Marines and additional National Guard troops headed to Los Angeles on Tuesday, sent by President Donald Trump in response to four days of protests over immigration raids despite the strenuous objections of state and local leaders.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, filed an emergency motion in federal court to block the Trump administration from using the Guard and Marines to assist with immigration raids in Los Angeles, saying the motion was in response to an apparent change in orders that had been issued for the Guard.

Trump’s deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to the country’s second-largest city came despite a relative calm to the Monday’s and Tuesday’s protests.

State officials sued Trump on Monday in an attempt to roll back the Guard deployment, saying the president had trampled on California’s sovereignty.

This appears to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor. Trump said in a social media post that the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he hadn’t sent Guard members to the city over the weekend.

Here are some things to know about the lawsuit, the protests and the troop deployments:

LA mayor blasts Trump

Mayor Karen Bass pinned the unrest at some protests squarely on the Trump administration, saying Tuesday that there was “nothing going on here that warranted the federal intervention.”

She also said she was mystified about why the Marines were sent.

“People have asked me what are the Marines going to do when they get here? That’s a good question. I have no idea,” she said at a news conference, emphasizing that violence and looting by protesters won’t be tolerated and that the city was considering imposing a curfew.

She also called out Trump for suggesting the National Guard, not local police, quelled the violence that did happen. She noted Trump made the claim in a Saturday night tweet, but that the National Guard troops didn’t arrive until Sunday.

“If you want to know what the National Guard is doing, drive by the federal building. They are stationary at the federal building protecting the building,” she said. “They are not out doing crowd control or anything like that. So I don’t know how he could say that the National Guard is who saved the day. Who saved the day was our local law enforcement agencies.”

Bass also suggested that the $134 million that the Pentagon said it was costing to deploy troops to LA would have better used to help the city prepare for next summer’s World Cup.

Newsom vs. Trump

The governor on Tuesday filed an emergency request seeking to block the Trump administration from using the Guard and Marines to assist with immigration raids.

The filing included a declaration from Paul Eck, deputy general counsel in the California Military Department. Eck said the department has been told that the Pentagon plans to direct the California National Guard to start providing support for immigration operations. That support would include holding secure perimeters around areas where raids are taking place and securing streets for immigration agents.

The Guard members were originally deployed to protect federal buildings.

Trump and Newsom have been feuding over the immigration raids and protests, with the president and his border czar, Tom Holman, trading taunts with the governor about the possibility of arresting Newsom if he interfered with federal immigration enforcement efforts.

“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump said.

Newsom responded in a post on X: “The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor. This is a day I hoped I would never see in America.”

The governor called the presence of troops on the streets of Los Angeles both “illegal and immoral,” writing: “This isn’t about public safety. It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego.”

In a post Monday, Newsom called the deployment of Marines “a blatant abuse of power” and said officials would sue to stop it.

“U.S. Marines serve a valuable purpose for this country — defending democracy. They are not political pawns,” Newsom wrote. “The Courts and Congress must act. Checks and balances are crumbling.”

What’s the mood in the city?

Downtown Los Angeles was fairly quiet Tuesday morning, with Guard members outnumbering protesters. Several Guard members were stationed in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal lockup where some immigrants are being held, with long guns and wooden bats slung over their shoulders. Passing drivers occasionally honked at or heckled them, drawing no response. News crews were stationed across the street, awaiting the possible arrival of the Marines, who had arrived in the area by late morning.

Otherwise, there were few signs of the tumult that gripped the city in recent nights, aside from the graffiti scrawled across several buildings — “Abolish ICE,” “Amerikkka,” and obscene slogans directed at Trump and federal law enforcement.

Monday’s demonstrations were less raucous than Sunday’s, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall to protest Friday’s arrest of union leader David Huerta, who was protesting the immigration raids, and hundreds rallying outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center. The protests have been driven by anger over Trump’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are tearing apart migrant families.

What’s behind the demonstrations?

The protests were sparked by Trump’s immigration crackdown in the area. They started Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount and neighboring Compton.

Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA’s fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations on Friday. The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot.

Demonstrators attempted to block Border Patrol vehicles by hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls.

The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said. Many have also been arrested while protesting.

What’s happening elsewhere?

Protest over immigration raids have happening in major cities throughout the country, including on Tuesday, though none have reached the scale of those in Los Angeles.

Hundreds of protesters organized by the Austin, Texas, chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation gathered Monday near the state Capitol before moving toward the federal building that houses an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

Authorities appeared to use chemical irritants to disperse a crowd, and the city’s police chief said Tuesday that four officers were injured during the protests, including three who were struck by thrown rocks.

In Dallas, hundreds of people demonstrated on a city bridge for hours before police determined the rally to be “unlawful.” Police said one person was arrested and that charges were pending.

The demonstrations from Boston to Seattle have ranged from gatherings outside of federal office buildings or statehouses, and marches through downtown neighborhoods. “No Kings” rallies critical of Trump are planned nationwide Saturday to coincide with the president’s scheduled military parade in Washington, D.C.

___

Associated Press reporters Michael Casey in Boston, Jesse Bedayn in Denver, Jason Dearen in Los Angeles, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia, Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California, Martha Bellisle in Seattle, Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida, and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© AP Photo Damian Dovarganes

Federal and state government officials are axing public health funding—and justifying the cuts with appeals to fiscal responsibility.

But this slash-and-burn approach is enormously shortsighted. Every dollar “saved” now will cost us far more—in both dollars and lives—when the next health emergency inevitably hits.

Americans know the toll an infectious disease outbreak can take. We just lived through one. COVID-19 killed over 1 million Americans and cost our economy trillions. Government-funded initiatives—such as federally backed research into mRNA vaccines and “field team” deployments to local outbreaks—saved us from an even worse outcome.

