'He is creating a mob': Trump claim he saved LA from 'bad people' met with criticism

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09 June

President Donald Trump in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, Friday, May 30, 2025 (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok/Flickr)

President Donald Trump’s nearly-unprecedented deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles—deemed unconstitutional by California’s governor—has further inflamed tensions, critics and state officials say, as masked ICE agents detained individuals, many of whom have committed no crime beyond being undocumented.

But now, the Commander-in-Chief is claiming that protestors would have "completely obliterated" Los Angeles, a city of nearly 4 million people, and 18.5 million in the Greater Los Angeles area, had he not deployed the National Guard.

"We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California," Trump claimed Monday afternoon. "If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated. 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!"

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom plans to sue the Trump administration over the deployment of the National Guard, calling it “an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act,” the Associated Press reported.

But the AP suggested the protest area was small: "Protests over the president’s immigration crackdown spared much of Los Angeles from violence. Weekend clashes swept through several downtown blocks and a handful of other places."

Earlier in the day, Trump called the protestors "professional agitators," "insurrectionists," and "bad people who "should be in jail.”

The last time a U.S. president deployed the National Guard without a governor's permission was in 1965, to "protect a civil rights march in Alabama," the AP also reported, citing the Brennan Center for Justice.

Trump reportedly "invoked his Title 10 authority to federalize and deploy 2,000 National Guard in California and did not invoke the Insurrection Act," according to CBS News' Ed O'Keefe.

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a professor of law, responded: "If accurate, this is almost certainly a conflict with the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement, including the National Guard if they are federalized."

On Sunday, Trump told reporters "we're going to have troops everywhere." Asked what the "bar" is on determining when the military should be deployed to a U.S. city, and if he would use legal authority, Trump declared, "The bar is what I think it is."

National security and civil liberties journalist Marcy Wheeler remarked in response, "he is creating the mob."

Watch the video below or at this link.

Trump: Well, we're going to have troops everywhere.
Reporter: What’s the bar for sending in the Marines
Trump: The bar is what I think it is. pic.twitter.com/XUBX9hEZJU
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 8, 2025

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