(Up to date with extra particulars) Reeling from widespread harsh ICE raids and responding protests and resistance over the previous 24 hours, Los Angeles has turn into a powder keg with Donald Trump deploying 2,000 California Nationwide Guard troops over the objection of Governor Gavin Newsom and different SoCal leaders
As rock-throwing and bellowing Angelenos sought to cease undocumented people being focused by masked and closely armored federal brokers from being dragged away from a Residence Depot in Paramount, Calif. and LA’s Westlake neighborhood at this time, Trump took to social media to announce a de facto takeover of the Metropolis of Angels. “If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everybody is aware of they will’t, then the Federal Authorities will step in and remedy the issue, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way in which it needs to be solved!!!” he stated (caps’ Trump).
(L-R): Gavin Newsom, LAPD marches on protesters June 6, Donald Trump
Getty Pictures
Declaring “to the extent that protests or acts of violence straight inhibit the execution of the legal guidelines, they represent a type of riot towards the authority of the Authorities of the US” in a memorandum at this time, Trump says the federalized troops’ “length of obligation shall be for 60 days or on the discretion of the Secretary of Protection.”
No different particulars have been launched of how the troops can be deployed, the place they are going to be deployed, if there can be a curfew and if native regulation enforcement can be working with them – although the LAPD referred to the unrest Trump was reacting to as “peaceable,” in an announcement put out Saturday evening. Elevating the stakes much more, and seeming to ignore federal regulation, Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth proclaimed that “if violence continues, energetic obligation Marines at Camp Pendleton will even be mobilized — they’re on excessive alert.”
There’s additionally no indication that native regulation enforcement felt they wanted massive time backup or, even with a burning automotive within the streets, had misplaced management, which is the standard normal for bringing within the Nationwide Guard.
What we do know is that with LA supposedly below such nice menace that 1000’s of troops must hit the streets, Trump is sitting ringside proper now on the UFC 13 present in Newark, New Jersey.
(L-R) UFC CEO Dana White & Donald Trump attend UFC 316 on the Prudential Heart in Newark, New Jersey on June 7, 2025. (Photograph by FRANK FRANKLIN II/POOL/AFP through Getty Pictures)
Together with UFC boss and Trump buddy Dana White, POTUS is socializing with would-be Paramount proprietor David Ellison, ex-heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, interim New Jersey U.S. Legal professional Alina Habba, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, plus members of the family Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Eric Trump. Proper by Trump’s facet on the final UFC pile-on POTUS attended, Elon Musk was nowhere to be seen Saturday. Not shocking because the ex-DOGE chief and Trump had a really, very public and scorching falling-out final week with flames thrown from either side.
Rapidly backed up by native and regional California politicians amid the state of affairs in LA, Gov. Gavin Newsom confirmed and condemned Trump’s close to unprecedented troop motion.
“That transfer is purposefully inflammatory and can solely escalate tensions,” the Democrat and Trump foil stated of the federal “takeover” of the state by the Nationwide Guard, one thing he expressly didn’t need. “LA authorities are capable of entry regulation enforcement help at a second’s discover. We’re in shut coordination with the town and county, and there’s at present no unmet want. The Guard has been admirably serving LA all through restoration. That is the improper mission and can erode public belief.”
In a put up simply minutes earlier than, Newsom stated the not-so-quiet factor out loud in a rustic that has been whiplashed via one Constitutional disaster after one other since Trump returned to workplace with authoritarian measures. “The federal authorities is sowing chaos to allow them to have an excuse to escalate,” the Governor stated. “That isn’t the way in which any civilized nation behaves.”
With extra protests anticipated, Newsom has put the California Freeway Patrol on the scene to ensure security “is maintained on California’s highways.” Praising his outdated boss, Senator Alex Padilla added: “The Trump Administration is simply sowing extra chaos and division in our communities.” LA Mayor Bass took a extra customary circumspect method
Others have been a lot much less circumspect.
Veteran showrunner Steven DeKnight amplified predictions of the place this might all go.
Raids in LA’s Style District and different place in DTLA on Friday, in addition to San Diego, noticed swiftly organized responses as protesters filmed the roundups, lept in entrance of presidency vans and even attacked the Edward R. Roybal Federal Constructing and United States Courthouse the place ICE brokers had taken the over 100 folks that had been taken into custody. Amongst these hit to the bottom by federal brokers and brought off was SEIU labor chief David Huerta, which led to an outpouring of assist from unions and guilds all around the state and nation — although Hollywood guilds SAG-AFTRA and the WGA have been silent to date.
With all this taking place, it was the gas-shooting LAPD who confirmed up Friday evening to clear the world across the Roybal and get out the trapped ICE employees — or a minimum of tried to. This was regardless of the insistence of Mayor Bass and the LAPD chief that the police wouldn’t be getting concerned.
Wanting increasingly like a setup, Trump’s transfer got here just some hours after his Deportation chief Tom Homan went on Fox Information to warn LA what was coming if the streets weren’t emptied ASAP. “We’re going to convey Nationwide Guard in tonight,” he stated, echoing varied administration officers and cupboard secretaries. “We’re going to proceed doing our job. We’re going to push again on these individuals, and we’re going to implement the regulation.”
Led by White Home deputy chief of employees and the person usually referred to as Trump’s Prime Minister, Santa Monica-raised Stephen Miller, different Trump loyalists like Vice President JD Vance took to Elon Musk’s X platform to again their boss.
Nobody in energy is overtly saying the phrases “Rebel Act,” however each Vance and Miller might have overplayed their fingers after they began pushing Trump’s legislative agenda. “Time to cross President Trump’s stunning invoice and additional safe the border,” stated Vance of the more and more unstable invoice that even Musk has attacked as a deficit bloater.
On the opposite facet of the spectrum, Governor Newsom’s pushback comment on Trump bringing 2,000 troops into LA was solely the most recent escalation of stress he has with the White Home. After CNN reported that the Trump administration was getting ready to punish the state by withholding federal funds, Newsom issued an announcement and video declaring that California tax {dollars} subsidize different states. He additionally threatened to chop off that circulation of tax {dollars} to the federal authorities.
As Blackhawk helicopters have been reportedly offloading a cache of weapons on Saturday night close to a DHS staging facility in Compton, the White Home put out one other assertion justifying its actions. “In latest days, violent mobs have attacked ICE Officers and Federal Legislation Enforcement Brokers finishing up primary deportation operations in Los Angeles, California,” stated Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Claiming “lawlessness has been allowed to fester,” Leavitt added: “The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance coverage for felony conduct and violence, particularly when that violence is aimed toward regulation enforcement officers making an attempt to do their jobs. These criminals can be arrested and swiftly delivered to justice. The Commander-in-Chief will make sure the legal guidelines of the US are executed totally and utterly.”
As this was all taking place, little or no of the explosive occasions occurring in America’s second-largest metropolis have been being lined on the cable newsers. In reality, it was the U.Ok.’s BBC that was the one outlet to be on the scene stay.
As FNC chatted with the CIA Director, and MSNBC stayed on a section on previous ICE actions, CNN initially caught to its panel programming following the stay broadcast of the Tony-nominated Good Night time and Good Luck starring George Clooney. It took virtually 40 minutes for the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned channel to chop to the information out of LA.
Ted Johnson contributed to this report
