisan, political speech to the avowedly non-partisan US army at Fort Bragg, where he called Los Angeles “a trash heap”, repeated baseless conspiracy theories and announced he was not yet done changing the names of military bases back to honour confederates. Trump said he would “liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again”.
Trump denied accusing California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, of paying agitators to turn the protests in the city violent. Video footage from his speech at Fort Bragg just hours earlier, shows him clearly making the accusation.
A curfew for downtown LA has now begun. It is in place until 6am Wednesday local time and applies to a one-square-mile area.
LA mayor Karen Bass earlier warned people who do not live or work in the affected area to stay away or face arrest, should they break the curfew.
National guard troops began protecting immigration agents as they made arrests in Los Angeles on Tuesday – an expansion of their duties that had been limited to protecting federal property, AP reports.
Photos posted by US immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) show national guard troops standing guard around officers as they made arrests.
Ice told AP the troops were providing security at federal facilities and protecting federal officers “who are out on daily enforcement operations.”
The change moves troops closer to engaging in law enforcement actions like deportations as president Donald Trump has promised as part of the administration’s immigration crackdown.
The guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers but any arrests ultimately would be made by law enforcement.
California governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday evening Trump was “pulling a military dragnet” across LA and immigrant families were too afraid to go to work or attend school graduations.
California governor Gavin Newsom has posted a section of his address to X, where he accuses Trump’s administration of pushing “mass deportations” that indiscriminately targets immigrant families “regardless of their roots or risk”.
Donald Trump, without consulting with California’s law enforcement leaders, commandeered 2,000 of our state’s National Guard members to deploy on our streets.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 11, 2025
Illegally, and for no reason.
This brazen abuse of power by a sitting President inflamed a combustible situation… pic.twitter.com/Xy8JHMq3cV
At an interfaith prayer vigil in downtown LA, a sprawling crowd had gathered alongside local faith leaders, advocates and several local politicians - despite a looming curfew.
LA supervisor Holly Mitchell told the Guardian she had walked over from her office to show support.
I am a third generation Angeleno and I am deeply offended by what’s been going on. People are afraid to go to work. Out of hate and racism, they’ve compromised our stability.
Faith leaders then led a march to the immigration court house in LA, where attorneys and families said they were persistently denied access to speak with immigrants detained during the weekend raids.
President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard in LA was “a brazen abuse of power”, that has “inflamed a combustible situation”, California governor Gavin Newsom said in a searing rebuke of the administration.
The Democratic governor’s remarks come after Trump ordered the deployment of nearly 5,000 troops, including National Guard and Marines, to the nation’s second-largest city.
In a 10 minute speech on Tuesday evening, Newsom said the situation had been winding down until the president got involved.
He again chose escalation. He chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety.
Newsom said he did not want LA streets militarised by armed forces.
We’re seeing unmarked cars … in school parking lots, kids afraid of attending their own graduation.
Trump is pulling a military dragnet all across Los Angeles, well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals.
His agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses. That’s just weakness, weakness masquerading as strength.
Newsom said Trump’s government was not protecting the community, but traumatising it “and that seems to be the entire point”.
If some of us could be snatched off the streets without a warrant based only on suspicion or skin colour, then none of us are safe.
Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists, they thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.
Trump’s decision to deploy the California national guard without his support should be a warning to other states that “democracy is under assault before our eyes” and they could be next.
Updated
Newsom says 'democracy is under assault'
California governor Gavin Newsom has delivered a blistering address against the Trump administration, warning democracy is “under assault before our eyes”.
Newsom said president Donald Trump was taking a “wrecking ball to our founding fathers’ historic project”.
This is a president who has declared a war on history, culture, science and knowledge itself.
Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists, they thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.
Newsom warned the situation unfolding in California was just the beginning.
This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived.
Newsom urged the public to become the “antidote” to the fear and division being sowed by the administration.
Updated
Governor Newsom says Trump administration inflamed situation in LA
In an address, governor of California, Gavin Newsom, says Angelenos have been exercising their right to free speech and assembly in the wake of the immigration raids.
He says LA police have been deployed to keep the peace.
Newsom said Trump illegally deployed National Guard troops, inflaming a combustible situation and putting people at risk, which has started a downward spiral.
He said Trump is not protecting the community, but traumatising them.
Trump is not opposed to lawlessness and violence as long as it serves him.
Updated
To bring you up to speed:
On Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a curfew for the city’s downtown area following several days of intense protests against Ice raids that saw clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement, widespread vandalism and some looting, particularly during the late night and early morning hours.
The curfew will begin at 8 pm local time on Tuesday and last until 6am local time on Wednesday and apply to a one-square-mile area in downtown.
Bass told reporters that while vandalism had caused significant damage downtown, it was not a citywide issue, hence the curfew applying to a contained area. She warned people who do not live or work in the affected area to stay away or face arrest, should they break the curfew.
Los Angeles police department chief Jim McDonnell said blocking freeways and not adhering to dispersal orders was dangerous and would not be tolerated.
If you are in the curfew zone during the restricted hours, without that legal exemption, you will be arrested, if you assault an officer in any fashion, you will be arrested.
Bass again called on the Trump administration to end the raids, saying if LA was to be “peaceful again” the raids needed to stop.
Updated
LA mayor Karen Bass said immigrant families are afraid to go to work or school amid the threat of raids, which has broader implications for the community.
When you frighten immigrants, and they don’t want to come to work, you are hitting at the heart of our local economy.
LA mayor Karen Bass again called on the Trump administration to end the raids.
We don’t know how long these raids are going to go on, if they’re going to go on for thirty days – that’s what the rumour is. If we want to see our city peaceful again, I will call upon the administration one more time to end the raids.
LA mayor Karen Bass said widespread vandalism had caused significant damage to businesses in the downtown LA area.
So my message to you is, if you do not live or work in downtown LA, avoid the area. Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted.
Bass said it was important to note this was not a citywide crisis, hence the curfew affecting a limited one square mile area.
A police spokesperson said the curfew was necessary to protect lives and property.
LA mayor declares local emergency and issues curfew for downtown
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass has declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles “to stop the vandalism and stop the looting”.
The curfew will be in place form 8pm-6am and will be one square mile. Bass called on non-residents to avoid the area.
Bass will consult with law enforcement about the continuation of the curfew but expects it to go for several days.
Images of anti-Ice protesters in New York
Xavier is a 56-year-old French immigrant who has been living in the US for 25 years also attended the protest in New York on Tuesday. He is protesting because he believes Trump’s actions are pushing the country backwards in time.
“I’m here because I do not like what Trump is doing to this country. I do not like his immigration policy. I do not like his racism. I do not like he’s taking right away one by one, basically, he’s bringing America back to the 60s even further.”
Xavier is highly critical of Trump’s deployment of the military in LA. “Once he sent the military, he was provoking people deliberately. That’s what he wants, but it’s not gonna work in his favor. He’s making a strategic mistake. Sure he has the military, he has the police. But at some point, you will push people to their limits. People are gonna react.”
Charlie, 36, protested against what he calls the “dehumanizing” treatment of immigrants by Ice agents in New York on Tuesday. Like many protestors, he declined to give his last name because he works for a company that he fears might not approve of his protesting.
“The people that are coming here for a better life are being treated like animals,” he said, wearing a Mexican flag. “Something needs to be done about it.”
Julia, 25, came in from Westchester county to attend the protest. “I’m out here using my extreme privilege being white in America, being born to white parents, and I want to use that to protect my community members, my friends, and just be here for people that can’t be here.”
Updated
Councilmember Shahana Hanif of Brooklyn spoke before the gigantic crowd at New York City’s Foley Square, where a protest against Ice is underway. She criticized both the Trump administration and NYC mayor Eric Adams for the actions of Ice.
“Mayor Adams has made it clear that he doesn’t care about working class people,” she said. “He does not care about any one of us. He is collaborating with Trump to use tactics. He’s complicit.”
She also expressed her desire to keep New York a sanctuary city, speaking about plans to introduce legislation to strengthen NYC’s sanctuary city status. Hanif also called for more protections for international students.
“Stop the attacks and assaults on our students!” she yelled enthusiastically, and was met with thousands of equally enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.
At the protest against Ice in New York City’s Foley Square, the turnout is easily in the thousands.
Shirley, a 29-year-old protestor, condemned the Trump administration for targeting workers, which she says is detrimental to the country’s foundation.
“I come from immigrant parents,” she said, with a large flag of Mexico draped across her back. “It’s very infuriating to see that this particular government is going into labor fields, taking people from construction sites, into industry, plants, into farms, and taking away what is the backbone of this country. So, I’m here today to remind everybody that the United States started as an immigrant country, and it’s a nation of immigrants, and I just want to make sure that I’m here for those who can’t be here today.
Shirley is not surprised by the large turnout at the march. “Once New York City is angry, everybody’s angry, and this just shows how we can all come together.”
In White House video, Trump rewrites history of 2020 protests with false claim Minnesota governor did not deploy National Guard
Twice on Tuesday, first in the Oval office, and then in his speech at Fort Bragg, Donald Trump repeated his false claim that Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, refused to call in the National Guard during the unrest in Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in 2020.
The White House posted video of Trump’s Oval office remarks, apparently unaware that Minnesota’s governor, himself a guardsman, had signed an executive order three days after Floyd’s murder, activating the Minnesota National Guard “to help protect Minnesotans’ safety and maintain peace in the wake of George Floyd’s death”.
In those comments, Trump falsely claimed both that the governor had waited seven days, and then that Trump himself had sent in the guard.
Trump repeated the false claim about Walz in a riff at Fort Bragg, in which he suggested that Democratic governors resisted using the National Guard to maintain order during protests.
Updated
Trump denies that he accused Newsom and Bass of paying protesters, hours after doing so in speech
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening, Donald Trump just denied that he had accused California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, of paying agitators to turn the protests in the city violent.
Asked about the accusation, Trump denied that he had made it. “No, I don’t say the governor and the mayor; I said, somebody’s paying them, I think” the president said.
But Trump clearly did make that accusation in his speech at Fort Bragg a few hours earlier. Here is video of him doing so:
Trump: In LA the governor of California, the mayor—they're incompetent and they paid troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists, they're engaged in this willful attempt to nullify federal law and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders pic.twitter.com/oxMjbNgKiX
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 10, 2025
Trump’s earlier rhetoric was also amplified on Tuesday by the department of homeland security in a social media video with the caption: “California politicians must call off their rioting mob.”
WATCH: DHS drone footage of LA rioters.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 10, 2025
This is not calm. This is not peaceful.
California politicians must call off their rioting mob. pic.twitter.com/WHNPlzEJG8
Updated
Protesters briefly shut down 101 freeway in Los Angeles
Just before 4pm local time in Los Angeles on Tuesday, protesters spilled on to the 101 freeway in downtown, video from an ABC7 news helicopter showed.
About 100 protesters, several of whom were live-streaming video on TikTik, including a man in a Mexican wrestler style mask who calls himself Pink P, blocked both sides of the freeway before being quickly cleared from the major artery by the California Highways Patrol within minutes.
A Los Angeles Times reporter, James Queally, captured video of the scene from the ground.
CHP has pushed the protesters back to the edge of the on ramp near Commerical. They took one person to the ground and have them in handcuffs, leading them away on the northern side of the 101 pic.twitter.com/nRwygNokVG
— James Queally (@JamesQueallyLAT) June 10, 2025
Updated
Back on the quieter side of the federal building block, a young man from South Central Los Angeles was selling a selection of flags to demonstrators, including a large printed mashup of the US and Mexican flags.
Mexican flags have long been a part of pro-immigrant protests in Los Angeles and elsewhere, and have also long sparked rightwing criticism, even though some Mexican-Americans say they are a symbol of pride in their heritage families and no different from Irish Americans carrying flags on Saint Patrick’s Day.
Trump has taken the criticism of flags a step further, saying earlier today that LA had seen “rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion”.
The Mexican/American fusion flags cost $20, and he had already sold two, the young man said, declining to give his name. He said he wasn’t sure who had made the flags, but thought they were probably made in China.
While most Angelenos are going about their normal days today, a few have shown up at the one protest block downtown to express their frustration at Trump’s actions.
Among them was Nora, 45, from Los Angeles, who came to demonstrate with her young niece.
Earlier this afternoon, only a tiny number of protesters stood in front of the Federal Building at 300 North Los Angeles, watched by California national guard members sent in by Donald Trump over the objections of California’s governor, a move California officials are arguing was illegal.
A woman carrying an upside down American flag strode up and down in front of the guard members, warning them that they were going to have to make a choice. “Make the right choice!” she called.
It’s a sunny, normal day in downtown Los Angeles – except for one square block, where some weird things are happening, mostly involving the police.
That one square block near Little Tokyo, bordered by Temple, North Los Angeles, East Aliso, and Alameda streets, is the location of several federal buildings that were the site of protests this weekend, including the Metropolitan detention center.
Early this afternoon, a handful of bored-looking California national guard members were leaning on their riot shields in front of the heavily graffitied federal building, with 25 or so media and protesters milling around in front of them.
Updated
In Newsom v Trump, federal judge declines California's request for emergency order to limit Marines and National Guard
A federal district court judge declined California’s request to issue an immediate temporary restraining order that would bar Marines and National Guard troops dispatched to Los Angeles from doing anything other than guardian federal buildings.
The judge, Charles Breyer, instead scheduled a hearing for Thursday on the state’s request for a restraining order.
A note on the San Francisco judge’s website explains the order of events:
In the case of Newsom v Trump (25-4870), the opposition to the motion for a temporary restraining order is due by 11:00 A.M. on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. Plaintiffs may file a response to that opposition by 9:00 A.M. on Thursday, June 12, 2025. The Court will hold a hearing on Plaintiffs’ motion in open court at 1:30 P.M. on Thursday, June 12, 2025. Any party wishing to appear by Zoom may do so.
Earlier on Tuesday, California governor Gavin Newsom and attorney general Rob Bonta on Tuesday had asked the court to issue an emergency restraining order by 1pm local time.
In a coincidence that the president will no doubt soon amplify, the judge, who was assigned by a random selection process to the case, is the younger brother of retired supreme court justice Stephen Breyer.
Charles Breyer is a former Watergate prosecutor, and a graduate of Harvard, who was first nominated to the federal bench by Bill Clinton in 1997.
Updated
In partisan speech at Fort Bragg, Trump invites troops to use his crude nickname for California's governor
At one point in Trump’s recently completed speech to soldiers at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, during which he repeatedly attacked Democratic political rivals in a way that used to be off-limits for the commander-in-chief of the avowedly non-partisan US military, the president told soldiers that he was giving them all a raise.
He mockingly suggested that they could, as patriots, say that would not accept the additional pay and ask that it be given back to the federal government instead.
“Now, you don’t have to take this if you don’t want,” Trump said. Then he imagined the soldiers using his own crude nickname for California’s Democratic governor. “You could be great patriots, say, ‘I don’t want a raise, I will not accept it, let it go back into our country. Let’s give it to Gavin Newscum, so he can waste it in Los Angeles.’”
