PNN – Amid intensifying protests against immigration policies, US President Donald Trump defended his controversial decision to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles against the wishes of the California governor, saying: If I hadn’t deployed the National Guard, Los Angeles would have burned.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, US President Donald Trump claimed on his Twitter account on Tuesday local time, referring to the forest fires in California earlier this year: If I hadn’t sent troops to Los Angeles the past three nights, this once beautiful and great city would now be burning, just like the 25,000 homes that burned in Los Angeles due to the actions of an incompetent governor and mayor.
Trump criticized the governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles for burning homes in the January 2025 wildfires, saying: I should point out that the much more difficult, time-consuming, and stringent federal permitting process for these homes is virtually complete, while the easy, straightforward city and state permits are disastrously flawed and far behind schedule! They are a complete mess and will be for a long time to come. People want to rebuild their homes. Call your incompetent governor and mayor, federal permitting is done.
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According to the Pentagon, 700 Marines have also been deployed to Los Angeles and will join the National Guard in response to the protests.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass yesterday criticized the government for sending in troops, saying the city was being used as an “experiment” to take power away from local government.
According to CNN, the protests are mainly concentrated in a part of downtown Los Angeles, and most of the city is continuing as normal.
Following the Trump administration’s escalation of measures against immigrants, widespread protests have taken place in the Los Angeles area, leading to clashes between police and protesters, violence, tear gas, and the arrest of dozens of people.
The sporadic protests began over the weekend (June 7) in Los Angeles and its suburbs after federal immigration agents arrested at least 44 people. The arrests are part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants, which has included a wave of raids and deportations across the country.
CNN reported that police used stun grenades, sound bombs, and tear gas to disperse the crowd, some of which hit protesters.
Some protesters set self-driving cars on fire. Police arrested 27 people in Los Angeles on Sunday. In San Francisco, authorities said about 60 people, including several under 18, were arrested during violent protests outside the Immigration Services building.
A New York Police Department spokesperson told CNN on Monday evening local time that the New York Police Department had arrested 24 people after a protest in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York.
Following the initial deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops and Trump’s dispatch of 700 Marines to confront protesters in Los Angeles, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he had been informed that the US President intends to send another 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles.