The U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said National Guard troops deployed against protests over immigrations raids would stay in Los Angeles despite objections of the governor and local leaders. He also claimed his controversial move, widely eliciting accusations of authoritarianism, has already “stopped the violence” in the second-largest U.S. city.
Trump decided to deploy the National Guard over the week, defying objections from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who have warned that the action only serves to inflame tensions caused by the president's mass deportation raids. Roughly 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 U.S. Marines have been deployed under Trump's orders.
Meanwhile, protests have spread to other cities across the country, including far-flung New York, Dallas, and Austin in response to the federal crackdown on the mass demonstrations that have occasionally devolved into violence. But Trump maintained that his actions were justified when speaking with reporters at the White House, variously blaming people he said could be described as "paid insurrectionists or agitators or troublemakers, you can call it whatever you want."
"Los Angeles was under siege until we got there. The police were unable to handle it," Trump said. "This morning, it's very calm. We'll see what happens later. But they know if they go there, they're not going to get anywhere, because we have the National Guard that we backed it up with a number of Marines."
