Trump says LA 'would be burning to the ground' if he did not send troops
US president defends his controversial action as California Governor Gavin Newsom launches lawsuit alleging violations of state sovereignty
WASHINGTON
US President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that Los Angeles "would be burning to the ground" if he did not send US troops into America's second largest city amid ongoing mass demonstrations against his sweeping immigration raids.
"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 L.A. due to an incompetent Governor and Mayor," Trump claimed on Truth Social, alluding to mass devastation wrought across Los Angeles by wildfires in January.
Trump has deployed roughly 4,000 US National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to Los Angeles in defiance of objections from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both of whom have warned that the action will only serve to inflame an already tenuous situation.
Newsom announced Monday that the country's most populous state is suing the Trump administration over the president's action, which he said threatens state sovereignty.
"The illegal order he signed could allow him to send the military into ANY STATE HE WISHES," Newsom said on X.
"Every governor – red or blue – should reject this outrageous overreach," he added, referring respectively to states led by Trump’s Republican Party or Newsom’s own Democratic Party.
"There’s a lot of hyperbole out there. This isn’t that," he said. "This is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism that threatens the foundation of our republic. We cannot let it stand."
Protests erupted on Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided local businesses and detained hundreds of people suspected of living in the US illegally. The Trump administration has continued to carry out the raids in defiance of the community's opposition.
Critics of the raids say ICE is going after law-abiding undocumented migrants, a vital part of the community and the local economy, rather than the criminals that Trump pledged to deport while campaigning last year to return to the White House.
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