US President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended his decision to post National Guard and US Marines in Los Angeles, as protests against immigration raids continued.
The Pentagon is sending about 700 active-duty US Marines and about 4,000 members of the National Guard in response to the protests.
“If I didn’t 'send in the troops' to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground right now, much like 25,000 houses burned to the ground in LA due to an incompetent Governor and Mayor,” Mr Trump said in a post on Truth Social, referring to a highly destructive wildfire that hit the city earlier this year.
In later remarks at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, Mr Trump said he was determined to "liberate" Los Angeles, which he called a "trash heap".
“We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That’s what they are," he said.
A defence official told Bloomberg on Monday that the Marines are based in Twentynine Palms, California. The estimated cost for the posting is about $134 million, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday.
“This isn’t about public safety. It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego,” California's Governor Gavin Newsom said about the decision. “This is reckless. Pointless. And disrespectful to our troops.”
Mr Newsom added later that the purpose of the US Marines is defending democracy. “They are not political pawns.” He said that the soldiers had been illegally posted to California “so Trump can have a talking point at his parade this weekend”.
Washington will host a large military parade on Saturday to mark the US Army's 250th anniversary. It is also Mr Trump's 79th birthday.
Mr Newsom asked a federal court to block Mr Trump from using the military in his city. California leaders accused Mr Trump of fanning protesters’ anger and stoking the unrest.
The California Governor and Mr Trump have exchanged insults over the past few days, with Mr Newsom saying Mr Trump was acting like a “dictator” and Mr Trump saying he would arrest Mr Newsom, if he were border chief Tom Homan.
California Democratic Representative John Garamendi told CNN that Mr Trump's response to the protests is “about Trump pretending that he is the king of this nation, that he has the ultimate power and authority to do anything he wants to do”.
While the original protest was peaceful, law enforcement responded after demonstrators blocked vehicles in an attempt to stop agents from removing people who had been detained in the raids.
Protests intensified on Sunday, as demonstrators blocked a major motorway, throwing rocks, electric scooters and other items on to police vehicles. Several self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire.
There have been reports of looting and vandalism in the city. Businesses reported graffiti and broken windows, as well as looted shelves.
Police have been firing rubber bullets and flash grenades into the crowd as they clashed with demonstrators. Scores of protesters have been arrested, in addition to those detained on immigration offences, and at least five police officers injured, according to KTLA 5.
Solidarity protests have taken place in cities across the US, in Santa Ana and San Francisco in California, as well as New York, Atlanta and Dallas.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the protests have begun to decrease in intensity. She blamed the federal government for aggravating the situation by sending in the National Guard and the Marines.
“I think we are an experiment, I think we are a test case for what happens if the federal government decides to take power from a governor and take over a city. I think we are the laboratory rats right now for the administration,” she said.
“Stop the raids,” Ms Bass said in a post on X. “We are a city of immigrants. Washington is attacking our people, our neighbourhoods and our economy.
The Trump administration has made cutting down on illegal immigration a cornerstone of its domestic policy, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carrying out an increased number of raids in cities across the country.
