Politics

(WASHINGTON)  — Democratic senators on Tuesday were walking a line between criticizing the White House for sending troops to put down protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles and the violence the administration says caused it to act.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania called out some in his party for not condemning the violence.

“I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos,” Fetterman said in a post on X on Monday.

“My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement,” Fetterman continued.

But some of his colleagues on Capitol Hill say they can support the sentiment behind the protests without condoning violence.

“We can do two things at one time. We can condemn protests that get out of control, and we can acknowledge that Donald Trump has no interest in standing up to violent protesters,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday when asked about Fetterman’s comment.

“He pardoned every single violent protester that tried to attack our Capitol and destroy our democracy,” he said. “The fact of the matter is, Donald Trump is not looking to create peace. He’s not looking to calm the situation. He’s looking for a fight,” Murphy continued.

Murphy and other Democrats repeated that local and state government officials in the city of Los Angeles and the state of California have said they don’t need federal help with holding protesters that have engaged in violence or property destruction accountable.

“[They] all say, ‘We’ve got this under control.’ It is unfortunate — not necessary to mobilize U.S. Marines who are trained for the Pacific, not for the streets of Los Angeles,” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said.

“It is, of course, important that anyone who attacks police officers or sets fire to vehicles or carries out vandalism, being interrupted and arrested. I support peaceful protest,” Coons said.

Coons and Murphy said Trump’s moves are a distraction from other — perhaps more important — matters in Washington, like the “big, beautiful bill” Trump wants to get passed to fund his agenda, which Democrats are lobbying against.

“Last week, every one of you was asking me about the fight between Elon Musk and Trump, and how Musk was denouncing the ‘big, beautiful bill’ as debt and deficit and how a few nervous Republicans were recognizing that taking health care away from 16 million Americans was a really bad idea,” Coons told reporters.

“No one’s asking me about that this week. You’re only asking me about Los Angeles. It is a critical issue … I’m not diminishing the significance of the issue, but it’s a reminder that here in the Senate — what is right in front of us is the so-called “big, beautiful bill, which will have consequences for millions of Americans in terms of increasing hunger and decreasing access to health,” Coons added.

Murphy said Trump is trying to “create headlines in other places.”

Republican senators stood behind the president’s decision to send in the troops.

Sen. Rand Paul said Democrats’ reaction to the protests is “appalling” and a reason why voters don’t agree with them.

“I think it’s another reason why you’re seeing the demise of the Democrat brand around the country. You got a city on fire. You got people marching with foreign flags, people marching with a Mexican flag in L.A., resisting federal law, interfering with federal law. You have the governor and the mayor, both Democrats, saying they will interfere and will not uphold federal law,” Paul said.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott blamed Democrats’ position on immigration for the unrest.

“If you look at what’s going on in LA, it shows exactly what Biden Democrats did by opening their borders the way they did, and allowing people, millions and millions and millions of people, to come in here. They’ve caused all this,” Scott said.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, who stirred controversy in Trump’s first term in 2020 for urging him to deploy the National Guard to stop the George Floyd riots, published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday calling for “an overwhelming show of force to end the riots” and blaming Democrats for letting them happen.

“Is anyone surprised? Democrats also stood idly by or even celebrated as the Black Lives Matter riots ransacked our cities five years ago,” he wrote. “If anything, these riots are worse. At least the [Black Lives Matter] rioters didn’t wave foreign flags.”

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(NEW YORK) — Just over a year after Donald Trump became the first former president to be found guilty of a felony, an appeals court is set to hear the president’s bid to move his case to federal court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has scheduled oral arguments Wednesday to consider whether to move the president’s criminal hush money case from state to federal court.

Trump was found guilty last year on 34 felony counts after Manhattan prosecutors alleged that he engaged in a “scheme” to boost his chances during the 2016 presidential election through a series of hush money payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and then falsified New York business records to cover up that alleged criminal conduct.

Trump’s lawyers have argued that the conduct at issue during his criminal trial included “official acts” undertaken while he was president, giving the president broad immunity for his actions and the right to remove the case to federal court. They say that the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling last year granting the president immunity for official acts — which was decided after Trump was convicted in May — would have prevented prosecutors from securing their conviction.

