California governor calls for withdrawal of National Guard deployment to Los Angeles

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a letter to the U.S. Department of Defense, requesting Secretary of Defense Hegseth withdraw the order to deploy the National Guard to the Los Angeles area and return command of the California National Guard to the state government “as necessary.” Newsom posted on social media, “I have formally requested that the Trump administration rescind its illegal deployment of military forces in Los Angeles County and return the deployed troops to my command.” He also said that President Trump’s intervention had escalated tensions. At noon local time, protesters clashed with National Guard troops deployed in front of a federal law enforcement agency in downtown Los Angeles. Guardsmen fired tear gas and rubber bullets in an attempt to disperse the protesters, but the number of protesters swelled from a few dozen to over 1,000. Protesters blocked a major highway through downtown Los Angeles and faced off with a large number of law enforcement officers, including National Guardsmen, on nearby main roads. Following the clash, Newsom posted on social media urging protesters and Californians to remain calm and refrain from violence, saying that otherwise, “it would be playing into Trump’s hands.” Earlier, Newsom criticized Trump on social media for sending the National Guard to the Los Angeles area not to meet local security needs but to “hope for more chaos.” Los Angeles Mayor Bass also posted on social media that the federal government’s deployment of the National Guard after its law enforcement officers’ raids on illegal immigrants sparked riots “will only exacerbate the chaos.”