President Donald Trump told the press on Tuesday that the National Guard would remain present in Los Angeles “until there’s no danger,” calling this move “common sense” amid Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom’s seeming inability to manage the dangerous protests in California.
“If we didn’t get involved, right now Los Angeles would be burning just like it was burning a number of months ago with all the houses that were being lost,” Trump said, sitting behind his desk in the Oval Office.
A member of the media asked what it would take for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act amidst violent protests. The president replied that “if there’s an insurrection I would certainly invoke it – we’ll see.”
He noted that since deploying thousands of National Guardsmen, as well as a force of 700 U.S. Marines, Los Angeles has calmed down substantially. “We have it in great shape, we’re not playing around,” Trump remarked.
The president added that many of the violent and bad actors caught on film throwing concrete blocks into law enforcement vehicles or causing damage were “paid insurrectionists, these are paid troublemakers, they get money.”
In terms of his relationship with Gov. Gavin Newsom, Trump said he had spoken to the governor on Monday to tell him to “do a better job,” reiterating his belief again that Los Angeles would be “burning” if his administration hadn’t taken action to curb the violence in Southern California.
“We have, in custody, some very bad people,” Trump added.
When asked what the purpose of the U.S. Marine presence in Los Angeles was, and what their rules of engagement were, Trump said, “All I want is safety,” and reminded the media that just a few days ago, “Los Angeles was under siege…the police were unable to handle it.”
President Trump also said that he would leave the National Guard in California until the situation has cleared up completely.
“You would have had a horrible situation had I not sent them,” he said.