Los Angeles is home to a huge immigrant population, and a huge first-gen American population. Angelenos pride themselves on their city’s diversity and inclusivity. So when ICE decided to begin conducting raids with LA, Angelenos were like “hell to the no.” I’ve seen white skater boys glide through tear gas, I’ve seen granola-crunching hippies fight fascism and apparently many of the protests are being organized online. Donald Trump is obviously using all of this to send in the National Guard:
President Donald Trump showed little interest in de-escalating the situation in Los Angeles on Sunday evening as he fired off a charged post calling on administration officials to “liberate” the city from what he called a “Migrant Invasion.” In an extraordinary step on Saturday, the president ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to the area, against the wishes of local leaders, to quash protests that broke out over federal immigration raids at workplaces.
California Governor Gavin Newsom formally asked the Trump administration to rescind the order on Sunday evening, accusing it of deploying troops unlawfully and unnecessarily. Newsom said Trump is “hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control.”
But Trump poured fuel on the fire with a Sunday evening post on Truth Social, claiming Los Angeles “has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals.”
“Now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations — But these lawless riots only strengthen our resolve‚” Trump wrote, even though he’d said hours earlier he didn’t think the clashes amounted to an insurrection. He said he was directing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Pam Bondi to “take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots.”
“Order will be restored, the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free,” he wrote. Trump also rolled out quite a specific new catchphrase on Sunday, claiming protesters were spitting at law enforcement. “They spit, we hit,” Trump said. It was somewhat reminiscent of a rhyme he coined during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
People began taking to the streets of L.A. late last week to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and arrests at multiple workplaces—part of Trump’s promise of a deportation crackdown. The Los Angeles Police Department said Saturday the protests had been peaceful, but it was prepared to respond to “any potential acts of civil unrest.” Some demonstrations resulted in tense clashes, with authorities deploying flash bangs and tear gas to disperse crowds. As tensions escalated on Sunday, police reported that some protesters had thrown objects and set cars on fire. Local authorities said the federal response only inflamed tensions.
“Trump is trying to manufacture a crisis in LA County—deploying troops not for order, but to create chaos,” Newsom posted on X Sunday, imploring his constituents: “Don’t take the bait. Never use violence or harm law enforcement.”
I’ve seen many people say “y’all should have voted for Kamala.” While I absolutely agree with that, Californians did vote for Kamala! Angelenos did vote for Kamala! California did not vote for Trumpism! Speaking of, Kamala and Doug live in LA, and she issued a statement on what’s unfolded in recent days. She absolutely warned people last year that this was coming, and I kind of wish her statement started with “I f–king told you so.” I’m also adding the clip of Trump stumbling as he boarded a plane. He’s too old and senile to climb steps, IMPEACH!
My statement on what's unfolding in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/rujs8mrVPK
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 8, 2025
President Trump stumbles while walking up the stairs to Air Force One pic.twitter.com/Z9ZNEKkd7z
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 8, 2025
“Tasted a little tear gas— tasted like fascism”
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- US President Donald J. Trump walks from the Oval Office to to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA 06 June 2025. Kilmar Abrego García is reportedly in federal custody and is returning to the US to face federal charges. Featuring: Donald J. Trump Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 06 Jun 2025 Credit: Shawn Thew/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- US President Donald J. Trump walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA 06 June 2025. Kilmar Abrego García is reportedly in federal custody and is returning to the US to face federal charges. Featuring: Donald J. Trump Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 06 Jun 2025 Credit: Shawn Thew/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
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- US President Donald J. Trump walks to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, USA 06 June 2025. Kilmar Abrego García is reportedly in federal custody and is returning to the US to face federal charges. Featuring: Donald J. Trump Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 06 Jun 2025 Credit: Shawn Thew/POOL via CNP/INSTARimages.com
Sit tight. The whole world is watching the unraveling. Not as bad as the LA riots yet.
I live in LA County. We are NO WHERE NEAR LA riots. It’s collocated in DTLA. LA City is massive. The news is portraying it worse than it actually is.
I agree, Nicole. News makes it look much worse than it is. There are tens of thousands of peaceful protesters. At night a much, much smaller group of “hooligans” come out to burn cars. The same people that do it after basketball championships, etc.
Live here and totally agree- the news never shows the peaceful protests
It’s true that California voted for Kamala by about 20 points. But the Dem vote in Cali has been slipping lately. There are some very deep red pockets in this blue state. And some of it is driven by Trump’s appeal to the “manosphere” in all demographics. The irony is that some young Latino males who thought it would be cool to vote for this asshat are probably now caught up in his immigration dragnet and being kidnapped by his goon squads which include white supremacist groups like Proud Boys and Patriot Front. No doubt some of the “You should have voted for Kamala” advice is directed at these f around guys who are now finding out.
Every time Joe Biden with his bad foot tripped on AF1 stairs, the media covered it endlessly as a sure sign of his enfeeblement.
Absolutely a thousand times yes. The manosphere is endangering us all. They cannot tolerate the notion of anyone but a man being in charge. And now here we are. A felon now has the military at his disposal. Our world is a bad Batman movie. Orange Face is the star.
I live in the largest congressional district in the US – California – Lots of military bases, farms, open desert, BLM + National Park land, retirees, small businesses, marginal income families, etc.
I’m in a blue pocket (Joshua Tree), but people came from all over the district to a congressional townhall last Feb. Republicans in attendance gave our rep the most grief!
Escalation of situation in LA is underhand effort to be assholes PLUS shore up Trump’s flagging support in districts like mine.
This is now day 3 of the protests and Trump is escalating this situation. A govenor or a US state has the original authority of deploying the state’s National Guard and Trump is abusing his authority as POTUS to take over the NG. The NG is protecting federal buildings (for now) and Trump has 500 US Marines on standby to come into LA. It’s not the Marines’ job to act as agents of law enforcement and they have no cause to engage in urban warfare. Trump is using this situation for politics. Immigration in the US needs to be checked but this is too far.
In CA, those “red pockets” have been there for many decades. Orange County has always been conservative, the land of Reagan. Agriculture areas are conservative. We’ve had many conservative governors over the decades, about a 50/50 split until recent history. It’s just that our left leaning areas are so much more numerous and more populated. Red pockets aren’t a new thing.
This is very similar in NY where I am, as well — once you get outside of NYC and even Westchester County, the state gets ruby red especially the further north you go. Much of Long Island is super red also. And Staten Island doesn’t deserve to be counted within the diverse boroughs. “Liberal blue states” are something of a fallacy these days.
Jesus Christ, the rhetoric is fucking terrifying.
I went to college in L.A. and consider it my second home, and I’m so proud that Angelenos are fighting this and trying to protect the migrants and immigrants who ACTUALLY BELONG HERE, serving as a far better representation of what America is supposed to be about than any of the literal fascists (if there was ever any doubt, Trump’s appalling rhetoric should eliminate that) in this administration. I hope my own city will be so brave when the fight comes to us.
i admit I’m so confused over what’s happening. I saw a tweet from Karen Bass saying the NG had NOT been deployed in LA but then other sources are saying it was? Maybe that tweet from her is older? And trump is threatening to arrest Newsome?
@becks Apparently less than hour after Trump congratulated the NG on a job well done Bass tweeted that none had actually shown up in the city yet (maybe they’re there now but weren’t at the time of Trump’s statement). And in response to Trump’s threat of arrest Newsom said “Come and get me, tough guy.” This is getting out-of-hand very quickly with Trump’s interference and political showboating.
Correction: it wasn’t Trump that threatened Newsom, it was the Border Czar for “immigration interference” or some such nonsense.
Newsom needs to knock off with the macho posturing too. I’m sure some will love the “come and get me” vibes but adults in the room is what’s needed rn.
Donald Trump thanked National Guard for bringing peace Saturday night, even though they had not arrived in the city at that time. They should not have gotten credit for keeping the peace.
On Saturday and Sunday, you had tens of thousands of peaceful protesters. By 10:30pm Saturday, there was like 20 people standing around looking at their phones in front of about 50-75 police officers.
This is not the hellscape they paint on TV. I do worry that it will escalate today when ICE resumes unwarranted kidnapping.
Dignity and due process is exactly the issue, I’m glad she wrote that and hope people read it. I read that one of the incidents was that after a lower education graduate brown parents were being indiscriminately grabbed. That’s what we are fighting. Profiling who trumpers deem undesirable, dehumanizing them and not showing warrants and not doing proper work to identify people.
Apparently, ICE and their goons were actually raiding elementary school graduations, causing terrified parents to flee.
Trump is testing the American people’s appetite for authoritarian tactics. I hope he’s terribly disappointed.
I think they figure if they can break California, the rest of us will be easy pickings.
Trump said he was going to arrest and deport all the illegals who are criminals. So ICE is going to school graduations and arresting parents, Home Depot and arresting day laborers looking for work, 18 yr old kids brought to this country as toddlers. People actually walking into ICE for their appointments to continue their path to citizenship! And then no one knows what happened to them because they are shipped out of state by masked, unidentified people. That’s why people are afraid and mad. ICE is acting like secret police.
It is so appalling 😫😡😳
When do we get to the part where everyone wants to take him out of office?
I saw a CBS poll yesterday that 53% of the country approve of his immigration tactics. I don’t know how correct that is, but I really think most of this country really believe only criminals are being deported or of course just don’t care.
This is horrifying— and not at all surprising, given what Trump has told us about his vision for this country. Kamala Harris’s statement is one that I hope everyone reads and heeds.
I hope I’m being paranoid, but in less than a week, DC will be filled with Army troops and MAGAs for Trump’s appalling parade — that’s overshadowing the Army’s own previously planned, much more appropriately sedate anniversary celebrations. The tanks are already rolling in. I’m afraid that Trump is eagerly looking for excuses to wield his military powers domestically. I am so impressed by the peaceful protests that we’ve seen in LA. I’m hoping that both their fervor and their restraint will be a model for the rest of us.
Trump’s son Junior the Coke Head is calling for Korean Americans living in Los Angeles to start sniper fire from their roofs at the protesters. He is literally calling for peace to murder others
It’s difficult to find any words or thoughts to bring to the conversation. I admire those standing up to the regime and peaceful protesters and journalists there do not deserve this response. Such pandering and hypocrisy. Thank you to all the brave souls heeding the call to protect heart of democracy. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. noted simply wanting what was written on paper, I.e. what’s in the constitution and as an aside for Native people what was promised in the treaties. It should be simple.
Hell to the no. We are not going back.
June 14 marches are popping up all over. I’ve got a trunkful of American flags ready to distribute to my fellow marchers.
They are looking for an excuse to declare martial law. We need to keep our protests non-violent and we need a lot more of them.
Excellent headline, the only accurate one I’ve seen.
An Australian reporter was shot with a rubber bullet.
We’ve been here before. This is exactly what happened in Portland 5 years ago, same playbook by the feds and the media will collude to broadcast a narrative of LA riots…LA is burning…LA violent rioters…
I promise you that LA is fine and the images you’re seeing are not representative of what is happening in the city as a whole.
This is what happened in PDX in 2020, and what is currently happening in LA:
Anytime there are peaceful protests, a small (like 1-2 dozen dudes in hoodies & masks) group of agitators shows up that has NOTHING TO DO with the peaceful protest movement, and they get destructive toward property (smash windows, light garbage cans on fire, graffiti, etc). They are occasionally violent toward law enforcement — and they are 100% criminals. Sometimes they’re local, often they are not.