“The fact that it was not until after the conclusion of his state criminal trial that the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision defining the contours of presidential immunity — including a broad evidentiary immunity prohibiting prosecutors from inviting a jury to probe a President’s official acts, as President Trump’s removal notice alleges occurred here — supplies good cause for post-trial removal,” Department of Justice lawyers argued in an amicus brief filed with the court.

Trump decried the prosecution as politically motivated and successfully delayed his sentencing multiple times before New York Judge Juan Merchan, on the eve of Trump’s inauguration, sentenced the former president to an unconditional discharge — the lightest possible punishment allowed under New York state law — saying it was the “only lawful sentence” to prevent “encroaching upon the highest office in the land.”

“I did my job, and we did our job,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case, said following Trump’s conviction. “There are many voices out there, but the only voice that matters is the voice of the jury, and the jury has spoken.”

Bragg has pushed back on Trump’s attempt to remove the case from state court, arguing that a case cannot be moved to federal court after sentencing.

“These arguments ignore statutory indicia that Congress intended for removal of criminal cases to happen before sentencing by anticipating that essential federal proceedings will take place prior to a final criminal judgment,” prosecutors have argued.

Trump’s appeal will be heard by a panel of three federal judges, each of whom was nominated to the bench by Democratic presidents.

With Trump’s former defense attorneys now serving top roles at the Department of Justice, the president will now be represented by former Acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall of the elite law firm Sullivan & Cromwell. In an usual step, lawyers with the Department of Justice filed an amicus brief in support of Trump’s request.

“The United States has a strong and direct interest in the issues presented in this appeal,” they argued.

If the appeals court grants Trump’s request, his conviction would still remain. The only change is that his appeal will play out in a federal, rather than state, courtroom.

In either scenario, Trump could ultimately ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. Moving the case into federal court could also open up the possibility that Trump could potentially pardon himself.

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(SAN ANTONIO) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he was deploying the Texas National Guard to multiple locations across the state to “ensure peace and order.”

The deployment comes ahead of planned protests this week in Texas, including on in San Antonio.

A statement from Abbott’s office obtained by ABC News’ affiliate KSAT confirmed the deployment, saying Guardsmen were ready to “uphold law and order across our state.”

“Peaceful protests are part of the fabric of our nation, but Texas will not tolerate the lawlessness we have seen in Los Angeles,” Abbott’s office said in a statement. “Anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property will be swiftly held accountable to the full extent of the law.”

Abbott’s move comes amid the escalating protests in Los Angeles, where activists have been protesting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

The protests in Los Angeles have at times turned violent. And President Donald Trump ordered both the National Guard and the Marines to Southern California in recent days.

“Peaceful protest is legal,” Abbott said on Tuesday. “Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest.”

He said the Texas National Guard would “use every tool & strategy to help law enforcement maintain order.”

Assistant Chief of the San Antonio Police Department Jesse Salame also confirmed to KSAT that Guard members have been sent to San Antonio.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to use “heavy force” against “any” protesters at the military parade being held in Washington this weekend.

“We’re going to celebrate big on Saturday,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office right after he spoke about sending the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to quell protests there. “If any protesters want to come out, they will be met with very big force.”

The parade to honor the Army’s 250th anniversary also falls on the president’s 79th birthday and comes just days after Trump ordered troops to Los Angeles to respond to protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

“People that want to protest will be met with big force,” he said, noting that he hadn’t heard of any plans to protest at the military parade in Washington yet. “But this is people that hate our country. They will be met with heavy force.”

ABC News reached out to the White House for comment on what kind of force Trump was referring to in his comments Tuesday.

Trump has touted the size and anticipated spectacle of the military parade, saying on Monday, “We have many tanks. We have all sorts of new ones and very old ones old from World War I and World War II,” and that the military and the U.S. roles in victories in World War I and World War II need to be celebrated as other countries do with their militaries.