Updated
Trump spreads conspiracy theory that Newsom and Bass 'paid troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists' in LA
Donald Trump just wrapped up his deeply partisan, political speech to the avowedly non-partisan US army and leaves to the campaign staple YMCA.
During his remarks to troops at Fort Bragg, Trump also spread a wild conspiracy theory that should not be overlooked, claiming something for which there is no evidence at all: that California’s Democratic elected officials have paid protesters to attack federal officers.
“In Los Angeles, the governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles, they’re incompetent and they paid troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists. They’re engaged in this willful attempt to nullify federal law, and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders,” the president said without reference to reality.
The president also called Los Angeles “a trash heap” and claimed, falsely, that “entire neighborhoods under control” of criminals.
“We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again,” Trump said.
Updated
Trump narrates story of US army's role in war of 1812, leaving out previous claim that 'airports' were seized
After repeating a series of deeply partisan claims about his 2024 election victory, Donald Trump turned to the announced subject of the speech, the founding of the US army 250 years ago.
Trump then went on to narrate highlights of the army’s history, including its role in defeating the British in the war of 1812.
Trump told the tale of Francis Scott Key, whose poem about a battle in that war was later transformed into the current US national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner. Trump then greeted Major Kyle Key, a descendant of the poet. Trump also praised the major’s looks, suggesting that was the result of “great genetics”. (Trump has long held and celebrated eugenicist views.)
The last time Trump attempted to discuss this history, at a Fourth of July speech in Washington in 2019, he memorably struggled to read the rain-streaked teleprompter, and made the improbable claims that the Continental Army was “named after” George Washington in 1775, and that, during the War of 1812, “Our army manned the amperth, ranned the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do.”
Updated
Trump repeats baseless conspiracy theory that bricks were staged for protesters in Los Angeles
As his increasingly partisan speech to the military at Fort Bragg continues, Trump referenced a viral conspiracy theory that pallets of bricks were left out for protesters to hurl at police officers in Los Angeles. “They came in with bricks,” Trump said.
This claim was made repeatedly in 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
In June 2020, the week after Floyd was murdered, the Trump White House boosted the viral conspiracy theory by releasing a compilation of video clips posted on social media by people who believed, wrongly, that piles of bricks they came across had been planted there by “antifa and professional anarchists” to inspire violence at protests.
Within hours, after reporters showed that those clips showed bricks from construction projects that were in process before the protests started, the White House deleted the video from its official social media accounts, without apology or explanation, but only after it had been viewed more than a million times on Twitter alone.
Our colleague Blake Montgomery has looked more closely at the rampant spread of misinformation about what’s happening in Los Angeles that is spreading on social media platforms controlled by pro-Trump billionaires.
Updated
Trump claims LA protesters bearing foreign flags as part of a 'foreign invasion'
In a deeply partisan speech at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Donald Trump just made the baseless claim that the protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles are being led by paid “rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion”.
Trump goaded the crowd of soldiers listening to his speech at the base to boo and jeer first the former president, Joe Biden, and then the governor of California, Gavin Newsom.
He moved on to recite a series of conspiracy theories he has aired at political rallies, attacking Biden as mentally incompetent, and then boasted about what he called the great success of his fiscal policies.
Trump told the assembled crowd that the leaders of three Gulf monarchies had told him on his recent visit that the United States was “the hottest” country in the world, thanks to his policies – which have caused chaos in the financial markets.
Updated
Trump announces more military bases will have names changed back to original names of confederates
Trump announces that he is not done changing the names of military bases back to honor confederates, saying that the next changes will be to restore the names of: Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort AP Hill, and Fort Robert E Lee.
Updated
Trump boasts of restoring the name of Fort Bragg to military base
Donald Trump just began his remarks by boasting that he had restored the name Fort Bragg to the military base in North Carolina. When he complained about the base having been renamed Fort Liberty by the Biden administration, to stop honoring a confederate general who fought to preserve slavery in the US civil war, the assembled soldiers behind him jeered the decision of the previous commander-in-chief.
Updated
Trump enters, first to the strains of the presidential anthem, Hail to the Chief, and then to his walk-on music at political rallies, the country star Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA.
Pete Hegseth, the former Fox pundit now serving as defense secretary, took the stage ahead of Trump’s speech and immediately reminded everyone that he had changed the name of the base in North Carolina back to Fort Bragg in February.
“Good afternoon, Fort Bragg! It is Fort Bragg, isn’t it?”
The base was renamed Fort Liberty in 2023 because its original namesake, General Braxton Bragg, was a Confederate leader from Warrenton, North Carolina, who was known for owning slaves and losing key Civil War battles, contributing to the Confederacy’s downfall.
Hegseth claimed that Hegseth he renamed the base to honor Roland L. Bragg, a private the army said was a World War II hero who earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart for exceptional courage during the Battle of the Bulge.
Donald Trump is about to speak at Fort Bragg, a military base in North Carolina. As the crowd awaits his appearance, the wrestler Hulk Hogan’s theme song, “I am a real American” blares out.
Next up on the playlist, “Macho Man”, the Village People anthem that was memorably played for Trump in a massive stadium in India ahead of his appearance there in 2020.
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In response to House speaker Mike Johnson advocating for a brutal form of vigilante justice to be performed on the Democratic California governor, Gavin Newsom, earlier today, saying he should be “tarred and feathered” for his opposition to immigration agents’ enforcement actions in the state, Newsom replied:
Good to know we’re skipping the arrest and going straight for the 1700’s style forms of punishment. A fitting threat given the [Republicans] want to bring our country back to the 18th century,” when what is now the US was ruled by a monarch.
This came after Johnson declined to say if Newsom and other California officials should be arrested – as Donald Trump and his “border czar”, Tom Homan, have recently floated – for allegedly impeding federal deportations.
Tarring and feathering, in which the recipient is stripped naked and wood tar is applied to the skin followed by feathers, is first recorded as being used in 1189 in orders issued by Richard I of England during the Crusades.
But it became a more common form of vigilante justice for tax evaders, customs officials and others in British colonies in North America and used by Continental forces against the British during the American revolutionary war. It is now most commonly used as a metaphor for the application of public humiliation.
In his comments today, Johnson repeated his position that any decision to arrest Newsom was not his to make, but the governor was “standing in the way of the administration of carrying out federal law”.
He is applauding the bad guys and standing in the way of the good guys. He is a participant, an accomplice.
I’m not going to give you legal analysis on whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested. But he ought to be tarred and feathered, I’ll say that.
California asks for emergency order blocking Trump administration from using military to enforce laws in the state
And here’s my colleague Lauren Gambino’s take.
California governor Gavin Newsom and attorney general Rob Bonta on Tuesday asked a court to grant an emergency restraining order to stop defense secretary Pete Hegseth from using military forces to accompany federal immigration enforcement officers on raids throughout Los Angeles.
“The President is looking for any pretense to place military forces on American streets to intimidate and quiet those who disagree with him,” Bonta said.
It’s not just immoral — It’s illegal and dangerous.
The suit asks for a ruling immediately by 1pm PST.
“The federal government is now turning the military against American citizens. Sending trained warfighters onto the streets is unprecedented and threatens the very core of our democracy,” Newsom said.
Donald Trump is behaving like a tyrant, not a President. We ask the court to immediately block these unlawful actions.
The request comes a day after Newsom and Bonta filed a lawsuit challenging as “unlawful” Trump’s deployment of 4,000 national guard troops to Los Angeles, which they said “trampled” state sovereignty.
Last night, hundreds of troops were transferred to Los Angeles, over the objections of Democratic officials and despite concerns from local law enforcement.
