LA protests live: Trump claims Los Angeles ‘would be burning to the ground’ if he didn’t send National Guard

Hundreds of U.S. Marines arrived in Los Angeles overnight and more were expected on Tuesday under orders from President Donald Trump, who has also activated 4,000 National Guard troops to quell protests despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom and other local leaders.

The city has seen days of public outrage since the Trump administration launched a series of immigration raids on Friday, though local officials said the demonstrations on Monday were largely peaceful.

About half of the roughly 700 Marines that Trump ordered to Los Angeles arrived on Monday night, and the remaining troops will enter the city on Tuesday, a U.S. official told Reuters. The U.S. military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Noem blasted Mayor Karen Bass for describing LA as “a city of immigrants,” suggesting that violence had erupted because the mayor had “protected them for years.” The city is the second largest in the U.S. and has a population of almost four million people.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has hit back at Stephen Miller’s claim that his state is refusing to “arrest and prosecute the arsonists, seditionists and insurrectionists,” referring to those who rioted in Los Angeles, by reminding the White House adviser that President Donald Trump pardoned the January 6 rioters.

Last night, Miller responded to a post by the governor, in which he stated that Los Angeles didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved.

Your state is a criminal sanctuary for millions of illegal alien invaders, cartel killers, foreign terrorists, transnational gangs and insurrectionist mobs. Huge swaths of the city where I was born now resemble failed third world nations. A ruptured, balkanized society of strangers. When our courageous ICE officers, fighting to rescue your communities, came under violent organized attack you and the LA Mayor left them, unforgivably, to fend for themselves. When the rioters swarmed, you handed over your streets, willingly. You still refuse to arrest and prosecute the arsonists, seditionists and insurrectionists. This Administration is fighting to save the city and the citizens you have left to struggle and suffer.

Newsom responded this morning:

The only people defending insurrectionists are you and @realDonaldTrump.

Or, are we pretending like you didn’t pardon 1500 of them?

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass revealed that more than 100 people had been arrested on Monday evening in the city, adding that more violent “fringe groups” splintered off from peaceful demonstrations.

“What we’re seeing downtown is just horrible, but you know that the majority of people that attended the protest this afternoon were peaceful,” she told KABC in a late-night phone interview.

A majority of the arrests were for unlawful assembly, Bass said.

Donald Trump has defended his decision to deploy almost 5,000 military personnel to Los Angeles in an attempt to quell protests against his administration’s immigration raids.

Writing on Truth Social Tuesday morning, the president said that LA “would be burning to the ground right now” if he hadn’t ordered the Defense Department to take control of around 4,000 California National Guardsmen and direct Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to mobilize 700 Marines.

Trump also escalated his war of words against Californian officials, reubuking Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass as “incompetent” and a “total mess.”

The president also took a jab at Newsom and Bass’s response to the LA wildfires earlier this year, which engulfed 25,000 acres of land and damaged over 16,000 homes and commercial buildings.

Just over one in three (36 percent) of Americans approve of the Los Angeles protests against the Trump administration’s immigration raids, a new poll suggests.

According to YouGov’s survey published Monday of more than 4200 American adults, 45 percent disapprove of the unrest, with 19 percent “not sure” of which way they lean.

The poll suggests 58 percent of Democrats approve of the protests, compared with just 15 percent of Republicans.

Respondents aged 65 and over were most likely to disapprove of the demonstrations (58 percent), with those aged between 18 and 29 being the most in favor of the protests (35 percent disapprove).

The YouGov survey followed a CBS News poll conducted just before the protest erupted that suggested that 54 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s deportation program.

Twitch streamer Hasan Piker was caught up in the Los Angeles riots, with footage capturing the moment he was disoriented by loud flashbangs.

Piker, who lives in LA and is known for posting YouTube videos under the moniker “HasanAbi”, was interrogated by border agents last month upon returning from overseas over his anti-Trump political views.

On Monday, photos and footage of him attending the protests were shared on social media.

“They’re firing into the crowd now. I don’t think that’s fireworks, buddy,” Piker is heard saying as he streamed from the scene. “They’re already deploying flashbangs. Not great.”

Madeline Sherrat has the details:

Donald Trump deployed a U.S. Marine battalion and doubled the number of National Guardsmen on the ground in Los Angeles on Monday, in a major escalation of his response to the immigration raid protests.

There remains, however, a question: why is LA protesting?

The Independent has broken down what you need to know about the demonstrations as LA experiences its fifth day of upheaval.