Now those very systems are being torn apart. This year alone, over $1.8 billion in NIH research funding has been terminated. The CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee, which sets safety standards for hospitals, was just eliminated. The new federal budget could cut funding for the Department of Health and Human Services by over a quarter.

And it’s not just pandemic preparedness systems suffering from mass layoffs and budget cuts. Institutions designed to protect Americans from foodborne illnesses, antibiotic-resistant infections, and bioterrorism are being gutted as well.

Simply put, this is a catastrophic mistake—one that doesn’t merely threaten our health and economy, but also our national security.

Defense officials have long warned that pandemics, bioterrorism, and emerging infections are critical threats to U.S. stability. The Defense Department reported to Congress earlier this year on how it continually works to monitor and prevent infectious disease outbreaks, given that “a pandemic could potentially impact every component of the Department’s ability to perform its mission.”

The National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology also warned about the growing threat posed by biowarfare in a recent report. Because America’s biotech industry is falling behind China’s, in part due to the government’s dwindling support for research, we’re increasingly vulnerable to bioweapon attacks from adversaries, the report said.

The United States spends billions to prepare for military threats we hope never materialize. Our leaders need to fund disease prevention efforts with the same urgency we give to tanks and missiles. As we learned from COVID, infectious diseases can cause more death and destruction than even the most powerful conventional army.

COVID also showed us that pandemic preparedness pays dividends. Countries that invested more in limiting disease risks, such as Iceland and New Zealand, experienced lower mortality rates. By contrast, America suffered because we had allowed our public health infrastructure to erode for decades.

We cannot afford to repeat—or worse, deepen—that mistake. Policymakers can prevent that from happening by restoring funding for public health agencies and investing in resources, such as labs, vaccines, and rapid response teams, that serve as our first and last lines of defense.

Cutting public health funding may be politically expedient, but preventing infectious disease isn’t a partisan issue. Pathogens don’t check party affiliation, respect national borders, or stop at state lines.

We have a solemn duty—both to current citizens and to future generations of Americans—to strengthen the public health institutions that keep us safe. It’s time for our leaders to act like it.

Howard Dean is the former chair of the Democratic National Committee and former governor of Vermont.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© getty images

• Lawmakers were active stock traders in the days following Trump’s Liberation Day tariff announcement. A study of trades shows House lawmakers (or their families) made 1,865 trades in April. This comes amid calls for reform that would prevent lawmakers from trading individual stocks.

While the debate on whether to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks rages on, lawmakers were particularly active in April amid the announcement of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

A study by The Wall Street Journal found that House lawmakers reported 1,865 trades by them or their families in April, the highest number, by far, since January 2024. From the period between April 2, when Trump announced the tariffs, to April 8, when he paused them, over a dozen members of the House and their family reported over 700 trades.

And the most transactions, the paper says, were made by Reps. Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) and Rob Bresnahan (R., Pa.), who have previously called for stock-trading bans. Both said their trades were made by outside financial advisors.

Lawmakers weren’t the only ones selling and buying stocks during that period, of course. The S&P 500 fell more than 4.5% for two consecutive sessions after the so-called Liberation Day announcements. And after the pause, the Nasdaq index saw its biggest gain in 24 years, a 12% increase.

Because of the vague nature of disclosure rules for members of the House, it’s not possible to determine if the lawmakers made or lost money in those trades.

Two lawmakers seemed well-positioned to have profited, however. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) and Jared Moskowitz (D., Fla.) both bought in early April, so were likely to see those investments gain value after the market rebounded. Greene spend roughly $28,000 on FedEx, Amazon.com, Lululemon Athletica and Palantir Technologies. Moskowitz made 23 stock purchases of at least $1,000 each in companies such as Amazon, Nvidia and Visa.

Both said financial advisors made the trades.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Win McNamee/Getty Images

The spectacular breakup of Donald Trump and Elon Musk could soon get far worse for the Tesla CEO—while doing little good for the U.S. president.

Some political pundits have portrayed last week’s blowup as merely yet another exit by a disgruntled Trump ally. But the president’s anger toward Musk seems worse than his temper tantrums following the departures of other hand-picked loyalists, such as Vice President Mike Pence, Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr, Secretaries of State Rex Tillerson and Mike Pompeo, or Secretaries of Defense James Mattis and Mark Esper.

And it’s not a faux morality play about business leaders facing punishment for straying outside their lane. Musk, given his stature, is different than other CEOs who have taken pro-Trump or anti-Trump stances, whether from Papa John’s, Goya Foods, MyPillow, Coca-Cola, Delta, or Amazon. And this is not about Musk taking a principled stand on the soaring national debt or any other political issue. Instead, the blowup reflects two unrestrained top-down leaders fighting it out in a struggle for supremacy. 

‘First buddy’

Musk’s biggest mistake was about the nature of his role—as an advisor to Trump, not the primary character he believed himself to be. Even now, he continues to overestimate his own importance and indispensability. 

Trump, who relies on a hub-and-spokes model of leadership—where all power is centralized in himself while he divides and conquers his warring subordinates—has always been deeply resentful of consiglieres who try to outmaneuver or constrain him. Trump will never tolerate business leaders who believe they are bigger than the big boss. 

Musk apparently believed that his money and largesse insulated him and entitled him to a greater role as “first buddy.” But that was misguided if not delusional.

Consider advisors with grandiosity who threatened to undermine sovereign bosses, including the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, who engineered creeping control over Czar Nicholas II; Mark Hanna, portrayed in his time as the grand puppeteer controlling President William McKinley; and President Woodrow Wilson’s close advisor Colonel Edward House, who undermined Wilson’s Versailles negotiations after World War I. All these audacious advisors found their presumption punctured by icing out or even execution.  

Lessons from Russia

A look at recent Russian history is illustrative here. Consider Yukos boss Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin after they dared challenge the power of Vladimir Putin, a strongman Trump has expressed admiration for.

We hosted Mikhail Khodorkovsky at our Yale CEO summits during the height of his power at Yukos in the early 2000s, when he controlled virtually all of Russia’s oil and gas reserves. He didn’t hesitate to criticize Putin at our events, openly presenting a different path for Russia’s future. When he started bringing his show on the road within Russia—thinking that Putin needed his money and support too much to whack him—he learned his money didn’t buy him the protection he thought it did. Putin quickly moved to nationalize Khodorkovsky’s assets, forming an alliance with his business rivals to divvy up his once-great wealth. 

More recently, Wagner boss Prigozhin believed his mercenary group had become so indispensable—thanks to its battlefield triumphs, raw military might, and global wealth—that he could challenge the authority of Putin’s top lieutenants, blasting them in videos posted on Telegram for mishandling the Urkaine invasion. When Prigozhin failed to sway them with this bullying, he thought he could get away with marching on Moscow with his forces and starting an insurrection within Russia against Putin’s rule. The full delusion of this folly was revealed when little of the domestic support Prigozhin expected materialized. Not long after he died when his plane plunged out of the skies, the victim of sabotage—one wonders by who. 

Prigozhin was among at least 60 prominent Russians who have met suspicious deaths since the start of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. USA Today documented around 40 such cases prior to then as well, and the actual number is likely to be even higher. 

Musk’s vulnerability

Musk and his defenders, emboldened by his status as the world’s wealthiest person, apparently have either forgotten such lessons or don’t think they apply to Musk. Last week, Musk taunted on X, “Trump has 3.5 years left as president, but I will be around for 40+ years.” He also called for Trump’s impeachment and accused him of being illicitly connected to the late pedophile and accused rapist Jeffrey Epstein. 

Musk did all this despite his companies depending on government support in one way or another. That includes Tesla via EV tax credits, SpaceX via contracts, and Neuralink and the Boring Company via regulatory clearances. Given that Trump held up regulatory clearances of the AT&T-TimeWarner deal—which involved less personal animus than his feud with Musk—one wonders how long he could gum up the works for Musk now. Musk might be well served to remember the lessons embodied by Khodorkovsky and Prigozhin, however different the contexts.  

Meanwhile, with Trump insinuating Musk’s government interest is motivated by commercial self-gain and Musk accusing Trump of entanglement with Epstein—and having the resources to fund an anti-Trump counterrevolution—the news media might be a better investment than AI or cryptocurrency.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is the Lester Crown Professor in Management Practice and president and founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute. Steven Tian is the director of research at the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

Read more:

• Tesla could lose billions in revenue as Trump administration weighs eliminating a key regulatory credit loophole
• JD Vance says the ‘blood feud’ between Trump and Musk is ‘not going to be good for Elon’ but admits he ‘suffered a lot’ for the White House 
• What Elon Musk’s feud with Trump means for Tesla shareholders

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© ALEX WROBLEWSKI,ALLISON ROBBERT/AFP via Getty Images

• Senate Republicans are proposing the elimination of penalties for not abiding by certain fuel efficiency standards. These penalties would render regulatory credits, an incentive for auto companies to abide by the standards, essentially useless. Tesla relies on these credits for a chunk of its revenue, racking up $2.67 billion from them in 2024.

As Tesla stock sputters following CEO Elon Musk’s feud with President Donald Trump, the EV maker is facing yet another threat from the administration. Republicans are doubling down on efforts to weaken carbon emission standards for the auto industry, which have provided opportunities for companies producing eco-friendly vehicles, such as Tesla, to receive and sell regulatory credits for profit.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation proposed last week eliminating penalties for companies not meeting certain economy fuel standards set to mitigate carbon emissions. The proposal is included in the committee’s portion of Trump’s sweeping budget bill. 

After Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards were introduced in 1975 as a means of setting standards for fuel efficiency, a credits program emerged following lobbying efforts from auto companies looking to be paid to produce lower emission vehicles. Auto companies that produce a certain amount of energy-efficient cars are given a number of credits, depending on how eco-friendly their manufactured vehicles are. Companies are required to have a certain number of credits annually.

While Tesla is able to easily attain these credits as a producer of cars that don’t run on gas, other manufacturers, like Ford and Stellantis, are not. Therefore, they buy credits from Tesla, who can sell those credits for practically 100% profit. 

The Senate committee’s proposal would eliminate certain CAFE penalties, rendering the need to have credits useless, Chris Harto, senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports, told Fortune in an email. 

“It also would essentially turn the CAFE standards into nothing more than a reporting requirement with no consequences for automakers who fail to improve the efficiency of the vehicles they sell,” he said.

The committee argued the provision would “modestly” bring down the cost of cars by eliminating CAFE penalties.

These CAFE credits have been a boon for Tesla, which has been battered by CEO Musk’s controversial involvement in—and departure from—the Trump administration. The EV-maker made $2.76 billion from regulatory credits in fiscal 2024 and $595 million in the first quarter of 2025, according to earnings reports. Tesla reported $420 million in net income the same quarter, meaning without the regulatory credit, the company would not have been profitable.

“A key element of Tesla’s profitability has been its ability to generate credits because it makes zero emissions, and sell those credits to more polluting car companies like GM and Ford and Stellantis—primarily gas-guzzlers that don’t really want to make clean cars,” Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the Center for Biological Diversity, told Fortune.

“By taking away these credits, they’re taking away a key element of Tesla’s profitability,” he added.

