LA protests live: Trump claims Los Angeles ‘would be burning to the ground’ if he didn’t send National Guard

Democratic members of California’s congressional delegation are accusing Trump of creating a “manufactured crisis” in Los Angeles with his orders to send in thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines.

“It’s a deliberate attempt by Trump to incite unrest, test the limits of executive power, and distract from the lawlessness of his administration,” said Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who organized a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday morning.

Rep. Jimmy Panetta said that Trump’s decision to send the military was designed to “give him the image and give him the fight and give him the pictures that he wants.” Panetta said the delegation would stand with peaceful protesters, but those who are not peaceful will pay the consequences.

Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi contrasted Trump’s actions now with his handling of the Jan. 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol when law enforcement officers were being beaten.

“We begged the president of the United States to send in the National Guard. He would not do it,” Pelosi said.

Her remarks echoed an earlier online spat between Governor Gavin Newsom and White House adviser Stephen Miller.

In an email to his super PAC list this morning, California Governor Gavin Newsom said that President Donald Trump’s deployment of troops to Los Angeles was a “theatrical display of toughness from an increasingly unhinged president that is DESIGNED to escalate tensions and violence.”

He added that the president hopes this will spread to other parts of the state and country, which may necessitate a further clampdown, which Trump thinks will be good for him politically.

Last night, President Trump and his administration ordered the deployment of an additional 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 United States Marines to Los Angeles.

Let me be totally clear on what this has been about from the very beginning — and it cannot be said enough:

This is a theatrical display of toughness from an increasingly unhinged president that is DESIGNED to escalate tensions and violence in Los Angeles that he hopes will spread to other parts of the state and country.

California has never sided with violent anarchists that loot and destroy public property and take advantage of situations like these. We have arrested those that have broken the law and will continue to do so. Keeping Californians safe has always been our number one priority.

But, for Donald Trump, that’s not what this is about.

He wants spectacle and violence, because he thinks it is good for him politically.

An email used the subject line: “Looking really bad in LA!”

It went on to frame the violence as an “ATTACK ON THE HOMELAND.”

Hundreds of U.S. Marines arrived in Los Angeles overnight and more were expected on Tuesday under orders from President Donald Trump, who has also activated 4,000 National Guard troops to quell protests despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom and other local leaders.

The city has seen days of public outrage since the Trump administration launched a series of immigration raids on Friday, though local officials said the demonstrations on Monday were largely peaceful.

About half of the roughly 700 Marines that Trump ordered to Los Angeles arrived on Monday night, and the remaining troops will enter the city on Tuesday, a U.S. official told Reuters. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Noem blasted Mayor Karen Bass for describing LA as “a city of immigrants,” suggesting that violence had erupted because the mayor had “protected them for years.” The city is the second largest in the U.S. and has a population of almost four million people.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has hit back at Stephen Miller’s claim that his state is refusing to “arrest and prosecute the arsonists, seditionists and insurrectionists,” referring to those who rioted in Los Angeles, by reminding the White House adviser that President Donald Trump pardoned the January 6 rioters.

Last night, Miller responded to a post by the governor, in which he stated that Los Angeles didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved.

Your state is a criminal sanctuary for millions of illegal alien invaders, cartel killers, foreign terrorists, transnational gangs and insurrectionist mobs. Huge swaths of the city where I was born now resemble failed third world nations. A ruptured, balkanized society of strangers. When our courageous ICE officers, fighting to rescue your communities, came under violent organized attack you and the LA Mayor left them, unforgivably, to fend for themselves. When the rioters swarmed, you handed over your streets, willingly. You still refuse to arrest and prosecute the arsonists, seditionists and insurrectionists. This Administration is fighting to save the city and the citizens you have left to struggle and suffer.

Newsom responded this morning:

The only people defending insurrectionists are you and @realDonaldTrump.

Or, are we pretending like you didn’t pardon 1500 of them?

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass revealed that more than 100 people had been arrested on Monday evening in the city, adding that more violent “fringe groups” splintered off from peaceful demonstrations.

“What we’re seeing downtown is just horrible, but you know that the majority of people that attended the protest this afternoon were peaceful,” she told KABC in a late-night phone interview.

A majority of the arrests were for unlawful assembly, Bass said.