President Trump told reporters Sunday he was heading to Camp David for high-level military meetings as violent protests over immigration raids continued in Los Angeles, prompting discussions of deploying troops under the Insurrection Act, The Hill reported.
“We’re going up to Camp David; we have meetings with various people about very major subjects,” Trump said during a press gaggle before boarding Air Force One. “We’ll be meeting with a lot of people, including generals, as you know, and admirals.”
He did not specify the focus of the meetings or whether any foreign dignitaries would be involved.
However, shortly afterward, Trump posted a message on Truth Social describing the demonstrators as a “violent, insurrectionist mob,” accusing them of attacking federal agents to halt deportation operations.
“Violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations,” Trump wrote. He said he had instructed key Cabinet officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, “to take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion and put an end to these Migrant riots.”
The president declined to rule out invoking the Insurrection Act, a rarely used federal statute that allows the deployment of the U.S. military on American soil to restore public order. “We’re not there yet,” Trump said, adding that he did not currently consider the protests to qualify as an insurrection.
The Insurrection Act was last invoked in 1992 by President George H. W. Bush to quell violence in Los Angeles after the acquittal of officers in the Rodney King case.
Trump said about 2,000 National Guard members had already been deployed to Los Angeles, which drew criticism from California state officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who argued the situation did not require military force and warned the deployment could escalate tensions.
Despite Newsom’s authority over the state National Guard, Trump took the unusual step of federalizing the forces, enabling him to bypass the governor’s control. In response, Newsom mocked Trump’s earlier praise of the Guard, noting that members had not yet arrived when the president commended their actions on Truth Social.
Newsom escalated his disagreement with the White House on Sunday by demanding that Trump withdraw California National Guard troops from the Los Angeles riots. Newsom declared on X that the deployment order was “unlawful” and urged the Trump administration to return control of the Guard to his office.
Hegseth said Sunday morning that Marines were prepared to deploy to Los Angeles if necessary.
Speaking to reporters, Trump described physical confrontations between demonstrators and officers, including incidents in which protesters allegedly spit on law enforcement.
“You know they spit, that’s their new thing,” Trump said. “And when that happens, I have a little statement…they spit, we hit. And I told them, nobody’s going to spit on our police officers. Nobody’s going to spit on our military.”
He added, “Any protester who spits on police or military would get hit very hard.”
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