President Donald Trump slammed protesters in Los Angeles challenging the administration’s roundup of immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Violence erupted Friday afternoon when police arrested dozens of protesters outside a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, where immigrants had been detained following ICE raids across the city earlier in the day. The Trump administration dispatched an estimated 2,000 National Guard personnel to quell the ongoing demonstrations.
“Great job by the National Guard in Los Angeles after two days of violence, clashes, and unrest,” the president wrote in the early-morning hours Sunday morning.
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Trump baselessly claimed that the “Radical Left protests” had been carried out by “paid troublemakers,” saying the unrest “will NOT BE TOLERATED.”
The president also took aim on Sunday at California Democrats Governor Gavin Newsom, whom Trump has called “Newscum,” and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for being “unable to to [sic] handle the task” of keeping the peace in the city.
His comments echo earlier remarks by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who on Saturday firmly laid the blame for the ongoing unrest at the Democratic Party’s feet. Noem has earned the nickname “ICE Barbie” for dolling up for ICE raids and taking photos in front of detained migrants, among other publicity stunts.
“What do we do when we have guys like Hakeem Jeffries standing up in front of the world and saying it’s ok to write ‘Kill ICE’, it’s ok to throw things at law enforcement officers? It’s not ok, not in America,” Noem said in an interview with Fox News.
It follows after Jeffries publicly called for the ICE agents who “physically accosted” Democratic representatives outside a detention center in Newark last month to be identified and held to account over the incident.
Trump also railed against the use of face masks to shield from identification.
“From now on, MASKS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to be worn at protests,” Trump posted, although presumably in reference to demonstrators rather than the ICE and Department of Homeland Security agents who routinely do so in order to conceal their faces from the public.
“What do these people have to hide, and why???” Trump raged.
