2000 National Guard Troops Dispatched to LA Protests: Trump's Drastic Move to Quell Unrest
Trump deployed the National Guard
Let's dive into the latest unexpected turn of events - President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of a whopping 2000 National Guard soldiers to the chaotic protests in Los Angeles, causing a significant stir.
As tensions boil over in the Los Angeles area due to persistent anti-ICE demonstrations, Trump's spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, has announced this dramatic action.
In a provocative manner, Trump previously threatened that if local authorities, namely Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass, failed to get a handle on the situation, the federal government would step in and quell "riots and looters." On his Truth Social platform, the Republican sarcastically referred to Newsom as "Newscum," a derogatory English term.
Before this escalation, Newsom had warned on his X platform that Trump's administration intended to seize control of the National Guard to deploy 2000 soldiers due to the protests. He underscored that the local authorities saw no need for such intervention, asserting it would only make the situation worse.
Typically, state control over the National Guard is the norm. A presidential decision to take command of a state's National Guard is a considerable escalation, a move rarely seen in U.S. history.
Drawing upon historical examples, we can see that presidents have at times deployed or assumed control of a state's National Guard during unrest.
- During desegregation at Little Rock Central High School in 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower took command of the Arkansas National Guard, enabling federal troops to ensure the safe entry of Black students[4].
- In 1965, during the Civil Rights Movement, President Lyndon B. Johnson deployed federal troops, including the National Guard, to Selma, Alabama, for security reasons without the approval of the Alabama Governor[3].
- Following the Rodney King verdict riots in Los Angeles in 1992, President George H.W. Bush mobilized the National Guard at the request of California's Governor Pete Wilson and Mayor Tom Bradley to curb the violence[1].
- In a remarkable first, President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles in 2025, overriding the objections of California's Governor Gavin Newsom, marking the first time a president had deployed the National Guard to a state without the governor's consent in over six decades[1][2][3].
These instances demonstrate the delicate balance between federal and state authority during tumultuous times.
Amid this tumultuous situation in Los Angeles, with ongoing protests against ICE and escalating violence, the employment of community policy and general-news reporting becomes crucial to understanding the context and impacts of Trump's decision to dispatch 2000 National Guard troops. Evidently, politics plays a significant role in this scenario, as Trump's drastic move comes amidst heated political rhetoric, war-and-conflicts rhetoric, and potential power struggles between the federal government and state authorities related to employment policy.
