The White House on Monday, June 9, defended President Donald Trump’s controversial decision to send National Guard troops to Los Angeles without authorization from California Governor Gavin Newsom, citing what it considers the Democrat’s “weak” response to protests against immigration raids.

“Gavin Newsom did nothing as violent riots raged in Los Angeles for days. Federal officers were attacked by violent radicals and illegal criminals waving foreign flags because Governor Newsom was too weak to protect the city,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on X.

Leavitt said the Los Angeles Police Chief “stated the riots were getting out of hand,” prompting “President Trump to intervene to maintain law and order and protect federal buildings” in the city, where renewed protests are expected on Monday after a long weekend of clashes.

The press secretary responded to a post by Newsom on the same platform, in which the governor accused Trump of creating “a crisis” and “exacerbating the situation,” while calling on protesters to “exercise their fundamental rights” peacefully.

In the early hours of the morning, Trump redoubled his calls on his Truth Social network to deploy more National Guard troops and arrest any protesters who hide their faces with masks. Earlier, the president had called Los Angeles a city “invaded and occupied by illegal immigrants and criminals.”

Disagreements between the federal government and authorities in California and Los Angeles are worsening on the fourth day of tensions in the Californian city, where hundreds of people have demonstrated against massive raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which have left more than 100 people arrested, and the militarization of the city.

The Republican president’s decision to overrule the governor and order the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to guard federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles, an unprecedented move in the past 60 years, drew criticism from activists, civil liberties advocates, and officials including Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

“ The order he signed doesn’t just apply to California. It will allow him to go to ANY STATE and do the same thing. We will sue ,” Newsom wrote in another post on X on Monday. The governor had already claimed on Sunday that Trump’s order only “ inflamed tensions” and constituted a “violation of state sovereignty .”

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security said today that “federal law enforcement is working to protect and safeguard American citizens from criminal illegal aliens” and questioned “why is the governor of California siding with criminal aliens?”

The atmosphere in Los Angeles remains tense this Monday. The city center was declared an “unlawful assembly” zone by the Los Angeles Police Department in a warning issued early this morning on social media.

Meanwhile, several peaceful demonstrations are planned in the Californian city and other cities across the country, including a protest near the Department of Justice building in Washington, DC, to demand the release of union leader David Huerta , president of the Service Employees International Union and United Service Workers West .

Huerta has been in federal custody since he was arrested last Friday while responding to an immigration raid at a downtown Los Angeles business.