State decries deployment of forces and accuses president of trying to ‘intimidate those who disagree with him’.

Protesters gather to denounce Ice in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Governor Gavin Newsom filed an emergency request to block the Trump administration from using military forces to accompany federal immigration enforcement officers on raids throughout Los Angeles, as tensions between California leaders and the US president escalated on Tuesday.

The move by Newsom comes after Donald Trump ordered the deployment of 4,000 national guard members and 700 marines to LA following four days of protests driven by anger over the president’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws.

The request comes a day after Newsom and the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, filed a lawsuit challenging Trump’s deployment of national guard troops as “unlawful”.

Bonta said on Tuesday: “The president is looking for any pretense to place military forces on American streets to intimidate and quiet those who disagree with him.”

Newsom said: “The federal government is now turning the military against American citizens. Sending trained warfighters on to the streets is unprecedented and threatens the very core of our democracy.”

A federal judge declined on Tuesday afternoon to immediately rule on California’s request for a restraining order, and instead scheduled a hearing for Thursday.

The fight in the courts comes as Los Angeles is bracing for new troop arrivals and tensions escalating between Newsom and Trump – who, in a deeply partisan military speech, called the LA protesters “animals” and vowed to “liberate Los Angeles”.

Speaking at a event in Fort Bragg in North Carolina to recognize the 250th anniversary of the US army, Trump made the baseless claim that the demonstrations were being led by paid “rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion”. Trump also repeated a viral conspiracy theory that pallets of bricks were left out for protesters to hurl at police officers.

On Tuesday night, hundreds of troops were transferred to the US’s second largest city over the objections of Democratic officials and despite concerns from local law enforcement.

Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, said he expected the military would remain in the city for 60 days at a cost of at least $134m.

The initial deployment of 300 national guard troops is expected to quickly expand to the full 4,000 that has been authorized by Trump, with an additional 700 marines who began arriving on Tuesday.

The president said troops would remain until there was “no danger” and said he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act. “If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Newsom said the deployment “threatens the very core of our democracy”.

“Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth have sought to bring military personnel and a ‘warrior culture’ to the streets of cities and towns where Americans work, go to school, and raise their families,” California’s filing in federal court said. “Now, they have turned their sights on California, with devastating consequences.”

On Tuesday, the situation in downtown Los Angeles appeared largely calm. In the city’s downtown core, the scene was sunny and normal – save for one heavily fortified square block.

That street, near Little Tokyo, is home to several federal buildings that were the site of protests this weekend, including the Metropolitan detention center. Early on Tuesday afternoon, a small number of protesters stood in front of the federal building and the California national guard members sent in by Trump.

While half of the block was sleepy, the other half was being aggressively cordoned off by dozens of police cars and officers in riot gear. A handful of bored-looking California national guard members were seen leaning on their riot shields in front of the heavily graffitied federal building, with 25 or so media and protesters milling around in front of them.

A woman carrying an upside down American flag strode up and down in front of the guard members, warning them that they were going to have to make a choice. “Make the right choice!” she called.

The national guard is not believed to be involved in crowd control but is assigned to protect federal property.

Members of the national guard block an entrance to the federal building in downtown Los Angeles.

The deployment of the national guard is strongly opposed by California Democrats – as well as every Democratic governor in the US. Alex Padilla, the California senator, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and the subsequent legal showdown between his state and the government “is absolutely a crisis of Trump’s own making”.

“There are a lot of people who are passionate about speaking up for fundamental rights and respecting due process, but the deployment of national guard only serves to escalate tensions and the situation,” Padilla said. “It’s exactly what Donald Trump wanted to do.”

Padilla said the Los Angeles sheriff’s department had not been advised of the federalization of the national guard. He said his office had pressed the Pentagon for a justification, and “as far as we’re told, the Department of Defense isn’t sure what the mission is here”.

Jim McDonnell, the LA police chief, said on Monday that the department and its local partners have decades of experience responding to large-scale demonstrations and that they were confident in their ability to continue doing so.

“The arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles, absent clear coordination, presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city,” he said.

The US Northern Command, or Northcom, said in a statement on Monday that marines from the Second Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division “will seamlessly integrate” with forces “who are protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area”.

Northcom added that the forces had been trained in de-escalation, crowd control and standing rules for the use of force – and that approximately 1,700 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, a California national guard unit, were already in the greater Los Angeles area.

Tensions between the California governor, Gavin Newsom, and Trump have only escalated in recent days.

Trump and Newsom’s rift continued with ferocity on Tuesday.

Trump, who has suggested Newsom should be arrested, said he spoke to Newsom by phone “a day ago” and told him: “He’s gotta do a better job.”

“There was no call. Not even a voicemail,” Newsom responded on social media. “Americans should be alarmed that a president deploying marines on to our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”

Hegseth testified before the House appropriations subcommittee on defense. The meeting was expected to focus on the nearly $1tn budget request for 2026, but Democrats were quick to question the defense secretary on the controversial move to deploy national guard and marines to LA.

Under questioning from Peter Aguilar, US congressman for California’s 33rd district, Hegseth said national guard and federal forces had been sent into a “deteriorating situation with equipment and capabilities”.

“We’re here to maintain the peace on behalf of law enforcement officers in Los Angeles, which Gavin Newsom won’t do,” he said.

“What’s the justification for using the military for civilian law enforcement purposes in LA? Why are you sending war fighters to cities to interact with civilians?” Aguilar asked.

“Every American citizen deserves to live in a community that’s safe, and Ice agents need to be able to do their job. They’re being attacked for doing their job, which is deporting illegal criminals. That shouldn’t happen in any city, Minneapolis or Los Angeles, and if they’re attacked, that’s lawless,” Hegseth replied.

Betty McCollum, the top Democrat on the subcommittee, asked the secretary about the cost of the deployment, and what training and other duties the troops were missing because of their presence in Los Angeles.

Hegseth said in response that Ice “has the right to safely conduct operations in any state and any jurisdiction in the country”.

“The police chief said she was overwhelmed, so we helped.”

It was not immediately clear to whom Hegseth was referring.