“It’s going to be a parade, the likes of which I don’t know if we’ve ever had a parade like that. It’s going to be incredible,” he said, adding that “thousands and thousands of soldiers” will march through the streets in military garb from various eras of the U.S. military. “We have a lot of those army airplanes flying over the top, and we have tanks all over the place.”

Twenty-eight Abrams tanks, 28 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 28 Stryker vehicles, and four Paladin self-propelled howitzers will participate in the parade, as will eight marching bands, 24 horses, two mules and a dog.

Fifty aircraft will fly overhead as well.

The U.S. Secret Service and Washington officials said Monday they were tracking nine small protests but that they didn’t expect any violence.

“From a Secret Service perspective, it’s simply people using that first amendment right to protest because we’re not going to do anything with that,” said Matt McCool, the special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Washington Field Office. “But if that turns violent or any laws are broken, that’s when [the Metropolitan Police Department], Park Police, Secret Service will be involved.”

Still, the National Guard, including the District of Columbia National Guard and those from other states, will be activated but not armed.

Outside of Washington, progressive groups plan to hold protests against the Trump administration as the parade occurs, with the flagship “No Kings” protest occurring in Philadelphia.

ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Beatrice Peterson contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday once again aligned himself with President Donald Trump, saying the president is “absolutely right” to send the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles as protests over against Immigration and Customs Enforcement continue — and sided with the president’s criticism of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, adding that the California governor should be “tarred and feathered.”

Johnson said Trump is “fully in his authority right now to do what he is doing” to “maintain order” — including deploying 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to Los Angeles as demonstrators clash with law enforcement amid the protests.

“President Trump has put his hand on the table and said ‘Not on my watch,’ and we applaud that so we’re standing with him,” Johnson said during a news conference.

Johnson would not weigh in on whether Newsom should be arrested — a suggestion Trump made Monday — but said Newsom should be “tarred and feathered.”

“Look, that’s not my lane. I’m not going to give you legal analysis on whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested, but he ought to be tarred and feathered,” the speaker said.

Newsom fired back in a post on X: “Good to know we’re skipping the arrest and going straight for the 1700’s style forms of punishment. A fitting threat given the @GOP want to bring our country back to the 18th Century.”

The California governor responded to Trump’s arrest comment on Monday, calling it “an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.”

Johnson accused Newsom of focusing more on rebranding himself than protecting the state and its citizens.

“Do your job, man. That’s what I tell Gavin Newsom, do your job,” Johnson added. “Stop working on your rebranding and be a governor. Stand up for the rule of law. And he’s not doing that.”

Newsom has called the deployments by Trump “a blatant abuse of power” and sued the administration over the move.

Johnson took the opportunity to plug the House-passed tax and immigration bill, where negotiations are underway in the Senate. The immigration woes at the center of the Los Angeles protests can be remedied by the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that supports Trump’s legislative agenda, Johnson said. He called on Democrats to end the “chaos” and “nonsense” and support the bill.

The legislation boosts spending for the military and border security as well as extends the Trump 2017 tax cuts — while making some cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other assistance programs. It could also add $3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Other congressional Republicans appear to be in lockstep behind Trump and his decision to deploy National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles.

“… What [Trump’s] doing [is] enforcing the rule of law,” Republican Rep. Ralph Norman said, adding that “Trump’s doing the right things.”

Republican Rep. Ron Estes said he supports Trump’s decision and said he believes “it’s important that we have the rule of law and order in the United States.”

Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer said that he supported Trump’s decision to deploy the Marines, saying he hopes their presence “deters” people from violence and brings “peace.”

“Hopefully their presence will be a deterrent to violence. Obviously, there’s a right to assemble, and there’s a right to peacefully protest — and then there’s what they’re doing. So clearly, the state needs help, and the president’s sending help, hopefully, hopefully it’ll bring some peace,” Cramer said.

Cramer said that Trump, as the president and therefore the authority on federal immigration policy, has a “responsibility” to act in response to the protests.

“The president has a responsibility to the United States, and he has a federal nexus with regard to immigration policy, and he’s exercising it, and I think he’s exercising exactly what he said he’d do and what people elected him to do,” Cramer said.

Republican Sen. John Kennedy backed Trump’s decision to deploy the troops.

“I think he didn’t have a choice,” Kennedy told ABC News of Trump’s move to deploy the National Guard and Marines.

“I think he needs to follow the law, but I think he needs to send in federal troops because it’s clear to me the governor and the mayor were going to do nothing. Zero, zilch, nada. He might have met with the rioters and offered them a cup of hot cocoa and a hug and some enthusiastic encouragement, but in terms of containing the riots, they weren’t going to do anything.”

Several Republican senators were quick to criticize Newsom, too.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn said he thought Newsom “probably would love it” if there were an effort to arrest him.

“Make him a hero and a martyr,” Cornyn jested.

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(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is testifying before a House panel on Tuesday, his first time on Capitol Hill since being sworn in five months ago and as questions swirl about the deployment of troops to Los Angeles as part of an immigration crackdown.

Hegseth is appearing before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee alongside Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, and acting Pentagon Comptroller Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell to discuss the administration’s upcoming 2026 budget request.

During the hearing, Hegseth is widely expected to dodge many of the specifics on the military’s spending blueprint, which has not been released, and instead highlight recent gains in recruiting numbers and new technology initiatives in the Army.

But overshadowing much of his testimony will be the Pentagon’s decision to send some 4,800 troops, including 700 Marines, to Los Angeles following several days of clashes between protesters and law enforcement there. The troops, known as Task Force 51, are being called under a law known as Title 10, which allows the president to send military forces to protect federal property and personnel.

Gen. Eric Smith, commandant of the Marine Corps, is scheduled to testify separately Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

On the eve of Hegseth’s testimony, Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota, the top Democrat on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, accused President Donald Trump of deliberately escalating the situation in Los Angeles by pushing for military reinforcements not requested by California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. She called the decision to send Marines in particular “outrageous.”

“The active duty military has absolutely no legal role in domestic law enforcement. President Trump and Secretary Hegseth should read the Constitution and follow the law,” she said.

The Pentagon has not had a news conference since the deployment of troops to Los Angeles, referring reporters with questions about the mission to Hegseth’s posts on X.

On X, Hegseth said the troops were needed to protect federal immigration officers and detention buildings.

“There is plenty of room for peaceful protest, but ZERO tolerance for attacking federal agents who are doing their job. The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE,” Hegseth said in a statement.

U.S. officials said the troops would carry guns and ammunition separately for use only in self-defense and to protect federal property. They would not patrol the streets or help law enforcement arrest protesters, the officials said.

Unclear is whether Trump is preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that says the president can call on a militia or the U.S. armed forces if there’s been “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” in a state that “opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”

On his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Trump referred to the L.A. protesters as “violent, insurrectionist mobs” and “paid insurrectionists.”

When asked if Hegseth had spoken with President Donald Trump on Monday, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told ABC News, “the secretary is in regular contact with the president regarding the National Guard presence in Los Angeles.”

Following his testimony, Hegseth is expected to travel with the president to Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday to participate in activities tied to the Army’s 250th birthday celebration.

Under Hegseth, the military has taken over control of hundreds of miles along the U.S. southern border with Mexico in an effort to tamp down unauthorized entry by migrants. He’s also eliminated programs aimed at increasing diversity among military personnel, slashed the number of general officers and initiated efforts to build a $175 billion U.S. missile defense shield.

At the same time, Hegseth also faces reports of dysfunction and infighting among his personal staff at the Pentagon. Since his Jan. 25 swearing in, Hegseth has fired or sidelined several of his own top political advisers and he’s gone without a chief of staff since April.

Tuesday’s hearing also would be Hegseth’s first appearance since revelations that he relied on a commercial messaging app known as Signal to relay details about a pending military attack to other high-ranking officials and others, including his wife. Hegseth’s use of Signal is now under internal investigation by the Defense Department’s inspector general.

ABC’s Luis Martinez contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Voters head to the polls on Tuesday for New Jersey’s primary elections, which will set up the state’s 2025 gubernatorial election — the results of which could be a potential harbinger for the mood of the country ahead of 2026’s critical midterm elections.

The Democratic candidates are sparring over how to best respond to President Donald Trump’s agenda in the Garden State and each hopes to keep the state’s governorship in Democratic hands. The state’s current governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, can’t run again after serving two terms.

There are six candidates in the Democratic primary. Polling has shown that Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot who represents the state’s 11th Congressional District, leads the crowded Democratic field, but the race could still be anyone’s to win.

The other Democratic candidates are Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who represents the state’s 5th District; Newark Mayor Ras Baraka; Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop; New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller; and former state Senate president Steve Sweeney.

Republicans, meanwhile, hope to flip New Jersey’s governorship red in November and also have a crowded primary field. President Donald Trump has endorsed former state assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who ran for governor in 2021, narrowly losing to Murphy.

“This year’s election for governor is critical for New Jersey’s future. You’ll decide whether New Jersey is a high tax, high crime, sanctuary state,” Trump said during a rally held by telephone last week. “New Jersey is ready to pop out of that blue horror show.”

Ciattarelli faces conservative radio personality Bill Spadea, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, and contractor Justin Barbera.

The contest is on track to become the priciest election in New Jersey history, with over $85 million spent on advertising as of last Wednesday, according to a report from media tracking agency AdImpact.

Among Democrats, Gottheimer has the most ad spending supporting him ($22.8 million), followed by Fulop ($17.8 million).

Ciattarelli leads among Republicans with $5.9 million in ad spending or reservations supporting him, dwarfing Spadea’s $2.2 million and Bramnick’s $1.2 million.

About 70% of broadcast ad airings have mentioned Trump, according to AdImpact.

-ABC News’ Emily Chang and Halle Troadec contributed to this report.

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(LOS ANGELES) — President Donald Trump and California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom escalated their confrontation on Monday over the handling of protests in Los Angeles triggered by Trump’s immigration crackdown.

After Newsom had objected to Trump sending in the National Guard without his consent, Trump on Monday afternoon ordered hundreds of Marines into the city as well.

Earlier Monday, arriving back at the White House after spending the weekend at Camp David, Trump had told reporters he would arrest Newsom if he were “border czar” Tom Homan — hours after Homan said there had been “no discussion” about arresting Newsom.

“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn.

Newsom quickly fired back.

“The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor,” Newsom posted on Instagram along with a video of Trump’s comments. “This is a day I hoped I would never see in America. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.”

“These are the acts of a dictator, not a President,” Newsom posted on X.

At a White House event Monday afternoon, Trump was asked by ABC News White House Correspondent Karen Travers what crime Newsom had committed that would warrant his arrest.

“I think his primary crime is running for governor because he’s done such a bad job,” Trump responded.

Homan himself earlier Monday pushed back on the idea he was going to arrest Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats.

In an interview with NBC News over the weekend, Homan had not ruled out the possibility — prompting Newsom to respond: “He knows where to find me.”

Homan on Monday morning, during an interview on Fox, commented further on his remarks to NBC.

“The reporter asked about, ‘Could Governor, Governor Newsom, or Mayor Bass, be arrested? I said, ‘Well, no one’s above the law, if they cross the line and commit a crime. Absolutely they can.’ So, there was no discussion about arresting Newsom,” he said.

“I’ve said it many times, You can protest, you got your First Amendment rights, but when you cross that line, you put hands on an ICE officer, or you destroy property, or ICE says that you’re impeding law enforcement … That’s a crime, and that the Trump administration is not going to tolerate. You cross that line we’re gonna see prosecution in the Department of Justice,” Homan said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed solidarity with the president after the president suggested Newsom should be arrested.

“I heard that for the first time sitting next to the president when they asked him that question at the White House. I don’t know what all that involves, but he gave comment there, and I’ll stick by what he said,” Johnson said, adding that he also agrees with the Trump’s decision to send in the National Guard, predicting it will have a “deterrent effect.”

“We have to maintain the rule of law, and if the state and local leaders are unable or unwilling to do so, it is the job of the federal government to step in,” Johnson told reporters outside the White House.

