The White House / Daniel Torok
As riots protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportations escalated in Los Angeles, the Trump administration championed its decision to deploy 2,000 National Guard troops over the weekend, emphasizing a firm law-and-order approach amid growing unrest.
In a Monday post on X, President Trump condemned the rioters as “insurrectionists” and warned against further attacks on law enforcement.
“The Insurrectionists have a tendency to spit in the face of the National Guardsmen/women, and others. These Patriots are told to accept this, it’s just the way life runs. But not in the Trump Administration,” Trump posted on X. “IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT, and I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before. Such disrespect will not be tolerated!”
The president’s comments came in response to mounting backlash from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who accused Trump of “illegally” federalizing the National Guard and “manufacturing chaos and violence.”
Newsom announced Monday that the state is suing the Trump administration, arguing Trump is “overstepping his authority” in a Monday statement.
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance dismissed media claims that the administration provoked the violence, explaining what he cast as Newsom’s faulty logic.
“People who were already violating the law are only violating the law because President Trump started enforcing the law,” Vance wrote. “This is the logic of Newsom and his stooges.”
Trump’s border czar and former ICE Director Tom Homan also weighed in, defending the administration’s decision on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
“I was on the ground. Governor Newsom wasn’t,” Homan said. “So I think President Trump made the right decision deploying the National Guard to protect life and property…It’s just a matter of time before someone loses their life.”
“The rhetoric has to stop,” he added.
