LOS ANGELES: US Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that the thousands of troops deployed to Los Angeles this month were still needed despite a week of relative calm in the protest-hit city.
President Donald Trump has sent roughly 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines, purportedly to protect federal property and personnel, after demonstrations over immigration raids.
“Unfortunately, the soldiers and Marines are still very much a necessary part of what’s going on here because they’re worried that it’s going to flare back up,” Vance told reporters in Los Angeles.
He was speaking the day after an appeals court ruled that Trump could continue to control the California National Guard, which would normally fall under Governor Gavin Newsom’s authority.
California officials have heavily criticized Trump over his use of the military, saying it escalated protests that local law enforcement could have handled.
The demonstrations were largely peaceful and mostly contained to a small part of Los Angeles, the second-largest US city, although there were instances of violence and vandalism.
“If you let violent rioters burn Great American Cities to the ground, then, of course, we’re going to send federal law enforcement in to protect the people the president was elected to protect,” Vance said, adding that Trump would deploy them again if needed.
The Republican further accused Newsom — a possible contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 — and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging protesters.
Newsom and Bass have both condemned rioting and violence toward law enforcement while accusing the Trump administration of manufacturing a crisis in the city.
Bass hit back at Vance during a news conference on Friday, accusing him of openly lying and saying that local law enforcement agencies handled crowd control.
“How dare you say that city officials encourage violence. We kept the peace. You know that the federal officials that were here protected a federal building — they were not involved in crowd control,” she said.
Bass said that even when there was vandalism, at its height “you are talking about a couple of hundred people who are not necessarily associated with any of the peaceful protests.”
“Los Angeles is a city that is 500 square miles and any of the disruption that took place took place at about 2 square miles in our city,” she said, accusing Vance of adding to “provocation” and sowing “division.”
Many in Los Angeles are angry about immigration raids carried out as part of Trump’s ambition to deport vast numbers of undocumented migrants around the country.
Outrage at the use of masked, armed immigration agents also sparked protests in other cities, including San Francisco, New York, Chicago and San Antonio, Texas.
Tensions spiked when California Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat, was handcuffed and forcibly removed last week when attempting to ask Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem questions during her news conference.
Vance misnamed the senator when referring to the incident, saying: “I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question but unfortunately I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn’t a theater.”
Bass reacted to the comment with outrage.
“How dare you disrespect him and call him Jose. But I guess he just looked like anybody to you,” she said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had said Padilla’s treatment “reeks of totalitarianism,” while the White House claimed — despite video evidence to the contrary — that Padilla had “lunged toward Secretary Noem.”
