President Donald Trump has unleashed a firestorm of criticism against California’s top brass, slamming Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass as utterly incapable of handling the violent pro-migrant riots tearing through Los Angeles.
According to the Daily Mail, amid a sweeping federal crackdown on undocumented immigrants, Trump has deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to quell days of chaos, clashed with local leaders over their response, and announced a bold ban on masks at protests while federal agents battle mobs in the streets.
The unrest began Friday when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) executed search warrants at multiple locations, including a clothing warehouse in LA’s fashion district, after a judge found evidence of fraudulent documents being used by an employer.
By Friday evening, protesters gathered outside a federal detention center in Los Angeles, chanting for the release of detainees and defacing the building with anti-ICE graffiti.
Television footage captured caravans of unmarked military-style vehicles with federal agents streaming through the city as tensions boiled over.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), while not directly involved in immigration enforcement, stepped in to manage civil unrest after protesters targeted a federal court building and gathered outside a jail.
On Saturday, the situation escalated in Paramount, a suburb of LA, near a Home Depot used as a staging area for federal immigration operations, where agents clashed with protesters for a second day.
Protesters in Paramount hurled rocks, set cars ablaze, and used cement blocks and overturned shopping carts as roadblocks, even swarming a US Marshals Service bus and attacking a Border Patrol vehicle, prompting freeway ramp closures.
Federal agents, including Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations, donned riot gear and gas masks, deploying flash-bang grenades and tear gas as smoke from burning shrubbery filled the air.
President Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops into Los Angeles to restore order, later praising their efforts on Truth Social with, “Great job by the National Guard,” while blasting Newsom and Bass for incompetence.
Yet Mayor Bass countered on X, stating, “The National Guard has not been deployed in the City of Los Angeles,” thanking LAPD and Newsom for their support instead of federal intervention.
Governor Newsom also pushed back on X, calling the federal move to deploy troops “purposefully inflammatory,” warning it would erode public trust, though one might argue trust is already in short supply when streets are burning.
Adding fuel to the fire, Trump announced a ban on wearing masks at protests, questioning on Truth Social, “What do these people have to hide?”—a pointed jab at those dodging accountability.
By Saturday night, federal agents arrested over a dozen agitators, including named individuals like Brayan Ramos and Joceline Rodriguez, while ICE reported a total of 118 immigration-related arrests; turns out, actions do have consequences.
