President Donald Trump was asked by a reporter if he would use the Insurrection Act as a response to the protests, and he responded, “If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We will see.”
“These are paid insurrectionists, these are paid troublemakers,” the president claimed, without evidence.
Members of the California Nationa Guard stand watch outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building on Tuesday morning, following another day of protests in response to federal immigration operations in Los Angeles, on June 10, 2025.
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
“If we didn’t get involved” and send the National Guard, “right now Los Angeles would be burning, just like it was burning a number of months ago with all the houses that were lost,” Trump said, referencing the January wildfires.
On Sunday, when asked by ABC News if he thought an insurrection was taking place in LA, Trump replied, “No, no. But you have violent people, and we are not going to let them get away with it.” But by Sunday night, he was referring to the protesters on his Truth Social platform as “violent, insurrectionist mobs” and “paid insurrectionists.”
Asked to define insurrection, Trump said, “You actually really just have to look at the site to see what’s happening.”
Members of the California National Guard stand watch outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building on the morning of June 10, 2025, following another day of protests in response to federal immigration operations in Los Angeles.
Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP via Getty Images
Trump told reporters Tuesday that he called Newsom on Monday.
“Called him up to tell him, ‘Gotta do a better job,'” he said.
But Newsom wrote on social media that the president never called.
“There was no call. Not even a voicemail,” Newsom wrote. “Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”