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CNN has more detail on this, reporting that attorneys for California have asked a federal judge for an emergency order that would temporarily stop the Trump administration from using members of the state’s National Guard to enforce laws in the state, including by assisting federal officials with immigration enforcement.
In comments reported by CNN, attorneys for the state told the court the requested order “will prevent the use of federalized National Guard and active duty Marines for law enforcement purposes on the streets of a civilian city”.
But they noted that they were not seeking to prevent the federalized National Guard members from “protecting the safety of federal buildings or other real property owned or leased by the federal government, or federal personnel on such property”.
Donald Trump and secretary of defense Pete Hegseth – who California sued yesterday – “intend to use unlawfully federalized National Guard troops and Marines to accompany federal immigration enforcement officers on raids throughout Los Angeles,” California attorney general Rob Bonta wrote in court papers. The filing reads:
Federal antagonization, through the presence of soldiers in the streets, has already caused real and irreparable damage to the City of Los Angeles, the people who live there, and the State of California. They must be stopped, immediately.
Earlier today, the case was assigned to senior US district judge Charles R Breyer of the federal trial-level court in San Francisco. Breyer, a Clinton appointee, has not yet responded to the emergency request.
Updated
California has asked a federal court for a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s deployment of both state National Guard forces and US Marines to Los Angeles amid mass protests over sweeping federal immigration enforcement efforts, the LA Times (paywall) reports.
According to the Times report, the request was filed in the same federal lawsuit the state and state governor Gavin Newsom filed yesterday, in which they alleged Donald Trump had exceeded his authority and violated the US Constitution by sending military forces into the city without the request or approval of the state governor or local officials.
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Local law enforcement agencies 'saved the day' not the national guard, LA mayor says
Karen Bass pushed back against Donald Trump’s repeated claims that his order to deploy the National Guard is what helped quell the protests in Los Angeles.
We know how to take care of these issues ourselves. When you said things have gotten under control because of the National Guard, I gave you an example where the National Guard wasn’t even here and he was tweeting that out.
She was referring to the fact that Trump was online taking credit for the national guard helping calm down protests, thanking them on Saturday night before the national guard actually arrived on Sunday morning – as Gavin Newsom pointed out at the time.
She went on to say that the national guard was just protecting the federal buildings in the city.
They are stationary at the federal building protecting the building they are not out doing crowd control or anything like that.
So I don’t know how he could say that the National Guard is who saved the day. Who saved the day are our local law enforcement agencies.
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Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass said she is “going to put out a call” to Donald Trump today. She told a news conference:
I want to tell him to stop the raids. I want to tell him that this is a city of immigrants. I want to tell him that if you want to devastate the economy of the city of Los Angeles, then attack the immigrant population.
Asked if she has been trying to reach the president, Bass said she has not reached out directly to Trump yet.
My conversations with people either in the administration or close to the administration have been continuing.
LA mayor says a curfew is an option being discussed
Karen Bass has said she will be meeting later today with the chief of LAPD to discuss the possibility of a curfew in response to unrest in downtown LA.
The LA mayor said her focus was on prevention of any further unrest, and she had already had a brief discussion with the chief this morning about the idea of a curfew.
Updated
Sources have told CNN that it is still unclear what the marines’ specific task will be once in Los Angeles. As we’ve been reporting, like the National Guard troops they are prohibited from conducting law enforcement activity such as making arrests - unless Trump invokes the Insurrection Act, which he didn’t rule out today.
LA mayor Karen Bass earlier told a news conference she also has “no idea” what the hundreds of marines are going to do when they arrive.
People have asked me, ‘What are the Marines going to do when they get here?’ That’s a good question. I have no idea.
She said the national guard troops that are already in the city “have one assignment”, which is to protect specific federal buildings – which Bass also reiterated was “not needed”, and blasted the Trump administration for deploying the military personnel despite governor Gavin Newsom’s opposition.
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Those involved in violence and vandalism will be prosecuted, says LA mayor
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass has warned that those vandalizing federal property and looting stores in downtown Los Angeles amid the anti-Ice protests will be “held accountable”.
“Let me be clear: ANYONE who vandalized Downtown or looted stores does not care about our immigrant communities,” Bass said this morning on X. “You will be held accountable.”
In further comments at a press conference earlier, Bass reissued her warning, saying people committing violence and vandalism weren’t doing so “in support of immigrants”.
I do not believe that individuals that commit vandalism and violence in our city really are in support of immigrants. They have another agenda. If you support immigrants and the rights of immigrants to be in our city, you would not be tearing the city apart or vandalizing it.
She stressed that the unrest is not citywide and has only been taking place on “a few blocks within the downtown area”, but added that the graffiti extends beyond those few blocks.
Unfortunately, the visuals make it seem as though our entire city is in flames, and it is not the case at all.
She said those engaged in violence or are vandalizing areas will arrested.
No individual that is involved in vandalism shouldn’t think because they went home that night, that they’re off Scot-free. Because investigations will take place and I am assured by the police department that there will be follow up and arrests.
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Congressional Black Caucus chair Yvette Clarke has said that Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to respond to protests in Los Angeles rises to the level of an impeachable offense, NBC News reports.
“This president has crossed the line,” Clarke, a Democratic representative of New York, said at a press conference. She said she doesn’t believe an “insurrection” is taking place in Los Angeles, and accused Trump of wanting violence, not stopping it. His decision to deploy Marines to the city – which is estimated to cost $134m - was, she said, a “waste of taxpayer dollars”.
Asked if she believed Trump’s actions rise to the level of impeachable offenses, Clarke said:
I do. I believe it is. I definitely believe it is, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
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Public schools in Los Angeles have announced a new security plan to keep immigration officers away from any potentially undocumented students and their families who are attending this week’s school graduations.
“Every single graduation site is a protected site,” said Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the country’s second largest school district, at a Monday press conference, having previously said he was “dismayed by recent immigration enforcement activity occurring near our schools”.
Carvalho announced Monday that he had directed the school district’s police force to “establish perimeters of safety around graduation sites to interfere and intervene with any agency who may want to take action during these joyous times that we call graduation”.
More than 100 graduation ceremonies were scheduled in the district for yesterday and today.
Carvalho said school principals have been instructed to implement measures that would allow parents to immediately enter the graduation venues without delay, in order to reduce “the risk for them while on the street waiting to get in”, as well as to allow “parents to remain at the venue for as long as it takes should there be any immigration enforcement action around the area”.
Other school areas – including buses and bus stops – will also be monitored and protected, Carvalho said, and virtual viewing options had also been made available for parents who are not able to attend.
Every child has a right to a public education therefore every child and their parent has a right to celebrate the culmination of their educational success. We will protect every parent, every child, every workforce member.
Trump says anyone who protests at Saturday's military parade 'will be met with very heavy force'
Donald Trump warned people against protesting at this weekend’s military parade in Washington to celebrate the US Army’s 250th anniversary.
“For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I haven’t even heard about a protest, but you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force.”
Law enforcement agencies are preparing for hundreds of thousands of people to attend Saturday’s parade, Secret Service special agent in charge Matt McCool (his real name) said yesterday, according to Reuters.
McCool said thousands of agents, officers and specialists will be deployed from law enforcement agencies from across the country.
The FBI and the Metropolitan police department have said there are no credible threats to the event.
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Newsom says Trump did not call him after president says they spoke 'a day ago'
Contrary to what Trump just told reporters in the Oval Office, Gavin Newsom has said “there was no call. Not even a voicemail,” to him from the president.
Trump earlier said he last spoke to Newsom “a day ago”.
“I called him up to tell him he’s gotta do a better job,” Trump said, claiming without evidence that the governor was “causing a lot of potential death”.
“Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to,” Newsom wrote on X.
There was no call. Not even a voicemail.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 10, 2025
Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to. https://t.co/y7TJUhUZGI
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Kristi Noem attacks Tim Walz's handling of 2020 protests after police murder of George Floyd
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem has told reporters in the Oval Office she watched Tim Walz “let his city burn” in 2020.
She is referring to the protests that took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Walz was and still is governor, in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd. As the protests got more serious, Walz ordered a partial mobilization of the National Guard on 28 May 2020, before ordering a full mobilization on 30 May 2020.
There has been a nuanced debate around Walz’s response to the riots and whether he deployed the National Guard quickly enough, with Walz himself acknowledging a level of “abject failure” on his part. He drew sharp criticism from Minnesota Republicans at the time, and the issue was revived by the GOP when he announced as Kamala Harris’s running mate last year.
Back in the Oval Office today, Noem implied that Trump’s decision for federal intervention in LA was important to preventing scenes such as those in Minneapolis in 2020.
The president and I talked about this in the past and he was not going to let that happen to another city and another community where a bad governor made a bad decision.
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth also earlier tried to compare Walz and California governor Gavin Newsom’s respective handling of the protests, saying:
President Trump recognizes a situation like that, improperly handled by a governor, like it was by Governor Waltz ... If it gets out of control, it’s a bad situation for the citizens of any location.
In fact, in June 2020, then-president Donald Trump had heaped praise on Walz for his state-controlled use of the National Guard, telling a conference call of governors:
What they did in Minneapolis was incredible. They went in and dominated, and it happened immediately.
Trump’s tune changed in July last year when he was the Republican presidential nominee, and he also falsely took credit for mobilizing the National Guard in Minnesota:
Every voter in Minnesota needs to know that when the violent mobs of anarchists and looters and Marxists came to burn down Minneapolis four years ago - remember me? - I couldn’t get your governor to act. He’s supposed to call in the National Guard or the Army. And he didn’t do it.
Updated
Trump claims that he stopped the violence in LA “by doing what I did”.
'When there's no danger, they'll leave,' says Trump on how long National Guard will remain in California
Asked how long the National Guard will be in California, Trump says “until there’s no danger”.
“It’s common sense … When there’s no danger, they’ll leave,” he adds, repeating his claim that “you would’ve had a horrible situation had I not sent them in”.
Trump repeats his claim that anti-Ice demonstrators in Los Angeles are “paid insurrectionists, or agitators, or troublemakers, you can call it whatever you want”.
My colleague Tess Owen wrote about this use of language here:
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Trump says he last spoke to Newsom “a day ago”.
“I called him up to tell him he’s gotta do a better job,” Trump says, claiming without evidence that the governor was “causing a lot of potential death”.
Updated
Asked about California governor Gavin Newsom earlier suggesting Marines were being used as “political pawns”, Trump said:
I just want a safe area. Los Angeles was under siege until we got there. The police were unable to handle it. You can speak to the chief. He said ‘this is more than we can handle’.
In this case, they were trying their best but they were not able to handle it. It was out of control.
Updated
Trump on Insurrection Act: 'If there’s an insurrection I would certainly invoke it'
Asked whether he would invoke the Insurrection Act in response to protests in LA, Trump has just told reporters in the Oval Office:
If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see.
He continued, calling the past two days in LA “terrible”.
Asked how he would determine if there was an “insurrection”, Trump said he would “take a look at what’s happening”, adding that he believed there were certain areas of LA that seemed to experience where “you could’ve called it an insurrection”.
Updated
Marines arrive in LA area on Trump's orders after quieter night of protest - NYT
The approximately 700 Marines deployed by the Trump administration after protests erupted against Ice immigration raids have arrived in the Los Angeles area, the US Northern Command said on Tuesday, according to the New York Times (paywall).
A spokeswoman for the command, Becky Farmer, told the NYT she could not comment further on their specific location.
Trump administration to cut all USAID overseas roles and axe thousands of staff
The Trump administration will eliminate all USAID (United States Agency for International Development) overseas positions worldwide by 30 September in a dramatic restructuring of remaining US foreign aid operations.
In a Tuesday state department cable obtained by the Guardian, secretary of state Marco Rubio ordered the abolishment of the agency’s entire international workforce, transferring control of foreign assistance programs directly to the state department.
The directive affects thousands of USAID staff globally, including foreign service officers, contractors and locally employed personnel across more than 100 countries. Chiefs of mission at US embassies have been told to prepare for the sweeping changes to occur within four months.
“The Department of State is streamlining procedures under National Security Decision Directive 38 to abolish all USAID overseas positions,” the cable reads, adding that the department “will assume responsibility for foreign assistance programming previously undertaken by USAID” from 15 June.
The state department did not respond to a request for comment.
Trump's deployment of troops to Los Angeles to cost an estimated $134 million, Pentagon says
Donald Trump’s deployment of troops to Los Angeles is estimated to cost about $134m, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday.
Bryn MacDonnell, who is performing the duties of comptroller at the Pentagon, told lawmakers that the cost included the cost of travel, housing and food for the troops.
The Pentagon has said that it will deploy a total of over 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles to help protect federal property and personnel.
Updated
Hegseth says he anticipates military will remain in LA for 60 days
Pete Hegseth has told the House committee that he’s anticipating military personnel to stay in Los Angeles for 60 days to “ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we’re not going anywhere”.
Updated
Kristi Noem sought military arrests in LA but request was not granted - San Francisco Chronicle
The day before the Trump administration mobilized 700 Marines to downtown Los Angeles, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem asked defense secretary Pete Hegseth to direct the military to detain or arrest “lawbreakers”, according to the San Francisco Chronicle (paywall).
A letter sent from Noem to Hegseth on Sunday, obtained by the Chronicle, requested that the Pentagon give “Direction to DoD forces to either detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them.”
Under federal law, the military is generally barred from taking part in domestic law enforcement. Granting Noem’s request would likely require the administration to sidestep those laws by invoking the Insurrection Act (Donald Trump has downplayed suggestions that he plans to do that).
However, the Chronicle reports, a homeland security spokesperson suggested today that the request was not granted after Noem and Hegseth met with Trump, saying: “The posture of our brave troops has not changed.”
Noem also asked Hegseth for “drone surveillance support”, as well as weapons and logistics assistance, per the Chronicle’s report.
Updated
California congressman Pete Aguilar pressed defense secretary Pete Hegseth further on why it was necessary to deploy US Marines against civilian protesters in Los Angeles.
“What’s the justification for using the military for civilian law enforcement purposes in LA? Why are you sending war fighters to cities to interact with civilians?” Aguilar asked.
“Every American citizen deserves to live in a community that’s safe, and Ice agents need to be able to do their job. They’re being attacked for doing their job, which is deporting illegal criminals. That shouldn’t happen in any city, Minneapolis or Los Angeles, and if they’re attacked, that’s lawless,” Hegseth replied.
Aguilar then asked the secretary to point to Donald Trump’s legal grounds for deploying troops domestically, noting that under the law he has used, that can only be done on three grounds: to counter “invasion by a foreign nation, ... dangerous rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States or [if] the president is unable with regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”
“I don’t know. You just read it yourself, so people can listen themselves, but it sounds like all three to me,” Hegseth shot back. He then claimed that “you’ve got millions of illegals you don’t know where they’re coming from” and “they’re waving flags from foreign countries and assaulting police officers”.
“The governor of California has failed to protect his people, along with the mayor of Los Angeles,” Hegseth continued. “President Trump has all the authorities necessary, and thankfully, he’s willing to do it on behalf of the citizens of Los Angeles.”
House speaker says Newsom should be 'tarred and feathered' over handling of LA protests
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson declined to answer whether he agreed with Donald Trump that California governor Gavin Newsom should be arrested over his handling of protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles..
“That’s not my lane,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday.
I’m not going to give you legal analysis on whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested.
But he ought to be tarred and feathered, I’ll say that.
Q: "Do you believe that Newsom should face consequences in a legal way?"
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 10, 2025
.@SpeakerJohnson: "That's not my lane. I'm not going to give you legal analysis on whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested but he ought to be tarred and feathered, I'll say that." pic.twitter.com/7C50t1rrE6
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Celebrities have reacted to the ongoing chaos in Los Angeles, calling out Ice officials and praising those protesting against them.
Oscar-nominated actor Mark Ruffalo posted a lengthy message on Instagram referring to the “oligarchy” that Americans now find themselves in. “You are pointing your guns in the wrong direction,” he wrote. “Can’t you see that maybe we are being tricked to tear each other apart while they rake it in?”
His message saw a positive response from names including Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Marisa Tomei and Melanie Griffith. Pascal also shared a video celebrating the diversity of America, writing: “Los Ángeles. Built by the best of U.S. #Protect our #Protectors #RESIST.”
Tyler, the Creator also posted an Instagram story, writing “Fuck Ice” while singer Kehlani, who was recently barred from performing at Cornell University for her anti-genocide comments, wrote: “Long live the resistance”.
As we reported earlier, rapper Doechii used her acceptance speech at last night’s BET awards o express outrage over the situation. “There are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities in the name of law and order,” she said. “Trump is using military forces to stop a protest.” She added: “We all deserve to live in hope and not in fear.”
Director Ava DuVernay, who recently called out Trump’s criminal behaviour in a rousing speech, wrote about the hypocrisy of what’s happening. “I’m witnessing tear gas and non-lethal rounds being unleashed on peaceful protesters in DTLA,” she wrote in an Instagram story. “People of all ages and stripes from all over the city, raising their voices. And being treated worse than January 6 terrorists.”
Texas governor Greg Abbott said more than a dozen protesters were arrested during demonstrations in Austin on Monday.
“Peaceful protesting is legal,” Abbott wrote on social media. “But once you cross the line, you will be arrested.”
Democratic congressman for California John Garamendi said Donald Trump’s response to the protests in downtown Los Angeles is about Trump “pretending that he is the king of this nation, that he has the ultimate power and authority to do anything he wants to do.”
Garamendi, speaking to CNN on Tuesday, said the “very significant blowback” created by recent immigration raids and Trump’s actions were to be expected. He said:
They are not finding criminals. They’re finding people that are hard-working family members, some of them are in school. They’ve created fear all across this country.
Hegseth on decision to deploy troops in LA: 'Ice ought to be able to do its job'
Pete Hegseth was pressed about his decision to deploy Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles by Betty McCollum, the top Democrat on the House appropriations subcommittee before which the defense secretary is testifying.
McCollum wanted to know how much the deployments, which have been made over the objections of California’s governor Gavin Newsom, would cost, and what training and other duties the troops were passing up because of the deployment.
She also noted that no such troops were deployed in 2020 during protests that followed George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. Hegseth said:
In Los Angeles, we believe that Ice, which is a federal law enforcement agency, has the right to safely conduct operations in any state and any jurisdiction in the country, especially after 21 million illegals have crossed our border under the previous administration. Ice ought to be able to do its job, whether it’s Minneapolis or Los Angeles. The police chief said she was overwhelmed, so we helped.
McCollum objected to Hegseth’s answers, saying he refused to respond to her questions about the defense department’s budget.
Updated
Here are some pictures coming out of LA this morning.
Hegseth faces grilling on Capitol Hill for first time since Signal scandal and troops sent to LA
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to field sharp questions from members of Congress about his tumultuous start as Pentagon chief, including his sharing of sensitive military details over a Signal group chat, in three separate Capitol Hill hearings beginning today.
This will be his first appearance before a House committee since his epic and controversy-ridden Senate confirmation hearings over four months ago – and a lot has happened since then, so it could be a lengthy one.
Lawmakers are also sure to quiz Hegseth on the legality of his mobilization of 700 active-duty marines to assist more than 4,100 national guard troops in protecting federal buildings and personnel. We can expect questions about what the troops are expected to do and how much it will all cost.
Under the Posse Comitatus Act, troops are prohibited from policing US citizens on American soil. Invoking the Insurrection Act, which allows troops to do that, is incredibly rare, and Trump has downplayed suggestions that he plans to do that.
Hegseth’s conduct around Signalgate is bound to come up, both in terms of his sharing of attack plans in Yemen and his subsequent denials that the information was classified. We can also expect questions around the general sense of chaos around the Pentagon since he took charge, with a number of key staff being fired.
Lawmakers also have made it clear they are unhappy that Hegseth has not provided details on the administration’s first proposed defense budget, which Donald Trump has said would total $1tn, a significant increase over the current spending level of more than $800bn.
It will also be lawmakers’ first chance to ask Hegseth about a myriad of other controversial spending by the Pentagon, including plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on security upgrades to turn a Qatari jet into Air Force One and to pour as much as $45m into a parade recently added to the Army’s 250th birthday bash, which happens to coincide with Trump’s birthday on Saturday.
We did say a lot’s happened. We’ll bring you all the key lines here.
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CNN reporters on the ground in downtown Los Angeles, the site of much of the anti-Ice protests over the past five days, report that while some buildings have been vandalized, and there is graffiti in downtown, much of LA has not been affected by the protests.
According to CNN – and very much contrary to Trump’s comments about the city – the damage was “not a sliver just of Los Angeles, it’s really a sliver of downtown. Much of the rest of the city is functioning as per normal.”
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‘The language of authoritarianism’: how Trump and allies cast LA as a lawless city
Trump’s language in that last post is just another example of the familiar script of the president and his allies, who – as my colleague Tess Owen writes – over the last few days cast the sprawling city of Los Angeles in shades of fire and brimstone, a hub of dangerous lawlessness that required urgent military intervention in order to be contained.
But as we know, the demonstrations were actually confined to very small areas of the city and life generally went on as usual across much of LA.
This language is deliberate, says Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University and scholar on fascist and authoritarian movements, who tells Tess the rhetoric coming from the Trump administration is “an authoritarian trick”.
You create a sense of existential fear that social anarchy is spreading, that criminal gangs are taking over. This is the language of authoritarianism all over the world.
What is the only recourse to violent mobs and agitators? Using all the force of the state. Thus we have the vision of the national guard, armed to the teeth. It’s like a war zone. That’s on purpose, it’s habituating Americans to see those armed forces as being in combat on the streets of American cities.
The protests turned violent when federal immigration authorities used flash bang grenades and tear gas against demonstrators. Over the weekend, fiery and chaotic scenes played out in downtown LA, Compton and Paramount. Dozens of people were arrested for an array of crimes, including an alleged tossing of a molotov cocktail towards Ice officers. Protesters shut down a freeway, several self-driving vehicles were torched and dumpsters were set alight, and there were scattered reports of looting.
Still, as mayor Karen Bass noted on CNN on Monday, on “a few streets downtown, it looks horrible”, but there was “not citywide civil unrest”.
Trump has also repeatedly suggested that some of the individuals involved in the protest were “paid”, invoking a popular rightwing conspiracy about dark money bankrolling liberal causes.
This, too, is another tactic out of the authoritarian playbook, according to Ben-Ghiat.
