California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, told MSNBC that he plans to file suit Monday against the Trump administration to roll back the National Guard deployment, which he called “an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act.”
In a post on X, Newsom said, “This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted. He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalise the National Guard. 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.”
Trump has cited a legal provision that allows 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.
Newsom argues this violates the requirement for state coordination and puts lives at risk.
“Donald Trump is reckless, he’s immoral,” Newsom said at a press briefing. “They never coordinated with the governor of the state.”
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.”
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.