Trump says LA is under siege, but the mayor and governor paint a different picture

President Donald Trump defended his decision to send the National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quash protests that turned violent, saying in a social media post on Sunday that “if we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”

Trump alleged the nation’s second largest city, which covers more than 500 square miles, had been “invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals” and that he had directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi to coordinate with all relevant agencies to “take all such actions necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots.”

While Trump has painted Los Angeles as being under siege and out of control, most of the demonstrations this past weekend over his administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration has been concentrated in downtown Los Angeles near the federal building and federal detention center. Other protests have also occurred outside of the downtown area, one in the Los Angeles County city of Paramount, about 14 miles from downtown, and another in Compton, which is next to Paramount, and about 12 miles from downtown LA, according to local law enforcement.

Meanwhile the rest of Los Angeles appeared to go about life as normal over the weekend. The city’s annual Pride Parade even took place on Sunday without incident in Hollywood about 7 miles from downtown.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have accused Trump of making sensational public claims about how widespread the violence has been, and both have said the Los Angeles police and sheriff’s departments could handle the unrest on their own.

“He flamed the fires and illegally acted” by mobilizing the National Guard go LA without the conscent of local and state officials, Newsom said of the president in a statement on Monday posted on social media. “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.”

On Monday, a U.S. official confirmed that 700 Marines in California have been ordered to assist in Los Angeles and they’re expected to arrive over the next 24 hours, a U.S. official confirmed.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell has decried the escalation of violence during the protests, saying officers had been targeted with Molotov cocktails, fireworks and rocks.

But he also said Monday that the arrival of the military troops in Los Angeles “presents a significant logistical and operation challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city.”

“The Los Angeles Police Department, alongside our mutual aid partners, has decades of experience managing large-scale public demonstrations, and we remain confident in our ability to do so professionally and effectively. That said, our top priority is the safety of both the public and the officers on the ground,” McDonnell said.

At a news conference Monday evening, as the protests entered their fourth night — with some tense confrontations between protesters and police leading to the firing of less lethal munitions by police — Bass insisted the city could handle the unrest on its own.

Asked about the deployment of the Marines, Bass responded incredulously.

“We didn’t need the National Guard,” she told reporters. “Why on earth — What are they going to do? Do you know what the National Guard is doing now? They are guarding two buildings. They’re guarding the federal building here in downtown and they’re guarding the federal building in Westwood. That’s what they’re doing. So they need Marines on top of it, I don’t understand that.”

Trump bypassed Newsom and activated 2,100 California National Guard troops, including 1,700 on the ground in Los Angeles as of Monday night and the remainder on standby to be sent there, the U.S. Northern Command said in a social media post lafe Monday night. It marks the first time a president has mobilized troops without a governor’s consent since President Lyndon B. Johnson did so in 1965, when he sent National Guard troops to Alabama to protect civil rights activists marching from Selma to Montgomery.

Protest erupts

The protests erupted on Friday in downtown Los Angeles after word filtered into the community that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were conducting raids on multiple locations in the downtown area without the consent of city officials, including a Home Depot in the Westlake neighborhood near downtown. The raids resulted in the arrests of 40 people, 35 of them Mexican citizens, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Sunday.

Dozens of protesters began gathering in the Fashion District of downtown, where one of the raids occurred at an apparel business, officials said. Around 3 p.m. local time on Friday, aerial footage taken by ABC Los Angeles station KABC, showed what appeared to be ICE agents loading two white vans with people in handcuffs. As the vans left the apparel business, protesters tried unsuccessfully to stop them, including one individual who was seen lying down the road in the path of one of the vans.

As the raids were unfolding on Friday, Mayor Bass, issued a post on X, condemning ICE’s actions, writing, “we will not stand for this.”

Around 6 p.m. on Friday, crowds gathered outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and the U.S. Courthouse downtown and began vandalizing the buildings, spay painting profanities directed at ICE on the facade and clashing with ICE agents. Federal authorities asked the LAPD to assist around 6:30 p.m., but it took city officers about an hour to arrive at the scene due to “significant traffic congestions, and the presence of demonstrators, and notably, by the fact that federal agents had deployed irritants into the crowd prior to LAPD’s arrival.”

