The US President said that Los Angeles was being “invaded by outside forces”, so the army needed to come “liberate” and restore security.
“We will liberate Los Angeles. Give this city back its freedom, its beauty, and its safety,” US President Donald Trump said on June 10 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, commenting on the tense developments in California.
In recent days, Mr. Trump has mobilized 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles, a city in the state of California, to suppress protests against the immigration crackdown, despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass.
Speaking to soldiers at Fort Bragg, Mr. Trump said the deployment of troops was necessary to protect property and federal agents. He said the city “would have burned to the ground” without the intervention of military forces.
“We cannot allow this anarchy to continue. We will not allow them to continue to attack federal agents, and we will not allow an American city to be invaded and subjugated by foreign enemies,” Trump said, describing protesters as aggressive and “proudly carrying the flags of other countries” instead of the American flag.
The US president did not specify what “this foreign enemy” was, but appeared to be referring to the many protesters in Los Angeles carrying Mexican flags. Los Angeles, the second largest city in the US, is home to more than 1.35 million immigrants, the largest group of which is of Mexican descent.
The US President said the protests in Los Angeles were caused by “uncontrolled migration”, similar to what happened in Europe. He stressed that uncontrolled migration always leads to chaos, disorder and recession no matter where in the world.
“The situation in California today is a total assault on our peace, public order and national sovereignty, carried out by rioters carrying foreign flags with the goal of continuing the foreign invasion of our country,” Trump declared, without providing any evidence of “foreign interference” in California.
In fact, while protests have taken place in many parts of Los Angeles over the past few days, the violent clashes have largely been confined to a small area in the city center. Los Angeles officials have imposed a curfew in the city center to curb looting, violence, and crime.
The state of California has filed a lawsuit to block Mr Trump’s decision to deploy Marines and National Guard troops to Los Angeles, calling it an abuse of power and an unnecessary escalation of confrontation.
However, when returning to Washington from North Carolina, Mr. Trump reaffirmed that the deployment of troops to Los Angeles would not cause any trouble and said that “the presence of the military itself will help to cool tensions”.
“I just want to see peace. If there is peace, we will leave. If there is not peace, we will stay until there is peace. A lot of people are being arrested. The troublemakers or whatever they call them, they should understand that there will be a lot of people being arrested and going to jail for a long time,” Mr. Trump declared.
