California Governor Gavin Newsom is criticizing President Donald Trump over the decision to deploy an additional 2,000 soldiers from the National Guard in Los Angeles.
Though the protests against ICE in LA have died down, U.S. Northern Command stated on Tuesday that it will be deploying an additional 2,000 troops to the city. According to NBC News, that brings the total deployed in LA to 4,100 National Guard troops and 700 Marines.
"By direction of the Secretary of Defense and in coordination with U.S. Northern Command," the statement reads, "2,000 additional California Army National Guard soldiers have been activated in a Title 10 status to support the protection of federal functions, personnel, and property in the greater Los Angeles area."
Newsom was quick to respond, describing soldiers as doing nothing more in LA than "twiddling their thumbs" on behalf of Trump's policies.
“This is clean up from the Pentagon. This isn’t a new deployment — it’s the same group of soldiers who have been diverted from critical wildfire work and work at the border, now twiddling their thumbs for Donald Trump’s political theater," the statement from the governor's office said.
U.S. Northern Command claimed that the additional troops will be "completing training on de-escalation, crowd control, and use of the standing rules for the use of force."
Newsom had previously filed a restraining order against the "unprecedented" use of the National Guard and Marines in the city, and a federal judge in California ruled that using troops in the protest was unlawful, and that the protests "fell far short of a rebellion."
