President Trump said Tuesday he’s open to invoking the Insurrection Act if he feels it’s warranted to suppress anti-ICE protesters in California.
“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see,” Mr. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “But I can tell you last night was terrible, and the night before that was terrible.”
The Insurrection Act allows the president to deploy the military inside the U.S. to assist civilian authorities in law enforcement, such as to stop rebellions or other instances of civil unrest.
Mr. Trump has already deployed 4,000 California National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to Los Angeles to handle the protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Tuesday is the fifth day of protests.
Some demonstrators have turned violent, clashing with law enforcement, setting cars on fire, and vandalizing buildings. Officers have turned to using tear gas and rubber bullets.
“Look, if we didn’t get involved right now, Los Angeles would be burning just like it was burning a number of months ago, with all the houses that were lost,” Mr. Trump said. “Los Angeles right now would be on fire, and we have it in great shape.”
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He said he last spoke to Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom a day ago, when he called him to tell him “to do a better job.”
“He’s doing a bad job, causing a lot of death, a lot of potential death,” he said.
The president called the violent protesters “bad people.”
“They’re animals. And these are paid insurrectionists,” he said. “These are paid troublemakers. They’re agitators. They’re paid.”
Mr. Trump said all he wants to see in the city is safety.
“I just want a safe area. Los Angeles was under siege until we got there. The police were unable to handle it,” he said.
Mr. Newsom and Democratic L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said the presence of troops has only escalated the situation. The state has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, saying the deployment of the guard and Marines was “unlawful” because Mr. Newsom did not request assistance.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.