About half of the 4,000 National Guard troops that President Trump deployed last month to Los Angeles to crack down on protesters demonstrating against ICE raids in the Democrat-led sanctuary city still remain in the city, LA Mayor Karen Bass said in an interview with ABC that aired Sunday. The Pentagon plans to remove an additional 700 active-duty Marines this week, according to the New York Times.
But the remaining military troops are still occupying the city, despite the fact that protests against the masked ICE raids and street kidnappings have mostly died down in recent weeks. Bass, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, has said they were never needed in the first place.
While the Los Angeles mayor didn’t go as far as we have in describing the occupation in LA as a two-fold Trump retribution scheme — acting on his regret over not deploying the military domestically to crack down on protesters in the wake of George Floyd’s murder during his first term, and seizing the opportunity to punish Democratic elected officials who enact policies that run counter to his agenda — she did call the continued National Guard presence a “reign of terror.”
“It did not warrant the Marines coming into our city with basically no real mission but just a show of force. Los Angeles is 500 square miles. The disturbances took place in maybe two square miles,” Bass said. “I’m hoping the military leaves because they were never needed here to begin with. There is nothing happening in our city now. There’s no protests going on, and when they were assigned here, their mission was to guard two buildings. Why do you need 4,000 troops for two buildings? They’ve had to leave their families, their jobs, their education for what? So that they could participate in performance art? That’s what was going on here.”
Over-the-top, performance art-like cruelty is a key pillar of the Trump’s second term. Much like the meme-level performance happening in Florida with the opening of “Alligator Alcatraz” — which is turning out to kill two lib-owning birds with one stone, threatening the ecosystem of the Everglades while also helping Trump show off how aggressively he is rounding up immigrants — the National Guard deployment in LA has done little but give Trump headlines to show him performatively flexing power over jurisdictions he doesn’t control (and which are controlled by elected Democrats). Aware of the political risks of conducting raids in rural communities where farmers rely on migrant workers to plant and harvest crops, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has largely set its sights on sanctuary cities and states, or college campuses it doesn’t like, as targets of ICE raids in recent months.
It’s about exacting revenge on areas where state and local officials dare to not fully cooperate with Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
And New York City Is Next
It appears the Trump administration is just looking for reasons to crack down on New York, which has famously held sanctuary status for some time. The New York City Council has repeatedly fought Mayor Eric Adams’ attempts to allow DHS to open an ICE office at Rikers Island, including suing Adams earlier this spring to stop him from doing so. Last month a state Supreme Court judge sided with the city council, indefinitely blocking Adams from reopening an ICE office at the notorious prison.
Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan is out today warning that in retaliation, the Trump administration intends to “flood” the city with ICE agents conducting raids. Per Manhattan Borough President and Democratic nominee for comptroller Mark Levine:
To be clear: ICE can and does detail people on Rikers, they just need a judicial warrant.
Want Homan is talking about is sending masked, unidentified agents into our streets to tear apart families and raid workplaces.
This is not about safety. It’s about instilling fear. https://t.co/un7HfEckw3
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) July 21, 2025
Retribution Against Journalists Continues
The White House has blocked a Wall Street Journal reporter from traveling with the press pool that is headed to Scotland for a trip with Trump to visit his golf courses this weekend. This comes as the Trump administration is suing WSJ for defamation after it published a report last week claiming Trump drew Jeffrey Epstein a gross birthday card and wrote him a poem about “secrets” in 2003. The reporter who was set to travel with the press pool was not the author of the article last week. Per Politico:
Tarini Parti, a White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, had been scheduled to serve as the print pooler for the final two days of Trump’s four-day trip to his golf courses in Turnberry and Aberdeen, Scotland.
But the White House, which earlier this year took over control of pool rotations from the White House Correspondents’ Association, removed her from the trip manifest, Leavitt said.
In Case You Missed It
Trump and the American People — Two Ships Crossing in the Night
What’s Next Now That The CECOT Detainees Were Freed?
How Florida’s Plan for Immigration Judges at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ May Violate Constitutional Rights
CECOT Family Members Rejoice and Worry as Relatives Finally Leave El Salvador
Yesterday’s Most Read Story
The Mysterious Roads of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
What We Are Reading
She Exposed Epstein, and Shares MAGA’s Anger
An alleged Georgia Ponzi scheme fueled far-right causes. Here’s how.
