President Donald Trump and his administration officials warned that the use of the military in response to protests against their immigration repression may not be limited to only angels, saying that it could be the first “of many”, and that protesters could find “equal or greater force.”
Trump told journalists in the Oval office on Tuesday that his administration was going to enforce his deportation policy strictly and that he would not tolerate violent protests against ICE officers.
“This is the first, perhaps, of many,” Trump said about the deployment of 4,000 national guards and 700 Marines to Los Angeles as protesters collide with the police amid the protests.
The protesters have faced the application of the law sporadically for days, and Trump called the National Guard, against the wishes of Governor Gavin Newsom, in an attempt to quell violence and allow the application of immigration to continue.
President Donald Trump talks to journalists at the Oval Office of the White House, June 10, 2025, in Washington.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“You know, if we do not attack this with great force, you would have them throughout the country, but I can inform the rest of the country, which when they do, if they do, they will find an equal or greater force,” Trump continued.
The president’s threats occur when California leaders and 22 Democratic governors denounce Trump’s force sample as a rape of state’s sovereignty and a provocative escalation.
Trump’s words echoed in the testimony given by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during an audience of Congress in Capitol Hill earlier in the day.
“Then, in Los Angeles, we believe that ICE, which is a federal agency for the application of the law, has the right to carry out operations safely in any state, in any jurisdiction of the country,” said Hegseth. “Ice agents should be allowed to be safe and carry out their operations, and we have deployed the National Guard and the Marines to protect them in the execution of their duties, because we should be able to enforce … the immigration law in this country.”
The president suggested that he be open to invoke the insurrection law in response to protests. The law authorizes the president to deploy military forces within the United States to suppress rebellion or violence.
The National Guard and the Marines, under the current authorization of Trump, cannot act in the capacity to apply the law due to the POSSE Committee of 1878.
“There were Los Angeles areas last night in which I could call it an insurrection,” Trump said.
Trump repeated statements, without evidence, that protesters are “paid insurrectionists.” He hurt some protesters who were damaging the streets and attacked the members of the National Guard.
LAPD officers face protesters after three days of clashes with the police after a series of immigration raids, on June 9, 2025 in Los Angeles.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Despite Trump’s claims that there were fires and “bad scenes” on Monday night, there was nothing so violent. ABC News noted that the police transferred the protesters using skirmishes and less lethal rounds around the city for a few hours, but there was no generalized violence compared to the weekend.
And although Trump said the angels was “under siege”, the incidents had confined Sunday and Monday to a relatively small area of the center of Los Angeles, approximately an area of 10 blocks.
Until now, the presence of the National Guard and the role in the management of protests seems to have been minimal.
ABC News observed the National Guard troops that is outside a federal building and the Los Angeles Police Department and other local agencies that clean the streets and interact with protesters.
The Administration has not immediately provided details about the actions of the guard as of Monday.
A person raises his hands in front of a police row outside the Santa Ana field office of citizenship and immigration services of the United States after the reports of ICE in Santa Ana, California, on June 9, 2025.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP through Getty Images
The Republicans of the Congress, including the president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, and the leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, supported the use of the president of the military in the situation.
“Clearly, local officials there, for any reason, did not seem to the task of doing the job there,” Thune told journalists on Tuesday.
Although the leader of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, said that “the violence in the riots is outrageous,” he called Trump’s order to send “provocative” and “dangerous” troops.
“The mother rock of our democracy really threatens,” said New York Democrat.
Trump said the National Guard will be in the Los Angeles area “until there is no danger,” declining to put a calendar to finish the deployment.
“It’s easy. Look, it’s common sense … When there is no danger, they will leave,” he said.
Alex Stone, Lalee Ibssa, Isabella Murray and Kelsey Walsh of ABC News, and contributed to this report.