The LAPD declared the protest an “unlawful assembly” soon after officers arrived on scene on Friday night, writing on social media that “officers are reporting that a small group of violent individuals are throwing large pieces of concrete” and warning protesters that “the use of less lethal munitions has been authorized by the Incident Commander” to disperse the crowd.

“Within 55 minutes of receiving the call, we began to disperse the hostile and riotous crowd,” the LAPD said.

Video showed police in riot gear confronting protesters with batons and firing what appeared to be tear gas canisters and flash bangs at the demonstators.

Around the same time, a protest broke out in neighboring Compton, where a vehicle was set ablaze in the street near the iconic Dale’s Donuts sign, according to video taken at the scene.

Demonstration moves to Paramount

On Saturday, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department received calls around 10:15 a.m. that a “significant” crowd was gathering in Paramount and obstructing traffic and that deputies observed the presence of federal agents in the area.

“As the situation escalated, the crowd of protesters became increasingly agitated, throwing objects and exhibiting violent behavior toward federal agents and deputy sheriffs,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement. “In response, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) requested additional resources countywide, deploying additional deputies to maintain order.”

The sheriff’s department said it responded to the scene to protect federal agents under attack, but emphasized, “This does not mean that we are assisting with their immigration actions or operations.”

Bass said that there were no ICE raids in Paramount or anywhere else in Los Angeles County on Saturday. She said the building that protesters gathered near was being used as a staging area for federal resources.

The LAPD said 29 people were arrested during Saturday’s protest, mostly for failing to disperse, but overall it said in a statement that demonstrations across the city of Los Angeles on Saturday “remained peaceful, and we commend all those who exercised their First Amendment rights responsibly.”

Trump deploys National Guard

On Saturday night, Trump signed a presidential memorandum authorizing the deployment of National Guard members to Los Angeles, saying it was necessary to “address the lawlessness” in Los Angeles.

Newsom called Trump’s move, “purposely inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”

Bass agreed and issued a plea to the White House to reverse the decision.

“Deploying federalized troops on the heels of these raids is a chaotic escalation,” Bass said in a statement posted on social media on Saturday afternoon. “The fear people are feeling in our city right now is very real — it’s felt in our communities and within our families and it puts our neighborhoods at risk. This is the last thing that our city needs, and I urge protestors to remain peaceful.”

Newsom called the president’s decision “an alarming abuse of power.”

Around 2:18 a.m. local time time on Sunday, the LAPD issued a traffic advisory, reporting that demonstrators were approaching the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles and warned that the unlawful assembly order declared on Friday was still in effect. Around the same time, the LAPD said it received reports that demonstrators were jumping onto the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation tracks near the Little Tokyo Train Station downtown, causing all trains to be halted as officers reponded.

The National Guard began arriving in Los Angeles around 4 a.m. on Sunday, taking up a position outside the Roybal federal building.

Protesters who defied the order to stay away, assembled in front of the Roybal federal building and detention center, heckling National Guard members and police within earshot. Around 3:30 p.m., the LAPD issued another traffic advisory that a group of demonstrators was marching into the downtown area.

Later Sunday, demonstrators began approaching to 101 Freeway and eventually got onto the southbound lanes of the freeway, prompting authorities to close the freeway in both directions, police said.

The protest soon devolved into demonstrators standing on an overpass throwing concrete, bottles and other objects at officers attempting to remove demonstrators from the freeway.

As the protest grew more rowdy, several Waymo autonomous vehicles were set on fire in the downtown area, prompting the company to halt service to downtown LA. Police said protesters threw fireworks at officers during the standoff and police said stores were looted in the downtown area.

Officials said two LAPD officers were injured by motorcyclists attempting to breach a skirmish line police had established.

The LAPD said 21 people were arrested on Sunday on charges ranging from attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail to looting to failure to disperse. The California Highway Patrol said 19 people were arrested for disobeying orders to disperse from the 101 Freeway.

The LAPD announced on Monday that the police force was going on “Tactical Alert,” meaning all personnel are to remain on duty as the city braced for another evening of protests.

As protests in Los Angeles entered their fourth night, photos from the scene showed tense moments as demonstrators confronted authorities.

At one point, police said protesters near Temple Street and Los Angeles Street in downtown LA began throwing objects at police and police authorized the use of “less lethal munitions” in response.