Washington — President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited Fort Bragg, the nation’s largest military installation, on Tuesday, after sending the National Guard and U.S. Marines to respond to protests in Los Angeles.
Members of the Marine Corps arrived in the greater Los Angeles area Tuesday, a defense official told CBS News, after the military activated about 700 active-duty Marines Monday. The Pentagon said the Marines would “seamlessly integrate” with National Guard troops to protect “federal personnel and federal property.” There are 2,100 members of the California National Guard now on location in the greater Los Angeles area, operating in Los Angeles, Paramount and Compton.
In his speech at Fort Bragg, Mr. Trump called the protests “a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and a national sovereignty” and alleged that are being “carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country.” He vowed to “liberate” Los Angeles.
“Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness here at home,” Mr. Trump said. “I want to applaud the courage and the strength of the incredible troops who are right now standing guard to protect federal property and personnel and uphold the supremacy of federal law.”
Mr. Trump added, “the only flag that will wave triumphant over the streets of Los Angeles is the American flag.”
The president also called for those who burn the American flag to face a year in jail.
Trump says he’ll restore military bases named after Confederate figures
Mr. Trump also announced that he would restore the names of several Army installations that were previously named to honor Confederate figures but renamed during the Biden administration.
The president listed out seven base names that will be changed back: Fort Pickett, Fort Hood, Fort Gordon, Fort Rucker, Fort Polk, Fort A.P. Hill and Fort Robert E Lee.
“We won a lot of battles out of those forts. It’s no time to change,” Mr. Trump said. “And I’m superstitious, you know? I like to keep it going, right? I’m very superstitious.”
The Trump administration also changed back the names of Fort Bragg and Fort Benning earlier this year.
Hegseth traveled to the military base in North Carolina after testifying on Capitol Hill earlier Tuesday.
The president claimed Tuesday morning that Los Angeles would be “would be burning to the ground right now,” if not for his actions to federalize the National Guard. A memorandum the president signed Saturday said the troops are authorized to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and other federal law enforcement officials. He invoked Title 10, the U.S. code governing use of the armed forces, allowing the National Guard to come into L.A. in a supporting role.
Mr. Trump also called the protesters “paid insurrectionists.”
The estimated cost of deploying the National Guard and the Marines to the Los Angeles area for up to two months is $134 million, top Pentagon official Bryn MacDonnell told a House panel Tuesday.
On Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the president and Hegseth over the decision to deploy the National Guard to the state against Newsom’s wishes.
Newsom argued that Title 10 “has been invoked on its own only once before and for highly unusual circumstances not presented here.” He pointed to the text of the U.S. code, which states that when the president calls a state’s National Guard into federal service under Title 10, “those orders ‘shall be issued through the governors of the States.'” Hegseth, Newsom maintained, “unlawfully bypassed the Governor of California, issuing an order that by statute must go through him.”
“At no point in the past three days has there been a rebellion or an insurrection,” the lawsuit reads. “Nor have these protests risen to the level of protests or riots that Los Angeles and other major cities have seen at points in the past, including in recent years.”
