“The View” host Sunny Hostin claimed during a Monday broadcast that President Donald Trump was “militarizing” the U.S. Army National Guard when he deployed troops to quell the violent protests in Los Angeles, arguing that by doing so, he would ultimately set the stage for a “civil war.”

Hostin discussed the ongoing protests in Los Angeles — as well as the Trump administration’s efforts to protect federal agents as the protests got more and more violent — with her fellow cohosts on the ABC midday talk show, and they complained that Trump’s plan to deport criminal illegal aliens was the real problem.

“The Defense Department has the U.S. Marines on high alert right now,” cohost Whoopi Goldberg began in mocking tones. “Now, you know, is it warranted or does this sort of escalate the situation? I mean, whatever happened to state’s rights?”

“I thought that what’s you do, ’cause you tell the state that this is what you’re thinking, you know, you don’t just send people in, you don’t just send troops in,” Goldberg claimed. “But what do I know, I’ve never run a state? But I don’t really — when you come in and everyone is — when you go into the doughnut shop to look for people and you’re dressed in tactical gear, you’re creating an issue. You’re creating a problem.”

Sunny Hostin decries Trump “militarizing” the National Guard and claims he’s going to have them start a “Civil War.”
Ignoring the riots and violence, she claims the Guard is there “for the purpose of policing Americans’ protest activity, our freedom of speech, our freedom of… pic.twitter.com/3vEWwMIKSf

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) June 9, 2025

Hostin jumped in then, claiming that Trump was “militarizing” the National Guard — despite its existence as a state-based military force since 1636 and being attached to the United States Army officially in 1933 — by sending troops to keep the peace after protesters attacked ICE agents and their vehicles.

“I think what really matters from sort of a long view here is the fact that he is militarizing and deploying the Guard for the purpose of policing Americans’ protest activity, our freedom of speech, our freedom of assembly,” Hostin insisted, suggesting that the National Guard had been brought in to silence the protesters rather than to keep them from damaging more property and hurting people.

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Hostin went on to argue that “an army turned inside” to police the citizens within the country would ultimately result in “chaos and fascism.”

“And civil war,” she agreed as Goldberg prompted her. “I think that’s the way we need to look at it because deploying the National Guard is supposed to be a last resort.”

Hostin then claimed that Trump had promised to deploy the National Guard anywhere in the country that protests occurred. What Trump has actually said, on a number of occasions, was that the federal government would step in and shut down violent riots if and when it became apparent that local authorities — in this case, Mayor Karen Bass (D-LA) and Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) — were either unable or unwilling to do so.