Trump on Monday also doubled down on his decision over the weekend to deploy the National Guard to California, over Newsom’s objections.

Trump said in 2020 that a request from a governor was needed to send in the National Guard. On Monday, ABC News asked Trump what changed between his statement then and now.

“Well, the biggest change from that statement is we have an incompetent governor,” Trump said. Trump contended his administration was “straightening out his problems.”

“I mean, I think we have it very well under control. I think it would have been a very bad situation. It was heading in the wrong direction. It’s now heading in the right direction,” Trump said.

Trump has long expressed a desire to quash protests he considered dangerous by using the military, though the use of federal troops on U.S. soil is mostly prohibited by the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act. Trump deployed the National Guard in this situation under Title 10 of the U.S. Code.

Asked if he would deploy Marines to Los Angeles on Monday, Trump had said “we’ll see what happens.”

Shortly after the president’s comments, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News 700 Marines from Twentynine Palms, California, had been ordered to assist on the streets of Los Angeles, although it was unclear exactly what role they would play.

Newsom said the state is suing the administration over Trump deploying the National Guard.

“He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard,” Newsom wrote 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.”

ABC News’ John Parkinson contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom are engaged in a bitter fight over the handling of protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement continue in Los Angeles — and both also are framing their confrontation in familiar, sharp political terms.

On Monday, the president said it would be a “great thing” if border czar Tom Homan arrested Newsom; in response, the California governor fired back that the comment is an “unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.”

In a sign of how much politics is driving the confrontation, Trump, when asked on Monday afternoon by ABC News what crime Newsom has committed to warrant his arrest, Trump said the governor’s “primary crime is running for governor because he’s done such a bad job.” Newsom responded on X, “Donald Trump admits he will arrest a sitting governor simply because he ran for office.”

With the protests, Trump, who has characterized them as “violent, insurrectionist mobs” and “Gavin Newscum inspired Riots,” has deployed National Guard members to Los Angeles. Newsom has asked the administration to rescind the deployment and said Monday that he is suing the Trump administration, claiming Trump illegally federalized the National Guard.

But Trump is not only criticizing the protesters — he is blasting the Democrats leading the state and the city, calling them failures.

“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,'” Trump wrote on his social media platform on Monday. “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.'”

Trump has long been critical of the leadership in most Democratic-run states, often focusing his ire on California.

The situation, separately, gives Trump the chance to take high-profile action on immigration enforcement — a key issue for the president during his 2024 campaign and one that has remained a priority during the first few months of his administration. A recent poll from Marquette Law School taken in early to mid-May found that Trump had positive or around even job approval on border security and immigration.

Newsom, for his part, has explicitly accused the White House of exacerbating the situation for political gain.

“They want a spectacle. They want the violence,” he said in an email to supporters sent through his political action committee on Sunday night. “They think this is good for them politically.” Since then, he’s posted a blizzard of attacks on Trump via social media.

The White House responded to an ABC News request for comment late Monday afternoon.

“Gavin Newsom’s feckless leadership is directly responsible for the lawless riots and violent attacks on law enforcement in Los Angeles. Instead of writing fundraising emails meant to score political points with his left-wing base, Newsom should focus on protecting Americans by restoring law and order to his state,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said.

Newsom and Trump have long been at odds, although the two had a brief detente in their relationship in the past few months.

In the aftermath of wildfires in January that devastated the Los Angeles region, Trump visited the city toward the end of the month and was greeted on the tarmac by Newsom with several handshakes and an embrace; Newsom also met with Trump in Washington in early February, and told CNN afterwards, “I have just all the confidence in the world that it’s going to be a strong partnership moving forward.”

But Newsom, around that time, also approved $50 million for funds that could be used in legal battles against the federal government.

And Newsom grew more critical of Trump in the months afterward — attacking the president’s tariff policy in an ad that aired on Fox News where he said the “tariffs punish families.”

The Trump administration has appeared to direct punishment at California as well. Earlier this month, Trump vowed to impose “large scale fines” on California after a transgender teen competed in a California state final competition in track and field. Last week, the Trump administration signaled that it would cut federal funding for a high-speed rail project in the state.