If there are any protests against the autocrat, you have to discredit them by saying they are crisis actors, they are foreign infiltrators. You have to discredit them in the public eye.
Updated
Trump again defends decision to 'send in the troops'
Donald Trump has again defended his decision to deploy the National Guard to LA, claiming if he hadn’t “that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground right now”.
As many have pointed out already, the demonstrations started out peacefully, and while some buildings have been vandalized and looted, some cars were set alight and there is graffiti downtown, much of Los Angeles has not been affected at all.
Trump then went on a tirade about rebuilding houses in LA and again attacked governor, Gavin Newsom, and mayor, Karen Bass. It’s unclear where Trump got the “25,000 houses burned to the ground from”, but if he’s referring to the most recent wildfires, which caused significant damage and displacement in the area, the number of homes, businesses and other structures destroyed was around 12,000, not 25,000.
Here’s Trump’s Truth Social post:
If I didn’t “SEND IN THE TROOPS” to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now, much like 25,000 houses burned to the ground in L.A. do to an incompetent Governor and Mayor - Incidentally, the much more difficult, time consuming, and stringent FEDERAL PERMITTING PROCESS is virtually complete on these houses, while the easy and simple City and State Permits are disastrously bungled up and WAY BEHIND SCHEDULE! They are a total mess, and will be for a long time. People want to rebuild their houses. Call your incompetent Governor and Mayor, the Federal permitting is DONE!!!
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The day so far
Last night Trump sent another 2,000 National Guard troops to LA, following the original 2,000 sent on Saturday.
A battalion of 700 marines were also temporarily mobilized to Los Angeles, marking another escalation in Trump’s response to street protests over his aggressive immigration policies. LAPD said it had not been formally notified and the marines’ arrival would present “a significant logistical and operational challenge”.
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said US marines are “not political pawns” and called the Trump administration’s deployment a “blatant abuse of power”. He again accused Trump of “trying to provoke chaos”.
Dozens of people were arrested in California, as other protests sprung up in at least nine other US cities overnight, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. In Austin, Texas, police fired nonlethal munitions and detained several people as they clashed with a crowd of several hundred protesters.
California yesterday said Trump’s deployment of the National Guard was illegal and violated the state’s sovereignty and federal law, according to a court filing of its lawsuit against the US government.
Australia’s prime minister denounced the “horrific” shooting of a rubber bullet at an Australian television reporter covering the unrest in LA. Anthony Albanese said the reporter could reasonably have expected not to be “targeted” with a rubber bullet while doing her job in Los Angeles. The footage showed she was “clearly identified” as a member of the media, with “no ambiguity”, he said. “We don’t find it acceptable that it occurred, and we think the role of the media is particularly important.” He said he had raised the incident with the Trump administration.
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Army Secretary Dan Driscoll will also be at Tuesday’s event where Donald Trump will address US soldiers at Fort Bragg as the President deploys the military in an attempt to quiet immigration protests in Los Angeles.
Driscoll will attend along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, service members, veterans and their families to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the US Army.
Fort Bragg, located near Fayetteville, North Carolina, serves as headquarters for US Army Special Operations Command. Highly trained units like the Green Berets and the Rangers are based there.
About 700 US marines were en route to Los Angeles on Tuesday after Donald Trump mobilized them the day before in response to protests over immigration raids. The president also doubled the number of national guard members to 4,000, in an extraordinary mobilization of troops against US residents that California leaders have called “authoritarian”.
The Pentagon mobilized the 700 active-duty marines after tensions between the federal government and the nation’s second-largest city dramatically escalated over the weekend, with residents taking to the streets to demonstrate against a series of brutal crackdowns on immigrant communities. The raids have affected garment district workers, day laborers and restaurants, and agents also arrested the president of a major California union who was serving as a community observer during the raids.
Read more here:
Donald Trump and his allies turned to a familiar script over the weekend, casting the sprawling city of Los Angeles in shades of fire and brimstone, a hub of dangerous lawlessness that required urgent military intervention in order to be contained.
“Looking really bad in L.A.,” Trump posted on Truth Social in the very early hours of Monday morning. “BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!”
But contrary to the Trump administration’s characterization of an entire city in tumult, the demonstrations were actually confined to very small areas and life generally went on as usual across much of the city.
Read the full report here:
Gaby Hinsliff thinks Trump has unleashed something terrifying in the US – that even he may be powerless to control:
She was live on air to viewers back home, her TV microphone clearly in hand, when the rubber bullet hit her. The Australian reporter Lauren Tomasi was the second journalist after the British photographer Nick Stern to be shot with non-lethal rounds while covering protests in Los Angeles sparked by immigration raids. But she was the first to be caught on camera and beamed around the world. There’s no excuse for not knowing what the US is becoming, now that anyone can watch that clip online. Not when you can hear her scream and see the cameraman quickly swing away to film a panicking crowd.
Gaby Hinsliff
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Here are some more images coming to us over the wires from the protests:
Trump to address soldiers in North Carolina in visit with Hegseth
President Donald Trump will address US soldiers on Tuesday as his administration deploys 700 marines to Los Angeles in an escalating response to street protests over his immigration policies.
Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth are scheduled to visit Fort Bragg, North Carolina, home to around 50,000 active-duty soldiers, for long-scheduled commemorations of the US Army’s 250th anniversary ahead of a major parade in Washington on Saturday, Reuters reports.
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Opinion: Trump is deliberately ratcheting up violence in Los Angeles
Donald Trump was on his way to Camp David for a meeting with military leaders on Sunday when he was asked by reporters about possibly invoking the Insurrection Act, allowing direct military involvement in civilian law enforcement. Demonstrations against Trump’s draconian immigration arrests had been growing in Los Angeles, and some of them had turned violent. Trump’s answer? “We’re going to have troops everywhere,” he said.
I know Trump is “a delusional narcissist and an orange-faced windbag”, to borrow the words of the Republican senator Rand Paul, and that this president governs using misdirection, evasion, and (especially) exaggeration, but we should still be worried by this prospect he raises of sending “troops everywhere”.
Already, Trump and his administration have taken the unprecedented steps of calling up thousands of national guard soldiers to Los Angeles against the wishes of the California governor, of deploying a battalion of hundreds of marines to “assist” law enforcement in Los Angeles, and of seeking to ban the use of masks by protesters while defending the use of masks for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents. Needless to say, none of this would be happening if these times were normal.
What makes this moment abnormal is not the fact that Los Angeles witnessed days of mostly peaceful protests against massive and destructive immigration arrests. We’ve seen such protests countless times before in this country. Nor is it the fact that pockets of such protests turned violent. That too is hardly an aberration in our national history. What makes these times abnormal is the administration’s deliberate escalation of the violence, a naked attempt to ratchet up conflict to justify the imposition of greater force and repression over the American people.
Read the full opinion piece here:
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Kang Hyung-won, a photojournalist who reported for the Los Angeles Times during the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles, said on X, in a reply to Donald Trump Jr.’s post, the picture had been taken by him and it was used without his permission.
“You’re using the photo out of context. Please take it down,” Kang said.
Kang told Reuters by email his photograph depicted a different situation when law enforcers were not providing adequate protection.
Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again! pic.twitter.com/UFRhMPCYLb
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) June 9, 2025
“(The) current situation of people expressing a widespread disagreement about an excessive and aggressive enforcement by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while LAPD is present and keeping the city in order is not even remotely similar to the dire situation for Korean Americans of those dark hours during the 1992 L.A. Riots,” he said.
Kang said he was consulting a lawyer after having no response to his request that Trump Jr. take down the post.
No-one from the Washington administration could immediately be reached for comment.
