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The Trump administration announced it’ll be deploying an additional 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles as the city enters its fourth night of violent anti-ICE riots.
President Trump ordered the Department of Defense on Monday to send out the additional troops just two days after his administration sent out its first round to help control the massive crowds of protesters in downtown LA.
With the new group, more than 4,000 Guard troops would be stationed in the California city.
It’s unclear how many federal, state, and local authorities have been sent to tackle the protests, but on Monday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that 700 active-duty Marines would also be dispatched.
Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom also said he is working to “surge over 800 additional state and local law enforcement officers to ensure the safety of our LA communities,” he wrote on X.
The additional 2,000 National Guard troops likely won’t begin movement towards California for another day or two as the order is finalized, one official told the Associated Press.
As of Sunday, around 2,000 protesters were estimated to be participating in the demonstrations, which continued on Monday night. At least 56 people were arrested over the weekend.
Newsom, who has already filed a lawsuit against Trump for deploying the National Guard in the first place, said that bringing in another batch would not only endanger the public but also scorn the soldiers.
“The first 2,000? Given no food or water. Only approx. 300 are deployed — the rest are sitting, unused, in federal buildings without orders. This isn’t about public safety. It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego,” Newsom wrote on X.
“This is Reckless. Pointless. And Disrespectful to our troops.”
LA Mayor Karen Bass echoed Newsom’s sentiments as she accused the Trump administration of purposefully creating “disorder and chaos” in the city by deploying so many soldiers.
“I feel like we are part of an experiment that we did not ask to be a part of,” Bass said.
She later pleaded for the federal government to “stop the raids.”
“I hope that we will be heard because our city is trying to move forward, and I believe the federal government should be supportive,” Bass said.
Trump officials slammed both Bass and Newsom for allowing the protests to turn into violent and destructive riots.
“Gavin Newsom has done absolutely nothing, Mayor Bass has done absolutely nothing,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News host Sean Hannity Monday.
The last time a sitting president circumvented a governor’s power to activate the National Guard was in 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson called on the Alabama National Guard in spite of the then-governor’s orders to protect civil rights protesters from the police while they marched from Selma to Montgomery.
English (US)