Tesla did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

Tesla’s credit headaches

The Senate committee’s proposal is one of several efforts by the Trump administration to cut auto sustainability standards. Last month the Senate passed legislation blocking a California effort to ban gas-powered vehicles and mandate sales of only zero-emission cars and light trucks by 2035. The bill, should it be signed by the president, would take a $2 billion bite out of Tesla’s revenue, according to JPMorgan analysts.

Also in Trump’s massive budget bill is the elimination at the end of this year of tax credits up to $7,500 for buyers of certain Tesla and other EV models, which would cost $1.2 billion of Tesla’s full-year profit, the analysts calculated. 

Tesla’s credit headaches extend across the Atlantic Ocean. Regulatory credits are common in Europe and Asia, and the European Union, for example, gives credits to European automakers who sell a certain number of zero-emission cars.

But as Tesla sales crater overseas—including falling by 49% in April—the EV maker may not be able to reach the number of sales necessary to gain credits. As of April, Tesla—grouped with Ford and Stellantis in a manufacturing pool to achieve the EU’s emission standards—are still short of the target, according to a report from the International Council on Clean Transportation. Poor sales could jeopardize Tesla’s ability to rack up credits.

“If things go bad for Tesla and they don’t sell enough cars this year, they might not have enough credits for what they promised Stellantis and the others,” ICCT managing director Peter Mock told Politico in March. “Tesla is under pressure.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Kevin Dietsch—Getty Images

Another 2,000 National Guard troops along with 700 Marines are headed to Los Angeles on orders Monday from President Donald Trump, escalating a military presence local officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom don’t want and the police chief says creates logistical challenges for safely handling protests.

An initial 2,000 Guard troops ordered by Trump started arriving Sunday, which saw the most violence during three days of protests driven by anger over Trump’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are breaking apart migrant families.

Monday’s demonstrations were was far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city.

Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. They say he is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they don’t need the help.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was confident in the police department’s ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the Marines’ arrival without coordinating with the police department presented a “significant logistical and operational challenge” for them.

Newsom called the deployments reckless and “disrespectful to our troops” in a post on the social platform X.

“This isn’t about public safety,” Newsom said. “It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego.”

The protests began Friday in downtown Los Angeles after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city. The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.

Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening on Monday in several other cities including San Francisco and Santa Ana in California and Dallas and Austin in Texas.

California pushes back against presence of federal troops

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters in his announcement Monday that Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.

“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops,” Bonta said. He sought a court order declaring Trump’s use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment.

Trump said Monday that the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the Guard.

U.S. officials said the Marine troops were deployed to protect federal property and personnel, including federal immigration agents. Trump’s Monday order put more National Guard members on active duty, but one U.S. official warned that the order was just signed and it could take a day or two to get troops moving. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements.

Despite their presence, there has been limited engagement so far between the Guard and protesters while local law enforcement implements crowd control.

Bass criticized the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines as a “deliberate attempt” by the Trump administration to “create disorder and chaos in our city.”

She made a plea to the federal government: “Stop the raids.”

Early protests remained peaceful

On Monday, thousands flooded the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for arrested labor leader David Huerta, who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond. Huerta’s arrest on Friday while protesting immigration raids has become a rallying cry for people angry over the administration’s crackdown. He is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state’s janitors, security officers and other workers.

Early protests had a calm and even joyful atmosphere at times, with people dancing to live music and buoyed by Huerta’s release.

Protesters linked hands in front of a line of police officers outside the downtown federal detention center where Huerta was being held. Religious leaders joined the protesters, working with organizers at times to de-escalate moments of tension.

There was a heavy law enforcement presence in the few square blocks including the federal detention facility, while most in the immense city of some 4 million people went about their normal business on peaceful streets.

Chanting against a line of National Guard troops with Homeland Security officers behind them surrounding the federal buildings ramped up in the afternoon as people yelled, “Free them all!” and “National Guard go away.”

As the crowd thinned, police began pushing protesters away from the area, firing crowd-control munitions as people chanted, “Peaceful protest.” Officers became more aggressive in their tactics in the evening, occasionally surging forward to arrest protesters that got too close. At least a dozen people remaining in the busy Little Tokyo neighborhood were surrounded by police and detained.

Other protests took shape Monday across LA County. Outside a Los Angeles clothing warehouse, relatives of detained workers demanded at a news conference in the morning that their loved ones be released.

The family of Jacob Vasquez, 35, who was detained Friday at the warehouse, where he worked, said they had yet to receive any information about him.

“Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,” Vasquez’s brother, Gabriel, told the crowd. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing being targeted by authorities.

Several dozen people were arrested in protests throughout the weekend. Authorities say one was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers.

Guard deployment is a nearly unprecedented escalation

The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.

The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Jae Hong—AP

The Pentagon planned to deploy about 700 Marines to Los Angeles on Monday to help National Guard members respond to immigration protests, three U.S. officials said, as California prepared to sue President Donald Trump over his use of the Guard troops and growing numbers of demonstrators took to the city’s streets for a fourth day.

The Marines were moving toward LA from their base at Twentynine Palms in the Southern California desert, the officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss military plans.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the planned lawsuit by telling reporters that Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.

“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops” Bonta said. He planned to seek a court order declaring Trump’s use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment.

The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. It could take days to clear the debris from burned cars and to clean off or paint over graffiti sprayed on City Hall and other nearby buildings.

The law enforcement presence was heavy, with police cars blocking the street in front of the federal detention facility that was a focus of the protests.

But the clashes unfolded over just a few square blocks in an immense city of some 4 million people, most of whom went about their normal business on peaceful streets.

On Monday, thousands of people flooded the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for arrested labor leader David Huerta, who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond. Huerta’s arrest on Friday while protesting immigration raids has become a rallying cry for people angry over the administration’s crackdown. He is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state’s janitors, security officers and other workers.

