“Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing. He’s done a terrible job,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
LOS ANGELES — The ongoing feud between President Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom escalated Monday after the president told reporters he supported the idea of arresting Newsom.
Newsom, a Democrat, told MSNBC that he plans to file suit against the Trump administration to roll back the National Guard deployment, which he called “an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act.” It appears to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor.
Trump cited a legal provision allowing him to mobilize federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.” Roughly 300 National Guard members arrived in the city over the weekend, and Trump said he had authorized 2,000 members to deploy if needed.
Here is a look at the latest:
Trump supports slapping the cuffs on Newsom
The California governor and the White House are feuding over how to handle protests in Los Angeles.
It started when Tom Homan, the border czar, warned that anyone, including public officials, would be arrested if they obstructed federal immigration enforcement.
“No one’s above the law,” he said on Fox & Friends, although he added that “there was no discussion” about arresting Newsom.
The California governor responded in an interview with MSNBC.
“Come after me, arrest me. Let’s just get it over with, tough guy,” Newsom said.
Trump grinned when asked about the exchange after landing at the White House.
“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump said. “Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing. He’s done a terrible job.”
It prompted Newsom to tweet the following:
“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. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.”
Trump targets Newsom (again)
After inspecting a site on the White House lawn for a future flagpole, Trump spoke to reporters about the protests in California.
“I like Gavin Newsom, he’s a nice guy, but he’s grossly incompetent,” the president said, complaining about “the little railroad he’s building” that is “100 times over budget.” It’s a reference to the much-delayed high-speed rail project, which predates Newsom’s tenure.
Trump also criticized the protestors.
“The people that are causing these problems are professional agitators, they’re insurrectionists, they’re bad people. They should be in jail.”
Trump says sending National Guard to LA protests was a ‘great decision’
In a post on his social media site, Trump said the city would have been “completely obliterated” otherwise.
Protests over the president’s immigration crackdown spared much of Los Angeles from violence. Weekend clashes swept through several downtown blocks and a handful of other places.
Trump wrote that Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass should thank him. He accused them of being untruthful for saying Guard troops weren’t necessary.
Trump’s border czar says Gov. Newsom was ‘late to the game’ in responding to protests
Tom Holman defended the ICE arrests that preceded the protests and Trump’s deployment of the National Guard, blaming the California governor for stoking anti-ICE sentiments and waiting two days to declare an unlawful assembly in LA.
“He’s failed that state,” Holman told Fox News on Monday morning.
Newsom dared federal officials to arrest him in an interview with MSNBC on Sunday, stating, “Come after me, arrest me, let’s just get it over with, tough guy.”
On Fox, Holman said there was “no discussion” about arresting Newsom.
Sen. Schumer calls Trump’s National Guard order a diversion and unnecessary
“Donald Trump—in the midst of a war with Elon Musk and his ugly tax bill that would rip healthcare from 17 million people— is in desperate need of a diversion,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said in a statement Monday.
“His order to deploy the National Guard in California is unnecessary, inflammatory, and provocative. Trump should immediately revoke his command to use the National Guard, and leave the law enforcement to the governor and the mayor, who are more than capable of handling the situation.”
“Americans do not need or deserve this unnecessary and provocative chaos.”
1965 was the last time the National Guard was deployed without a governor’s permission
No president has done so since Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Johnson, unlike Trump, invoked the Insurrection Act, an 18th-century wartime law that allows presidents to deploy military forces during times of rebellion or unrest.
Trump instead relied on a similar federal law that places National Guard troops under federal command under circumstances that include the threat of rebellion.
But the law also says that orders for those purposes “shall be issued through the governors of the States” — making it unclear whether the president can activate the Guard without the order of that state’s governor.
How did we get here? Protests were triggered by ICE arrests Friday
Confrontations began when dozens of protesters gathered outside a federal detention center demanding the release of 44 people arrested by federal immigration authorities across Los Angeles Friday, as part of Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is averaging about 1,600 arrests per day, according to the agency’s head, Todd Lyons, who defended the tactics on June 2.
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