President Trump will not hesitate to send in the National Guard “again” after an appeals court ruled the commander in chief can maintain control of thousands of troops he deployed to the City of Angeles in response to anti-ICE riots, Vice President JD Vance declared Friday.
“If you enforce your own laws and if you protect federal law enforcement, we’re not going to send in the National Guard — because it’s unnecessary,” Vance said during remarks outside a federal building in Los Angeles.
“But 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 people.”
“The president’s going to do it again if he has to, but hopefully it won’t be necessary,” the vice president warned.
Vance noted that the “rioting has gotten a lot better” since Trump dispatched active-duty service members to LA, but he warned that local officials are “worried that it’s going to flare back up.”
Los Angeles has become the epicenter of anti-ICE riots in response to Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Trump deployed troops to the City of Angeles to tamp down clashes between rioters and federal authorities seeking out criminal illegal migrants.
The vice president toured a multi-agency federal joint operations center and an FBI mobile command center currently being used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials during his trip to Los Angeles.
Vance was briefed by leaders of the 14 different agencies — including ICE, Department of Defense, Drug Enforcement Administration, Department of Homeland Security, Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol — using the operations center to coordinate immigration enforcement actions in LA.
The veep also met with some of the 200 active-duty Marines deployed to the city and tasked with protecting federal property and federal personnel.
They will be joined by an additional 500 Marines and 2,000 more Guardsmen, on top of the 2,000 National Guard troops already active in the city.
US District Court Judge Charles Breyer had previously ruled that Trump likely exceeded his constitutional authority by dispatching the soldiers despite opposition from California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — marking the first deployment of a state National Guard by the president without the governor’s permission since 1965.
The San Francisco-based Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals, however, suggested in its ruling that Trump lawfully exercised his statutory authority in taking federal control of the guard, as the violence and chaos in Los Angeles warranted the administration’s decision to do so.
Trump called the decision a “BIG WIN” in a post on Truth Social.
The president has previously suggested that Los Angeles would be “burning to the ground” if he hadn’t sent in the Marines and National Guard to quell the anti-ICE riots.
ICE has continued carrying out enforcement operations in LA despite the protests.
During his brief remarks, Vance said that he wished Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) — who was thrown out of a Department of Homeland Security press conference last week and handcuffed after interrupting Secretary Kristi Noem — had been present, but he mixed up the senator’s name.
“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 the theater — and that’s all it is.”
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