Earlier in the day, religious leaders joined protesters outside the downtown federal detention where Huerta was held, working at times to quell outbursts of anger in the otherwise peaceful demonstration. Protesters linked hands and at times sang in front of a line of police officers, who unsuccessfully asked people to move off the road and onto the sidewalk.

Bonta accused Trump of fanning protesters’ anger with his announcement of the deployment, saying he set off Sunday’s clashes with law enforcement in downtown Los Angeles. “This was not inevitable,” he said.

Trump said Monday that the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the Guard.

Later, at a White House event, he added that state leaders “were afraid to do anything.”

U.S. officials said about 1,000 National Guard members were in the city under federal orders by midday Monday. The full 2,000 members authorized by the president were expected to be on the ground by the end of the day. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details of military operations.

The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.

Other protests were taking shape Monday afternoon in LA, and more protests were scheduled for cities across the country.

Outside a Los Angeles clothing warehouse, relatives of detained workers demanded at a news conference that their loved ones be released.

The family of Jacob Vasquez, 35, who was detained Friday at the warehouse, where he worked, said they had yet to receive any information about him.

“Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,” Vasquez’s brother, Gabriel, told the crowd. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing being targeted by authorities.

On Sunday, many protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly, a precursor to officers moving in and arresting those who refuse to leave. Some of those who stayed threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier. Others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover at one point.

The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention center where protesters concentrated.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were “overwhelmed” by the remaining protesters. He said they included regular agitators who show up at demonstrations to cause trouble.

Several dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend. One was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers.

Governor says Guard not needed

Newsom urged Trump to rescind the Guard deployment in a letter Sunday, calling it a “serious breach of state sovereignty.”

The governor, who was was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials, also told protesters that they were playing into Trump’s plans and would face arrest for violence or property destruction.

“Trump wants chaos and he’s instigated violence,” he said. “Stay peaceful. Stay focused. Don’t give him the excuse he’s looking for.”

The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.

Newsom, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation under control. He mocked Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles.

The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Kyle Grillot—Bloomberg via Getty Images

• The White House memo federalizing National Guard troops in response to protests in Los Angeles this weekend doesn’t specify a city or state for their deployment. It also authorizes their activation in areas where protests “are occurring or are likely to occur.” A legal scholar said that means the memo could apply anywhere and preemptively.

President Donald Trump’s activation of California National Guard troops could go beyond Los Angeles and the unrest that took place there over the weekend.

The memo he issued on Saturday that federalized the National Guard in the wake of protests against his immigration raids doesn’t specify a city or state for their deployment.

It also authorizes the activation of the National Guard in areas where protests “are occurring or are likely to occur.”

According to Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, that means it could apply nationwide and even before any protests actually take place.

“No president has ever federalized the National Guard for purposes of responding to potential future civil unrest anywhere in the country,” she wrote Sunday in a thread on X. “Preemptive deployment is literally the opposite of deployment as a last resort. It would be a shocking abuse of power and the law.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The memo invokes Title 10 of U.S. Code 12406 to task the Guard with temporarily protecting Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and other government personnel performing federal functions.

That’s because the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 largely prevents federal troops from engaging in civil law enforcement domestically, leaving the Guard with force-protection duties and other logistical support for ICE.

During Sunday’s protests in downtown Los Angeles, the Guard protected the federal building while the L.A. Police Department and the California Highway Patrol pushed demonstrators back and made arrests.

Still, Trump ordered the deployment despite objections from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said he is suing the administration and claimed it illegally sent in the troops.

There is an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act that would allow troops to take a more active role in law enforcement, but the Insurrection Act has not been invoked yet.

Nevertheless, Trump’s memo said members of the “regular Armed Forces” can be deployed as well to support the “protection of Federal functions and property.”

The Defense Department said on Sunday that 500 Marines at Twentynine Palms are in a “prepared to deploy status” in case they are needed. 

When asked Sunday if he planned to send U.S. troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied, “We’re gonna have troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.”

The Brennan Center’s Goitein pointed out that Trump’s memo doesn’t cite a law that would authorize deployment of active-duty troops.

“The administration would likely claim an inherent constitutional right to protect federal personnel and property (in keeping with the memo’s language). But the Posse Comitatus requires ‘express’ authorization—not a claim of implied power,” she added.

“In short: Don’t let the absence of the words ‘Insurrection Act’ fool you. Trump has authorized the deployment of troops anywhere in the country where protests against ICE activity might occur. That is a huge red flag for democracy in the United States.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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• While it’s still summer, retailers are already promoting Halloween yard decorations. This year could be different than previous years as tariffs have raised fears about supply shortages and higher prices. Lowe’s is the latest to offer goods, with products that tie in to Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction.

Holiday creep is the sort of thing that usually drives people a little bit crazy. So seeing yard decorations for Halloween cropping up in home improvement stores right as hurricane season gets underway might seem a bit much.

But 2025, by all signs, is not going to be the usual spooky season. And people who are hoping to have the latest and greatest ghouls in their front yard might want to consider stocking up a bit early this year.

Lowe’s is the latest store to offer early Halloween decorations, with several new decorations and animatronics from Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride. The store is offering several freestanding tombstones that visitors see when they’re waiting to enter the attraction, as well as decorations of popular ride characters, including the groundskeeper and the hitchhiking ghosts.

Critics might take issue with some of the design choices of these decorations (which are not exactly what you’d call a carbon copy of the ride characters), but as Oct. 31 draws nearer, the choices in stores might not be as robust as previous years.

Continuing questions about tariffs have pushed some retailers to pause or cancel orders for Halloween and Christmas decorations.

Lowe’s is hardly the first retailer to launch early Halloween sales. The Home Depot, in March, launched sales of select spooky decorations, such as its iconic 12-foot skeleton and a 15-foot animated scarecrow.

Several more items are still available on that company’s website, but if you’re hoping to pick up a 12-foot skeleton, you’ll have to wait until the Home Depot’s next big Halloween event, which usually takes place in July.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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The Senate has set an ambitious timeline for passing President Donald Trump’s sweeping legislation to cut taxes and spending. But getting it on the Republican president’s desk by July 4 will require some big decisions, and soon.

Republican senators are airing concerns about different parts of the legislation, including cuts to Medicaid, changes to food aid and the impact on the deficit. To push the bill to passage, Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and other negotiators will need to find a compromise that satisfies both ends of their conference — and that can still satisfy the House, which passed the bill last month by only one vote.

A look at some of the groups and senators who leaders will have to convince as they work to push Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill toward a Senate vote:

Rural state lawmakers

Every Republican senator represents a state with a rural constituency — and some of their states are among the most rural in the country. Many in those less-populated areas rely heavily on Medicaid for health care, leading several of them to warn that the changes to the program in the bill could be devastating to communities that are already struggling.

Of particular concern is a freeze on a so-called provider tax that some states use to help pay for large portions of their Medicaid programs. The extra tax often leads to higher payments from the federal government, which critics say is a loophole that allows states to inflate their budgets. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and several others have argued that freezing that tax revenue would hurt rural hospitals, in particular.

“Hospitals will close,” Hawley said last month. “It’s that simple. And that pattern will replicate in states across the country.”

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said Thursday that provider taxes in his state are “the money we use for Medicaid.”

“You start cutting that out, we’ve got big problems,” Tuberville said. Eliminating those taxes “might lose some folks.”

At the same time, Republican senators have little interest in a House-passed provision that spends more money by raising a cap on state and local tax deductions, known as SALT. The higher cap traditionally benefits more urban areas in states with high taxes, such as New York and California.

The House included the new cap after New York Republicans threatened to oppose the bill, but Senate Republicans uniformly dislike it. “I think there’s going to have to be some adjustment” on the SALT provision, Thune said Wednesday, noting that “senators are just in a very different place” from the House.

Former (and maybe future) governors

The House-passed bill would also shift some Medicaid and food stamp costs to states, a change that has the former governors in the Senate, in particular, worried.

West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice, who was governor of his state for eight years before his election to the Senate last year, said he favors many aspects of the bill. He supports the new work requirements for Medicaid and food stamp recipients, the restrictions on benefits for immigrants who are in the country illegally and the efforts to cut down on fraud. “There’s real savings there,” Justice said. “But then we ought to stop.”

“We’re on our way to cannibalizing ourselves,” Justice said. “We don’t want to hurt kids and hurt our families.”

The provision stirring the most unease would shift 5% of administrative costs to the state for administering food stamps — known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. States that have high error rates in the program would have to take on an even higher percentage of federal costs.

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven, also a former governor, said senators are working to get feedback from current governors and may propose some “incentive-oriented ideas” instead of a penalty for the high error rates.

“We don’t know if the states have really looked at the impacts of some of this yet,” Hoeven said.

Tuberville, who is running for governor of Alabama next year, said the program should be reformed instead of shifting costs.

“I know what our budget is and what we can afford, and we can’t start a federal program and then say, ‘Oh, let’s, let’s send it back to the states and let them take a big hunk of it,’” Tuberville said. “I mean, that’s not the way we do it.”

The moderates

Thune needs to bring Republican moderates on board with the bill, including Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. Both have reservations with the Medicaid cuts, among other things.

Collins said she wants to review how the SNAP changes will affect her state. Murkowski has questioned expiring subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and whether they might be needed if people are kicked off Medicaid.

Last month, Murkowski said she wants to make sure that people are not negatively impacted by the bill, “so we’re looking at it through that lens for both Medicaid and on energy.”

Murkowski and Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, John Curtis of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas have also supported energy tax credits that would be phased out quickly under the House bill. The four senators argued that the quick repeal creates uncertainty for businesses and could raise prices for consumers.

The right flank

Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida have argued the legislation does not save enough money and threatened to vote against it.

Paul is considered the least likely to support the measure. He says he won’t vote for it if it raises the debt ceiling — a key priority for GOP leaders in both the House and the Senate. The package would raise the nation’s debt limit by $4 trillion to allow more borrowing to pay the nation’s bills, as the Treasury Department says the limit needs to be raised by the middle of July.

Johnson has been railing against the legislation since it was unveiled in the House, arguing that it does little to reduce government spending over time. He took those arguments to Trump last week at a meeting between the president and members of the Senate Finance Committee.

After the meeting, Johnson said he would continue to argue that the bill needs to do more to cut costs. But he said he came away with the recognition that he needed to be “more positive” as Trump exerts political pressure on Republicans to pass it.

“We’re a long ways from making the deficit curve bend down, but I recognize that’s going to take time,” Johnson said. “The truth is, there are a lot of good things in this bill that I absolutely support. I want it to succeed.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Tensions in Los Angeles escalated Sunday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd.

Many protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly, a precursor to officers moving in and making arrests of people who don’t leave. Some of those remaining threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier that spanned the width of a street and others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the closed southbound 101 Freeway. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover.

Sunday’s protests in Los Angeles, a sprawling city of 4 million people, were centered in several blocks of downtown. It was the third and most intense day of demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of around 300 Guard troops spurred anger and fear among many residents.

The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention center where protesters concentrated.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were “overwhelmed” by the remaining protesters. He said they included regular agitators who show up at demonstrations to cause trouble.

Several dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend of protest. One was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police, and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers.

Trump responded to McDonnell on Truth Social, telling him to arrest protesters in face masks.

“Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” he wrote.

Clashes escalate as National Guard troops arrive

Starting in the morning, the troops stood shoulder to shoulder, carrying long guns and riot shields as protesters shouted “shame” and “go home.” After some closely approached the guard members, another set of uniformed officers advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street.

Minutes later, the Los Angeles Police Department fired rounds of crowd-control munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully. Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 freeway until state patrol officers cleared them from the roadway by late afternoon.

Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently as the electric vehicles burned. By evening, police had issued an unlawful assembly order shutting down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles.

Flash bangs echoed out every few seconds into the evening.

Governor says Guard not needed

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom requested Trump remove the guard members in a letter Sunday afternoon, calling their deployment a “serious breach of state sovereignty.” He was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials.

The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.

Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blamed the increasingly aggressive protests on Trump’s decision to deploy the Guard, calling it a move designed to enflame tensions. They’ve both urged protesters to remain peaceful.

“What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration,” she said in an afternoon press conference. “This is about another agenda, this isn’t about public safety.”

But McDonnell, the LAPD chief, said the protests were following a similar pattern for episodes of civil unrest, with things ramping up in the second and third days.

He pushed back against claims by the Trump administration that the LAPD had failed to help federal authorities when protests broke out Friday after a series of immigration raids. His department responded as quickly as it could, and had not been notified in advance of the raids and therefore was not pre-positioned for protests, he said.

Newsom, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation under control. He mocked Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles, and said on MSNBC that Trump never floated deploying the Guard during a Friday phone call. He called Trump a “stone cold liar.”

The admonishments did not deter the administration.

“It’s a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

Deployment follows days of protest

The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.

Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA’s fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations on Friday. The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot.

The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said. Many more were arrested while protesting, including a prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement.

The protests did not reach the size of past demonstrations that brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops.

The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Trump says there will be ‘very strong law and order’

In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is ”a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

He said he had authorized the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard.

Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday that there were “violent people” in Los Angeles “and they’re not gonna get away with it.”

Asked if he planned to send U.S. troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied: “We’re gonna have troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country.” He didn’t elaborate.

About 500 Marines stationed at Twentynine Palms, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Los Angeles were in a “prepared to deploy status” Sunday afternoon, according to the U.S. Northern Command.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Eric Thayer—AP

Tear gas was fired at protesters in Los Angeles on Sunday when some demonstrators moved close to National Guard troops and shouted insults at them, hours after President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the military over the objections of the governor and mayor.

The confrontation broke out as hundreds of people protested in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, where several of the newly-arrived National Guard troops stood shoulder to shoulder behind plastic riot shields.

Video showed uniformed officers shooting off the smoke-filled canisters as they advanced into the street, forcing protesters to retreat. It was not immediately clear what prompted the use of chemical irritants or which law enforcement agency fired them.

Minutes later, loud popping sounds erupted again, as some protesters chanted “go home” and “shame.” One person was taken to the ground by uniformed officers. Another appeared to be bleeding from their head.

Around 300 National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles early Sunday on orders from Trump, who accused Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats of failing to stanch recent protests targeting immigration agents.

The move appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.

Deployment follows days of protest

The deployment followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.

As federal agents set up a staging area Saturday near a Home Depot in Paramount, demonstrators attempted to block Border Patrol vehicles, with some hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls.

Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, as the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed above 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement.

The deployment of the National Guard came over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who accused Trump of a “complete overreaction” designed to create a spectacle of force.

The recent protests remain far smaller than past events that have brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops.

The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Trump says there will be ‘very strong law and order’

In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is ”a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

He said he had authorized the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard.

Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday that there were “violent people” in Los Angeles “and they’re not gonna get away with it.”

Asked if he planned to send U.S. troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied: “We’re gonna have troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.” He didn’t elaborate.

Trump also said that California officials who stand in the way of the deportations could face charges. A Wisconsin judge was arrested last month on accusations she helped a man evade immigration authorities.

“If officials stay in the way of law and order, yeah, they will face charges,” Trump said.

Newsom called Trump on Friday night and they spoke for about 40 minutes, according to the governor’s office. It was not clear if they spoke Saturday or Sunday.

There was some confusion surrounding the exact timing of the guard’s arrival. Shortly before midnight local time, Trump congratulated the National Guard on a “job well done.” But less than an hour later, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said troops had yet to arrive in the city.

Defense secretary threatens to deploy active-duty Marines ‘if violence continues’

In a statement Sunday, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused California’s politicians and protesters of “defending heinous illegal alien criminals at the expense of Americans’ safety.”

“Instead of rioting, they should be thanking ICE officers every single day who wake up and make our communities safer,” McLaughlin added.

The troops included members of the California Army National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to a social media post from the Department of Defense.

In a signal of the administration’s aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines “if violence continues” in the region.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said the order by Trump reflected “a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism” and “usurping the powers of the United States Congress.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a staunch Trump ally, endorsed the president’s move, doubling down on Republicans’ criticisms of California Democrats.

“Gavin Newsom has shown an inability or an unwillingness to do what is necessary, so the president stepped in,” Johnson said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Jae Hong—AP Photo

• The California National Guard troops that President Donald Trump deployed to the Los Angeles area in response to protests can only provide protection and logistical support to immigration agents there, according to Georgetown University law professor Stephen Vladeck. But that changes if the Insurrection Act is invoked.

President Donald Trump’s decision to federalize California National Guard troops and deploy them to the Los Angeles area puts them in more of a support role, according to a legal expert.

On Saturday, Trump exercised his authority to place state National Guard troops under federal command in response to protests over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids—and over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials who said it’s unnecessary.

On Sunday morning, members of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, the largest combat unit in the California Army National Guard, began arriving in Los Angeles. 

But the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 largely prevents federal troops from engaging in civil law enforcement, Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, wrote in his newsletter.

“All that these troops will be able to do is provide a form of force protection and other logistical support for ICE personnel,” he explained. “Whether that, in turn, leads to further escalation is the bigger issue (and, indeed, may be the very purpose of their deployment).”

There is an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act that would allow troops to take a more active role in law enforcement. The Insurrection Act, which has not been invoked yet, enables them “to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections, and repel Invasions.”

In theory, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, the Insurrection Act should be used only in a crisis that civilian authorities can’t handle, but “the law’s requirements are poorly explained and leave virtually everything up to the discretion of the president.”

At face value, Trump’s order to deploy California National Guard troops to Los Angeles is meant to protect Department of Homeland Security personnel from attacks, Vladeck explained.

While that represents a significant and unnecessary escalation, he added, it’s not by itself a mass deployment of troops into a U.S. city.

“That said, there are still at least three reasons to be deeply concerned about President Trump’s (hasty) actions on Saturday night,” Vladeck warned.

First, the presence of federal troops raises the risk of escalating violence. Second, there’s the possibility that the deployment of National Guard troops, even in a limited manner now, sets up more aggressive responses to similar protests later, perhaps even the Insurrection Act. Third, domestic use of the military can have “corrosive effects” on the troops, the relationship between federal and local and state authorities, as well as the relationship between the military and civil society.

“For now, the key takeaways are that there really isn’t much that these federalized National Guard troops will be able to do—and that this might be the very reason why this is the step the President is taking tonight, rather than something even more aggressive,” Vladeck said.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Jason Armond—Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

President Donald Trump is deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops over the governor’s objections to Los Angeles where protests Saturday led to clashes between immigration authorities and demonstrators.

The White House said in a statement Saturday that Trump was deploying the Guardsmen to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester” in California.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, objected to the move and said in a post on X that the move from the Republican president was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”

The White House’s move to dramatically ratchet up the response came as protests in Los Angeles extended into a second day where tear gas and smoke filled the air as protesters faced off with Border Patrol personnel in riot gear.

In a signal of the administration’s aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened in a post on X to deploy the U.S. military.

“If violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert,” Hegseth said.

Trump federalized part of the California’s National Guard under what is known as Title 10 authority, which places him, not the governor, atop the chain of command, according to Newsom’s office.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the work the immigration authorities were doing when met with protests is “essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States. In the wake of this violence, California’s feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens.”

The president’s move came shortly after he issued a threat on his social media network that said that if Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass didn’t “do their jobs,” then “the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”

Trump signed the order shortly before he went to attend a UFC fight in New Jersey, where he sat ringside with boxer Mike Tyson.

Newsom said in his statement on social media that local authorities “are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice,” and “there is currently no unmet need.”

“This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust,” he added.

Border Patrol personnel in riot gear and gas masks stood guard outside an industrial park in the city of Paramount, deploying tear gas as bystanders and protesters gathered on medians and across the street. Some jeered at officers while recording the events on smartphones.

“ICE out of Paramount. We see you for what you are,” a woman said through a megaphone. “You are not welcome here.”

One handheld sign read, “No Human Being is Illegal.”

Smoke rose from burning shrubbery and refuse in the street, and demonstrators kicked at a Border Patrol vehicle. A boulevard was closed to traffic as Border Patrol agents circulated through a community where more than 80% of residents identify themselves as Latino.

The California Highway Patrol said Newsom had directed the agency to deploy additional officers to “maintain public safety” on state highways and roads and the agency will work to “keep the peace.”

In 2020, Trump asked governors of several states to deploy their National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to quell protests that arose after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers. Many of the governors agreed, sending troops to the federal district.

At the time, Trump also threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act for protests following Floyd’s death in Minneapolis — an intervention rarely seen in modern American history. But then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper pushed back, saying the law should be invoked “only in the most urgent and dire of situations.”

Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act during his first term, and he did not invoke it Saturday, according to Leavitt and Newsom.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers executed search warrants at multiple locations Friday, including outside a clothing warehouse in the fashion district. The action came after a judge found probable cause that the employer was using fictitious documents for some of its workers, according to representatives for Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

A tense scene unfolded outside as a crowd tried to block agents from driving away.

Advocates for immigrants’ rights said there were also migration detentions outside Home Depot stores and a doughnut shop.

DHS said in a statement that recent ICE operations in Los Angeles resulted in the arrest of 118 immigrants, including five people linked to criminal organizations and people with prior criminal histories.

Following the Friday arrests, protesters gathered in the evening outside a federal detention center, chanting, “Set them free, let them stay!”

Some held signs with anti-ICE slogans, and some some scrawled graffiti on the building.

Among those arrested at the protests was David Huerta, regional president of the Service Employees International Union. Justice Department spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy confirmed that he was being held Saturday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles ahead of a scheduled Monday court appearance.

It was not clear whether Huerta had legal representation.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for his immediate release. In a social media post, he cited a “disturbing pattern of arresting and detaining American citizens for exercising their right to free speech.”

The immigration arrests come as Trump and his administration push to fulfill promises of mass deportations across the country.

Mayor Karen Bass said the activity was meant to “sow terror” in the nation’s second-largest city.

In a statement Saturday, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons chided Bass for the city’s response to the protests.

“Mayor Bass took the side of chaos and lawlessness over law enforcement,” Lyons said. “Make no mistake, ICE will continue to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and arrest criminal illegal aliens.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

© Eric Thayer—AP Photo