The Trump administration border czar vowed that the president won’t be “late to the game” in dealing with the California protests.
The Trump administration and California officials continued to trade blame on Monday after demonstrators clashed with authorities over the weekend in Los Angeles over President Donald Trump’s immigration raids and as the state braced for a potential fourth day of unrest.
Trump administration border czar Tom Homan said Monday morning that California Gov. Gavin Newsom has “failed that state” and is “late to the game” in addressing those protests.
Homan, who appeared Monday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” said there had been “no discussion of arresting Newsom” within the Trump administration but warned that “no one is above the law.” Newsom, for his part, had dared Homan over the weekend to arrest him: “Come after me. Arrest me,” the California governor told NBC News. “Let’s just get it over with, tough guy.”
Democrats, meanwhile, continued to push back against President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize the California National Guard — a step not taken since Lyndon Johnson did it in Alabama in 1965 — and deploy 2,000 troops to Los Angeles. Newsom on Monday said he will sue the Trump administration over the deployment.
Trump on Monday said it was a “great decision” to send in the National Guard.
“If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The very incompetent “Governor,” Gavin Newscum, and “Mayor,” Karen Bass, should be saying, “THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR.” Instead, they choose to lie to the People of California and America by saying that we weren’t needed, and that these are “peaceful protests.” Just one look at the pictures and videos of the Violence and Destruction tells you all you have to know. We will always do what is needed to keep our Citizens SAFE, so we can, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
At the heart of the back-and-forth is the unrest in Los Angeles sparked on Friday by series of immigration raids in which federal authorities arrested more than 40 people. Angry protesters swarmed LA’s streets, blocking a major highway and setting vehicles on fire while law enforcement fired tear gas, rubber bullets and detonated flash bangs.
“Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social early Monday morning, adding in another post: “Don’t let these thugs get away with this.”
Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass both blamed Trump’s decision to federalize and deploy the California National Guard for fueling the clashes. The California governor called the move “unlawful” and urged the president to rescind it. But Homan said it was Newsom who had failed to address the violence, promising a quick and forceful federal response.
“He’s failed that state. He waited two days of that city burning, officers being assaulted, before he made a declaration of unlawful assembly,” Homan told Fox News. “He’s late to the game. President Trump isn’t late to the game.”
In the wake of the weekend’s chaos, the city of Glendale, California, announced on Sunday it would terminate its agreement with DHS and ICE to house federal immigration detainees at the Glendale Police Department facility.
The city — just under 10 miles from Los Angeles — said the decision was not politically driven; rather, “the City recognizes that public perception of the ICE contract — no matter how limited or carefully managed, no matter the good — has become divisive.”
“The Glendale Police Department is trusted and supported by the residents and businesses, and in turn, our officers work every day to protect and serve with professionalism and care,” the city added. “At this time, it is in our best interest to not allow that trust to be undermined.”
The chaotic situation comes as the Trump administration’s push to deport migrants in the U.S. illegally hit record highs last week — including 2,300 arrests last Thursday by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the most ever in a single day for that agency. The White House has vowed to increase the number of deportations each day, with White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller allegedly calling for the deportation of at least 3,000 migrants a day.
Democrats, including former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Rep. Maxine Waters, have rallied around Newsom and argued the administration’s actions over the weekend were intended to “stoke fear.”
Waters — who visited the protests this weekend and attempted to enter the federal detention facility where labor leader David Huerta was being detained — said she believes the deployment of federal troops is a pretense to enact “martial law” in Los Angeles.
"[Trump] is going to cause a great deal of problems. He is going to anger a lot of people, and then he’s going to want martial law,” Waters told CNN on Monday.
Newsom himself said Monday in a post to the social media platform X that “local law enforcement didn’t need help” but that “Trump sent troops anyway — to manufacture chaos and violence.” He said Monday that he’s planning to sue the Trump administration.
“Now things are destabilized and we need to send in more law enforcement just to clean up Trump’s mess,” the governor said.
