Donald Trump has ordered thousands more troops to descend on Los Angeles, four days after protests first broke out in the Californian city.
His latest order sends 2,000 more National Guard troops into the city, as well as around 700 active-duty US Marines.
Protests broke out in LA last week after ICE, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, began conducting immigration raids across the city.
LA has a large number of Latino and foreign-born residents, and the city is now on its fourth day of unrest.
Read more: Shocking moment officer shoots reporter with rubber bullet during LA protests
Trump said that those who were protesting the immigration arrests would be “hit harder” than ever.
In a post on Truth Social, he wrote: “The Insurrectionists have a tendency to spit in the face of the National Guardsmen/women, and others. These Patriots are told to accept this, it’s just the way life runs. But not in the Trump Administration. IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT, and I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before. Such disrespect will not be tolerated!”
California governor Gavin Newsom has spoken out against Trump’s move to send troops into LA.
He said US Marines “shouldn’t be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.”
Newsom has also threatened to sue over the deployment.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, he wrote: “US Marines serve a valuable purpose for this country – defending democracy. They are not political pawns. 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!”
Related: Kamala Harris predicted how Trump would use National Guard