However, the Feds then use propaganda to make a national case for why federal law enforcement agencies should be deployed AGAINST ITS OWN CITIZENS to “restore order” or “rule of law”. That’s so when you see on the news that troops (Natl Guard…Homeland Security…etc etc) are beating or killing protestors, you don’t rise up yourselves. This is how you shut down civil rights and peaceful protests before they even begin. You make people see that if they make a sign and show up at a federal building to protest ICE kidnapping and disappearing your neighbours, you might get teargassed at best, or killed at worst. THIS IS AUTHORITARIANISM 101.
There is so much more to say about what we saw in 2020 PDX and how it can inform what we’re seeing in LA. But for now, do your part: DON’T FALL FOR (or repeat) THE PROPAGANDA and CHALLENGE it everywhere it appears!
Erica, you are 100% correct! LA is not the hellscape Trump says it is. Some Waymo’s were set on fire, but it’s not too different from when Lakers won the championship. Trump is using propaganda to justify military use of force against citizens. It’s up to the American public to look past his tactics and see what is really happening and speak out against it. We need you to see us. It may save our lives.
When I’ve seen comments on other sites about BLM protests ‘burning down cities’, I have asked which cities, where have the people who lived in the cities been rehoused, whether the cities are being reconstructed, and when will they be rebuilt. Unsurprisingly I have never received an answer. As usual in these situations, politicians and the media fixate on the minority of anti-social hangers on rather than the majority of peaceful protestors.
Undeniably there are “protestors” whose main goal is to make trouble, loot, etc.
But, there was also very strong evidence that agent provocateurs were responsible for much of the serious damage during BLM protests.
A relative who has military riot training told me that the best thing protestors can do is lock arms and legs together. It is almost impossible for them to be separated and pulled apart. Protestors have to keep it peaceful, forceful, and locked together.
Among other reasons for Trump’s escalation is an attempt to change the subject from just how badly his policies are tanking the economy; just how much he’s decimating public services like Medicaid, Medicare, FEMA, Vet Benefits, NOAA emergency services; public education, etc etc etc.
He thinks shitting on immigrants; LA + California; Democrats, etc will prop up the flagging support of his voters who are conservative but not necessarily MAGA.
We’re not all stupid
urk – my last line makes it sound like I voted for Trump! – urk and absolutely fn not.
As a native Californian and a proud Angeleno, I’m so proud of my state for the way it is standing up to fascism. The rhetoric is astonishing, and the absolute lack of understanding of the media, politicians, and people outside of California about our geography never fails to astonish. I appreciate how Newsom and Bass are refusing to back down. When the LAPD doesn’t take the bait to inflame things (with a few exceptions) and makes a statement that these protests are peaceful, then you should listen. Hell, even Rick Caruso came out to say that there is nothing to see. Instead, if you go to this small pocket of downtown, you’ll find mariachi bands playing, street dog vendors, and people of all walks of life who make up this diverse city. Any bad actors are just that – professional agitators trying to get the protestors to slip up. Our leadership is telling us to remain calm but firm, and we are. Meanwhile, instead of a hellscap, most Angelenos are going about their day. We won’t back down. We’ve been through fires, we’ve been traumatized, and we’ve been spit on, but we were the last state of the Old West to be tamed, and Los Angeles is older than the U.S. People think we’re laid-back and soft, but gangster rap and punk rock didn’t come out of nowhere. This government of Cheeto-dusted fascists is too stupid to succeed in the long run, and they’re making the already growing pro-secession sentiment grow that much stronger here. I’m a Californian first, and I hope that we can outlast the madness of Cheeto Mussolini and his minions.
I had stopped posting but I needed to pop on here to let it be known that although trump illegally deployed 2000 National guard to Los only 300 showed up wit no food, water or nowhere to sleep it’s not a show of force it’s a show of stupidity. My grandaughter lives there she and her baby came home for five months because of the fire. She said trumps problem with LA is racial. They are completely multi racial community in the United States and he is trying to use them as an example. They will survive this and him.