Newsom, separately, has begun to build a national profile amid speculation that he could run for president in 2028, which included stoking more speculation through a buzzy podcast launch in March. Newsom is term-limited and cannot run for governor in 2026.

While the Los Angeles situation is tied to Newsom’s current work as governor and not to any current or future campaign, it puts him back in the national spotlight and at the center of one of the nation’s highest-profile political issues, standing up to Trump.

Newsom referenced what he framed as the national stakes in his response to Trump’s comments on his potential arrest: “This is a day I hoped I would never see in America… this is a line we cannot cross as a nation.”

ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Protests in Los Angeles are entering their fourth day over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

President Donald Trump, over the weekend, called protesters “violent, insurrectionist mobs” after he deployed the National Guard despite objections from California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The escalatory step is prompting a host of legal questions, including how far Trump is willing to go to use his authority to curb protests over his administration’s immigration raids.

On Sunday, Trump was asked by ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott if he is prepared to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act. The last time the act was used was in 1992 during the Los Angeles riots.

“Depends on whether or not there is an insurrection,” Trump replied.

When asked by Scott if he thought an insurrection was taking place in Los Angeles, Trump replied, “No, no. But you have violent people, and we are not going to let them get away with it,” Trump said at the time. But by Sunday night, he was referring to the protesters on his Truth Social platform as “violent, insurrectionist mobs” and “paid insurrectionists.”

Asked to define insurrection, Trump said, “You actually really just have to look at the site to see what’s happening.”

Trump notably did not rule out sending active-duty Marines to California after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said they were standing by. A U.S. official confirmed on Monday afternoon that 700 Marines from Twentynine Palms, California, have been ordered to assist in Los Angeles.

The bar for sending active-duty Marines? “The bar is what I think is,” Trump had said on Sunday.

What to know about the Insurrection Act

Generally, the use of federal troops on U.S. soil is mostly prohibited. The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act limits the military from being involved in civilian law enforcement unless Congress approves it or under circumstances “expressly authorized by the Constitution.”

One exception is the Insurrection Act, a 218-year-old law signed by President Thomas Jefferson.

The Insurrection Act states, in part: “Whenever there is an insurrection in any State against its government, the President may, upon the request of its legislature or of its governor if the legislature cannot be convened, call into Federal service such of the militia of the other States, in the number requested by that State, and use such of the armed forces, as he considers necessary to suppress the insurrection.”

Another provision states it can be used “whenever the President considers that unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States, make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in any State by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings.”

Some legal experts have warned the law is overly broad and vague, and there have been various calls for it to be reformed to provide greater checks on presidential power.

The Insurrection Act has been invoked in response to 30 crises over its history, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, including presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy to desegregate schools after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Brown v. Board of Education.

Most of its uses involved federal troops being deployed, though a few situations were resolved after troops were ordered to respond but before they arrived on the scene, the Brennan Center noted.

When it was last used in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush to send the National Guard to Los Angeles, it was at the request of then-Gov. Pete Wilson as riots exploded in the city after the acquittal of four white police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King.

If Trump were to invoke the act, he would likely be doing so against Newsom’s wishes — something that hasn’t been done since President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s to deal with civil unrest.

How Trump mobilized the National Guard

Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act when he activated and deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles.

Instead, he cited Title 10 of the U.S. Code — which contains a provision that allows the president to call on federal service members when there “is a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States” or when “the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”

According to a presidential memorandum, Trump said he was sending National Guard to “temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions, including the enforcement of Federal law, and to protect Federal property, at locations where protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur based on current threat assessments and planned operations.”

The memo stated that 2,000 National Guard troops could be deployed for 60 days or “at the discretion” of Hegseth.

Troops called up under Title 10 fall generally are prevented from direct involvement in law enforcement duties under the Posse Comitatus Act, unless Trump invokes the Insurrection Act or other limited exceptions apply.

Gov. Newsom said on Monday the state is suing the administration over Trump deploying the National Guard.

“He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard,” Newsom wrote 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.”

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