After Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carried out raids in three locations across Los Angeles on Friday, there was a predictable public backlash. A day later, as protests intensified, Donald Trump announced that he was calling up 2,000 National Guard troops, ignoring the objections of Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor.
While the president’s move was historic — though not in a good way — it was soon followed by an online statement from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said the Pentagon was also mobilizing U.S. Marines.
On Sunday morning, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Republican Sen. Ron Johnson whether he’d be comfortable seeing active-duty Marines in Los Angeles. The Wisconsin senator, who chaired the Senate Homeland Security Committee for six years, replied, “It won’t be necessary.”
It was the next day when NBC News reported:
About 700 Marines from the Marine Corps base in Twentynine Palms, California, will deploy to Los Angeles to support the roughly 300 National Guard members already in the city to control protests against federal immigration raids, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. President Donald Trump had earlier ordered the deployment of 2,000 troops in a move California Gov. Gavin Newsom criticized as inflammatory.
Jim McDonnell, Los Angeles’ police chief, didn’t sound especially pleased about the developments. “The LAPD has not received any formal notification that the Marines will be arriving in Los Angeles. However, the possible 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,” McDonnell said in a statement.
Newsom’s reaction was even less guarded.
“U.S. Marines serve a valuable purpose for this country — defending democracy. They are not political pawns,” the California governor wrote via social media. “The Secretary of Defense is illegally deploying them onto American streets so Trump can have a talking point at his parade this weekend. It’s a blatant abuse of power. We will sue to stop this. The Courts and Congress must act. Checks and balances are crumbling. This is a red line — and they’re crossing it. WAKE UP!”
There’s no shortage of questions surrounding what might happen next, starting with the possible rules of engagement for Marines who are being deployed to a city in their own country. Indeed, The Associated Press reported that the Pentagon was “scrambling” to establish rules to guide Marines “who could be faced with the rare and difficult prospect of using force against citizens on American soil.”
The AP added, “The Marines are highly trained in combat and crisis response, with time in conflict zones like Syria and Afghanistan. But that is starkly different from the role they will face now.”
These efforts are a reminder about the degree to which Trump is playing with fire, needlessly escalating tensions in ways that will bring unpredictable consequences.