An association of Korean Americans in Los Angeles has criticised Donald Trump Jr., the son of the US president, for “reckless” comments on social media and urged him not to exploit a riot that devastated their community 33 years ago.
The Korean American Federation of Los Angeles also said an operation by the US administration to round up suspected undocumented immigrants lacked “due legal procedures”.
Donald Trump Jr. posted a photograph of a man with a rifle on a rooftop on X with a message: “Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again!” referring to actions by the Korean American community during the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles.
The federation in separate statements expressed concern over the developments in Los Angeles over the last week and said their businesses were seriously affected by the crackdown and arrests.
“While the unrest has not yet subsided, Donald Trump Jr …. showed the recklessness of posting a post on X on Sunday 8 June, mocking the current unrest by mentioning the ‘Rooftop Korean’ from the LA riots 33 years ago,” it said in a statement on Monday Los Angeles time.
“As the eldest son of the current president and an influencer with approximately 15 million followers, his actions could pose a huge risk in these icy times, and we strongly urge the past trauma of the Korean people be never, ever exploited for any purpose.”
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Hundreds of deputies have been mobilised in Los Angeles County as law enforcement try to respond to widespread protests, the state governor Gavin Newsom’s office has said.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, in coordination with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), has formally requested mutual aid assistance from law enforcement agencies within and outside of Los Angeles County to support LAPD.
It has approved the mobilisation of 20 deputies from San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department; 83 deputies from Orange County Sheriff’s Department; 32 deputies from Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department; 44 deputies from Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and 80 officers from municipal police agencies within Los Angeles County
To bring further support to the region, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has already provided more than 200 deputies to support the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
Dozens arrested in California as other US cities protest overnight
The protests so far have resulted in a few dozen arrests and some property damage.
“What is happening effects every American, everyone who wants to live free, regardless of how long their family has lived here,” said Marzita Cerrato, 42, a first-generation immigrant whose parents are from Mexico and Honduras.
Protests also sprung up in at least nine other US cities overnight, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, according to local news outlets.
In Austin, Texas, police fired nonlethal munitions and detained several people as they clashed with a crowd of several hundred protesters.
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US officials said the marines were being deployed to protect federal property and personnel, including immigration agents. A convoy of 10 to 15 buses with blacked-out windows and escorted by sheriff’s vehicles, left the base at Twentynine Palms in the desert east of Los Angeles late Monday and headed toward the city, stopping around 1am (9am BST) at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, about 20 miles (35 km) south of downtown Los Angeles.
Despite their presence, there has been limited engagement so far between the Guard and protesters while local law enforcement implements crowd control.
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Homeland Security said its Immigration and Customs Enforcement division had arrested 2,000 immigration offenders per day in recent days, far above the 311 daily average in fiscal year 2024 under former President Joe Biden.
“We conducted more operations today than we did the day before and tomorrow we are going to double those efforts again,” Noem told Fox News’ “Hannity.” “The more that they protest and commit acts of violence against law enforcement officers, the harder ICE is going to come after them.”
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass opposed the clampdown, telling MSNBC: “This is a city of immigrants.”
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Other protests took shape overnight across LA county. Outside a clothing warehouse, relatives of detained workers demanded at a news conference that their loved ones be released.
The family of Jacob Vasquez, 35, who was detained Friday at the warehouse, where he worked, said they had yet to receive any information about him.
“Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,” Vasquez’s brother, Gabriel, told the crowd. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing being targeted by authorities.
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LAPD says marines arrival a 'significant logistical and operational challenge' without coordination
Los Angeles police chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was confident in the police department’s ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the marines’ arrival without coordinating with the police department would present a “significant logistical and operational challenge” for them.
Monday’s demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held after workplace raids across the city.
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Australian PM: 'horrific' to see Australian television reporter shot by rubber bullet in LA
Australia’s prime minister on Tuesday denounced the “horrific” shooting of a rubber bullet at an Australian television reporter covering unrest in Los Angeles.
Australian 9News reporter Lauren Tomasi was hit in the leg by a rubber bullet on Sunday while reporting on live television. Her employer said she was sore but unharmed.
“She is going ok. She is pretty resilient, I have got to say, but that footage was horrific,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters after speaking to Tomasi.
Albanese said the reporter could reasonably have expected not to be “targeted” with a rubber bullet while doing her job in Los Angeles. The footage showed she was “clearly identified” as a member of the media, with “no ambiguity”, he said.
“We don’t find it acceptable that it occurred, and we think the role of the media is particularly important.”
Albanese said his government had raised the incident with the US administration but he would not comment on any future discussion with US President Donald Trump.
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California governor says marines 'not political pawns'
The governor of California has said US marines are “not political pawns”, as Trump vows to send the elite soldiers in to LA.
Gavin Newsom posted on X: “U.S. Marines serve a valuable purpose for this country -- defending democracy. They are not political pawns.
“The Secretary of Defense is illegally deploying them onto American streets so Trump can have a talking point at his parade this weekend.
“It’s a blatant abuse of power”, Newsom added. “We will sue to stop this.” The state of California has lodged suit against the Trump administration.
U.S. Marines serve a valuable purpose for this country -- defending democracy. They are not political pawns.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 10, 2025
The Secretary of Defense is illegally deploying them onto American streets so Trump can have a talking point at his parade this weekend.
It’s a blatant abuse of power.…
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Doechii criticizes Trump's use of military in California in BET awards speech
Grammy Award-winning rapper Doechii used her acceptance speech at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards to sharply criticise Trump’s handling of the protests.
Collecting the award for best female hip-hop artist, she accused the president of “creating fear and chaos” in his response to demonstrations against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, which sparked days of protest across the city.
“I do want to address what’s happening right now, outside the building,” she said.
“These are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities. In the name of law and order, Trump is using military forces to stop a protest, and I want you all to consider what kind of government it appears to be, when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us.”
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Remarkable images have emerged from last night’s protests in Los Angeles as Trump’s administration vowed to intensify immigration raids.
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The Los Angeles District Attorney has said the county does not need the national guard and the marines, saying there are “more than enough” local police to deal with rioting.
Nathan J. Hochman said: “We in Los Angeles county have tens of thousands of police officers, whether they are with the LA police department, the LA sherriff’s department, or there are 45 other law enforcement agencies in LA county.
“We have more than enough law enforcement officers to deal with the civil unrest thats occurred so far”, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.
“It doesn’t mean that the federal government can’t protect federal facilities with either the national guard or, if they choose, additional soldiers - that’s their choice.
“But as far as the civil unrest in LA, that is something that, though obviously very significant, it is something we are taking extremely seriously and we are able to deal with.
“We do not need the additional forces that the national guard and the marines present”, he added. “Unless the civil unrest gets farther out of control - and that could happen - we are not at the point where local law enforcement is beyond its means to deal with the situation.”
Trump deploys more National Guard troops and marines to LA protests
Good morning, Donald Trump has deployed more National Guard troops and marines to Los Angeles as protests in the city go into their fourth day. Here is what has happened overnight:
California said the deployment of the National Guard by Republican President Trump’s administration was illegal and violated the state’s sovereignty and federal law, according to a court filing of its lawsuit against the US government.
The US military is to temporarily deploy about 700 marines to LA until more National Guard troops can arrive, marking another escalation in Trump’s response to street protests over his aggressive immigration policies. Marines were expected to reach Los Angeles on Monday night (LA time) or Tuesday morning.
Even as protests against raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stretched into a fourth day Monday in LA, city workers began a cleanup of graffiti and other weekend damage across the city.
The Trump administration vowed to intensify migrant raids, with US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledging to carry out even more operations to round up suspected immigration violators, extending a crackdown that provoked the protests.
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