Trump mobilizes 700 Marines to respond to LA anti-ICE protests: Live updates

In response, Trump seconded his “border czar” Tom Homan’s threat that he might arrest the governor. “I would do it if I were Tom,” Trump told reporters. Just the day before, in an interview with NBC News, Newsom had all but dared Homan to arrest him.

The move gave Newsom, who has never been able to conceal his aspirations for higher office, an incredible surge of media attention just after he received months of public derision. In truth, Trump’s war on Los Angeles has given California’s Democrats, who have long been beleaguered, a new life.

NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff pushed back on Monday after Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan claimed he was “taken out of context” and that Soboroff deceptively edited his comments about threatening to arrest California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“It’s right there on the tape,” Soboroff said on Monday, airing a clip of Homan saying that Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass could be jailed if they “crossed the line” with federal officials.

Union leaders from across California led the crowd in chants of “Free Huerta now!”

They urged people to exit the area peacefully at the conclusion of the rally.

The subject line in the latest message reads: “Looking really bad in LA!”

ABC News reports: “The Marines are expected to arrive over the next 24 hours according to the official. They will be tasked with a support role, helping law enforcement only.”

As with National Guard troops, Marines are prohibited from conducting law enforcement activity, such as arrests, unless the Insurrection Act is invoked.

Photos have emerged of National Guard troops mobilized by the Trump administration sleeping on the floor following their deployment to Los Angeles without a request from Governor Gavin Newsom.

The San Francisco Chronicle was first to publish a photo of troops sleeping on steel and concrete floor, with the governor sharing another picture soon after.

Addressing President Donald Trump, Newsom wrote: “You sent your troops here without fuel, food, water or a place to sleep. Here they are — being forced to sleep on the floor, piled on top of one another.”

He added: “If anyone is treating our troops disrespectfully, it is you @realDonaldTrump.”

The governor made the post in response to the latest Truth Social missal from the president that called protesters in Los Angeles “insurrectionists” and implied they might spit on guardsmen and women.

“Such disrespect will not be tolerated,” Trump wrote, twice repeating the phrase: “If they spit, we will hit.”

“We’ll see what happens,” President Donald Trump said when asked if he is going to send Marines to quell protests in Los Angeles.

CNN reports that a full Marine battalion, approximately 500 Marines based in Twentynine Palms, California, has been mobilized to respond to further unrest in the city.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered them to prepare to deploy over the weekend.

Reporter Natasha Bertrand tweets: “The deployment of the full Marine battalion marks a significant escalation in Trump’s use of the military as a show of force against protesters, but it is still unclear what their task will be once in LA, the sources said. Like the National Guard troops, they are prohibited from conducting law enforcement activity like making arrests unless Trump invokes the Insurrection Act.”

Speaking at this afternoon’s White House investment roundtable, President Donald Trump said he would send more National Guard troops to Los Angeles if needed.

“If I didn’t get involved, if we didn’t bring the Guard in – and we would bring more in if we needed it, because we have to make sure there’s going to be law and order – you had a disaster happening … They were overwhelmed, you saw what was happening.”

A spokesperson for the conservative TV personality, whose real name is Phil McGraw, said he was not filming on the ground alongside immigration officials as he had previously done in Chicago as to avoid escalating the situation.

James Liddell and Isabel Keane report.