President Donald Trump is sending 500 U.S. Marines into Los Angeles, marking a major escalation in the federal response to protests rocking the city.
The Marines, active-duty troops from Camp Pendleton in Southern California, are being deployed to back up federal agents and guard federal buildings, according to a senior Trump administration official who spoke to The Daily Beast.
The military move follows earlier plans announced by U.S. Northern Command, which said they were ready to send in the Marines if needed. Now, they’re on the way.
This comes on top of Trump’s decision to send 2,000 National Guard troops to California—a move made without the approval of Governor Gavin Newsom or local leaders.
Trump has dismissed the governor’s authority, saying, “Look at the job he’s doing in California. He’s destroying one of our great states.” The president also called Newsom “incompetent” and claimed he didn’t need the governor’s permission to deploy federal forces.
Newsom hit back hard, accusing Trump of using the protests to grab power. “This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted,” Newsom posted on X. “He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard.”
The governor said the state would take legal action: “This is a manufactured crisis. He is creating fear and terror to take over a state militia and violate the U.S. Constitution.”
The protests in Los Angeles have intensified, with some demonstrations turning violent. In one striking moment, a protester smashed a Waymo self-driving car with a skateboard while another burned nearby.
Now, with both the National Guard and active-duty Marines on California soil, tensions between state and federal authorities are at a boiling point.
