(Bloomberg) — Los Angeles entered its fourth day of unrest sparked by immigration raids, with President Donald Trump suggesting Gavin Newsom should be arrested over his response and the governor vowing to sue the administration for deploying National Guard troops to the city.
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The political clash intensified Monday after Trump backed comments from his border adviser Tom Homan, who threatened to arrest state and local officials who obstruct federal immigration enforcement, including Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.
“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump said at the White House. “I like Gavin Newsom, he’s a nice guy but he’s grossly incompetent, everybody knows that.”
Newsom, in an NBC interview earlier in the day, had dared Homan to follow through, saying, “Arrest me, let’s go.”
Overnight, looting broke out in several neighborhoods, including downtown, after demonstrators shut down a major freeway. Police made 31 arrests on Saturday and Sunday, on charges ranging from looting and assault with a deadly weapon on an officer to attempted murder involving a Molotov cocktail, the Los Angeles Police Department said on Monday.
Five officers were injured as crowds clashed with law enforcement. At least five self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, according to local news station KTLA. The car service, owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc., announced on Monday it had removed its vehicles from downtown LA and was suspending service in the area.
Newsom and Bass have accused Trump of making the situation worse by deploying hundreds of National Guard troops. The governor said he’s formally asked the White House to rescind what he called an “unlawful” order federalizing the troops.
“He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard,” Newsom posted Monday on X. “The order he signed doesn’t just apply to CA. It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing. We’re suing him.”
The Trump administration has argued the conditions are spiraling and that federal forces are needed to support immigration agents and restore order.
Trump, in a series of posts on Truth Social, described the protests as “migrant riots” and said LA had been “invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals.” He ordered federal agencies to take any necessary action to continue immigration enforcement and restore control, including arresting demonstrators wearing face coverings.
“We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California,” Trump said on social media on Monday. “If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said demonstrations early on Sunday were largely peaceful but that conditions deteriorated as new crowds arrived.
“This violence that I’ve seen is disgusting,” McDonnell said at a news conference on Sunday night. “What we saw the first night was bad. What we’ve seen subsequent to that is getting increasingly worse and more violent.”
McDonnell said that he believes the police could have handled the initial protests without the assistance of the National Guard, but “looking at the violence tonight, I think we’ve got to make a reassessment.”
The unrest followed a wave of protests sparked by federal immigration raids across LA County that started on Friday, including in the fashion district and outside a downtown detention center, as well as in the nearby cities of Paramount and Compton.
Officers used tear gas and flash-bang grenades as demonstrators threw bottles and chunks of concrete, police said. The LAPD declared unlawful assemblies in several locations and issued dispersal orders.
On Sunday night, vandals shattered storefront windows and painted graffiti across buildings in some areas, according to KTLA.
Protests also turned disruptive in San Francisco, where about 60 people were arrested Sunday evening after demonstrations near an ICE office downtown. The San Francisco Police Department said some people in the group became violent, damaging property and injuring two officers. Local businesses had windows broken and vehicles from the city’s municipal transit system were vandalized, Mayor Daniel Lurie said.
“Everyone in this country has a right to make their voice heard peacefully, and local law enforcement will always protect that right and the rights of everyone in our city to be safe,” Lurie said in a statement. “But we will never tolerate violent and destructive behavior.”
In Los Angeles, the turmoil is limited to a few small pockets of the city, which is a sprawling metropolis stretching over several hundred square miles that’s connected by a web of freeways. There was no sign of unrest in areas such as Century City, Hollywood Hills and Santa Monica that are miles away from downtown, with businesses and residents largely unaffected.
According to local media reports, at least two more protests were planned for Monday — one beginning in the morning and another expected later in the afternoon. Officials said they’re closely monitoring developments.
As of Sunday at least 300 troops from the California National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team have been stationed across the LA area to protect federal property and personnel, according to US Northern Command. Trump has authorized as many 2,000 National Guard if he deems them needed.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the military presence could be expanded, including potential deployment of active-duty Marines from Camp Pendleton in southern California. Newsom condemned the idea as “deranged,” while Hegseth called the unrest a failure of local leadership.
The United Nations on Monday warned against a further “militarization” of the situation in LA.
“We certainly hope that all parties on the ground will de-escalate the situation,” deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq said at a press briefing. “We do not want to see any further militarization of this situation and we encourage the parties at the local, state and federal levels to work to do that.”
–With assistance from Pratish Narayanan, Tyler Kendall, Eliyahu Kamisher, Magdalena Del Valle and Carrington York.
(Updates with comments from Trump in first paragraph, details throughout.)
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