President Donald Trump showed little interest in de-escalating the situation in Los Angeles on Sunday evening as he fired off a charged post calling on administration officials to “liberate” the city from what he called a “Migrant Invasion.”
In an extraordinary step on Saturday, the president ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to the area, against the wishes of local leaders, to quash protests that broke out over federal immigration raids at workplaces.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom formally asked the Trump administration to rescind the order on Sunday evening, accusing it of deploying troops unlawfully and unnecessarily. Newsom said Trump is “hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control.”
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But Trump poured fuel on the fire with a Sunday evening post on Truth Social, claiming Los Angeles “has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals.”
“Now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations — But these lawless riots only strengthen our resolve‚” Trump wrote, even though he’d said hours earlier he didn’t think the clashes amounted to an insurrection.
He said he was directing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Pam Bondi to “take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots.”
“Order will be restored, the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free,” he wrote.
Trump also rolled out quite a specific new catchphrase on Sunday, claiming protesters were spitting at law enforcement.
“They spit, we hit,” Trump said. It was somewhat reminiscent of a rhyme he coined during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
People began taking to the streets of L.A. late last week to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and arrests at multiple workplaces—part of Trump’s promise of a deportation crackdown.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Saturday the protests had been peaceful, but it was prepared to respond to “any potential acts of civil unrest.” Some demonstrations resulted in tense clashes, with authorities deploying flash bangs and tear gas to disperse crowds. As tensions escalated on Sunday, police reported that some protesters had thrown objects and set cars on fire.
Local authorities said the federal response only inflamed tensions.
“Trump is trying to manufacture a crisis in LA County—deploying troops not for order, but to create chaos," Newsom posted on X Sunday, imploring his constituents: “Don’t take the bait. Never use violence or harm law enforcement.”
Later on Sunday evening, he said he had met with the Los Angeles police and sheriffs departments and other state emergency officials “as we respond to protests provoked by chaos from Washington.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Sunday evening the federal response evoked a “feeling here of intentional chaos in a situation that had not broken out to violence short of a few people—and there’s nothing unusual about that—and our police departments can manage that."
Earlier, she had written on X: “We will always protect the constitutional right for Angelenos to peacefully protest. However, violence, destruction and vandalism will not be tolerated in our City and those responsible will be held fully accountable.”
Late Sunday night, Trump lashed out at Newsom and Bass yet again with another Truth Social post. “Governor Gavin Newscum and ‘Mayor’ Bass should apologize to the people of Los Angeles for the absolutely horrible job that they have done, and this now includes the ongoing L.A. riots,” he wrote. “These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists. Remember, NO MASKS!”
The president followed that post up with another simply declaring “Paid Insurrectionists!”
