California Governor Gavin Newsom says he plans to file a lawsuit against US President Donald Trump in response to the administration’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard to confront immigration protesters who took to the streets in Los Angeles.
The streets of the sprawling city of 4 million people were quiet on Monday morning (early Tuesday AEST), but the smell of smoke hung in the air downtown, one day after crowds blocked off a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
The law enforcement presence was heavy, with police cars blocking the street in front of the federal detention facility that was a focus of the protests.
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While much of the city was spared from any violence, clashes swept through several downtown blocks and a handful of other places. It could take days to clear the debris from burned cars and to paint over the graffiti.
Sunday was the third and most intense day of demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of around 300 Guard troops spurred anger and fear among many residents.
“This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted,” Newsom, a Democrat, said on X on Monday morning late Monday AEST).
“He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalise the National Guard.
“The order he signed doesn’t just apply to CA. It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing. We’re suing him.”
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Many protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly, a precursor to officers moving in and arresting those who refuse to leave. Some of those who stayed threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier.
Others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the closed southbound 101 Freeway. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover at one point.
Trump said on Monday that the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the Guard.
Writing on his social media platform, Truth Social, the president accused Newsom and the city’s mayor, Karen Bass, of lying by saying Guard troops were not necessary.
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The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention center where protesters concentrated.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were “overwhelmed” by the remaining protesters. He said they included regular agitators who show up at demonstrations to cause trouble.
Several dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend. One was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers.
Trump responded to McDonnell on Truth Social, telling him to arrest protesters in face masks.
“Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” he wrote.
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Governor says Guard not needed
Newsom called on Trump to rescind the Guard deployment in a letter on Sunday afternoon (Monday AEST), calling it a “serious breach of state sovereignty”.
The governor, who was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials, also told protesters that they were playing into Trump’s plans and would face arrest for violence or property destruction.
“Trump wants chaos and he’s instigated violence,” he said.
“Stay peaceful. Stay focused. Don’t give him the excuse he’s looking for.”
The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.
McDonnell pushed back against claims by the Trump administration that the LAPD had failed to help federal authorities when protests broke out Friday after a series of immigration raids. He said his department responded as quickly as it could and had not been notified in advance of the raids.
Newsom, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation under control. He mocked Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles, and he told MSNBC that Trump never floated deploying the Guard during a Friday phone call. He called Trump a “stone cold liar”.
“Commandeering a state’s National Guard without consulting the governor of that state is illegal and immoral,” he said.
The admonishments did not deter the administration.
“It’s a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
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