US Marines to deploy to Los Angeles to help quell anti-ICE riots

The Marines will be tasked with protecting federal property and federal personnel, according to a senior defense official, and the deployment is open-ended. 

The Marines are from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines at Twentynine Palms, California. 

Moments before the deployment, Trump expressed optimism that the situation in Los Angeles is improving. 

"I mean, I think we have it very well under control," he told reporters. "I think it would have been a very bad situation. It was heading in the wrong direction. It's now heading in the right direction."

The governor's office both downplayed the troop movement and called it "completely uncalled for." 

"From our understanding, this is moving Marines from one base to another base. At this time, the information we have is that Marines are not being deployed (there is a difference between that and being mobilized). The level of escalation is completely unwarranted, uncalled for, and unprecedented - mobilizing the best in class branch of the U.S. military against its own citizens," Newsom's press office wrote on X. 

Meanwhile Trump defended the decision on Monday, and added that if protesters spit in the face of guardsmen in Los Angeles, they'll "be hit harder than they have ever been hit before."

"IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT," Trump wrote. "Such disrespect will not be tolerated!"

Newsom claimed Trump is trying to "manufacture a crisis" and that the president is "hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control."

The protests began in reaction to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the City of Angels as the Trump administration moves to make good on its promise of mass deportations. Over the weekend, protests devolved into violence that left vehicles charred to a crisp and windows smashed at the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters.