Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton accused Democrats of using President Donald Trump as a scapegoat for their own policy failures, calling the blame-shifting a “total lie” in response to the escalating immigration enforcement crisis in California.
Hilton, running to replace Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, sharply criticized California’s leadership during an appearance Monday night on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” saying Democrats were falsely blaming Trump for chaos stemming from an ongoing federal immigration crackdown in Southern California.
“Of course, it’s not [true],” Hilton said when asked if Trump had escalated the situation by deploying troops. “It’s a total lie. Basically, everything that Newsom and the Democrats have been saying is a lie.”
Trump ordered the mobilization of hundreds of California National Guard soldiers in downtown Los Angeles, part of a multiday immigration enforcement action across the region. On Monday, he followed up with the deployment of 700 active-duty Marines to assist in the operation, marking the first federal troop deployment in California against the wishes of the state government since the 1965 Selma civil rights march.
Newsom denounced the move and sued the Trump administration for allegedly violating legal protocols. “This is a breach of constitutional norms,” Newsom told MSNBC. “They failed to consult with the state. We will challenge this in court.”
But Hilton said the blame lies not with Trump but with Democrat policies he called reckless.
“Why did this happen in the first place? Because of their insane, extreme sanctuary policy,” Hilton said. “As Tom Homan, my good friend, keeps pointing out, if you have cooperation with state and local law enforcement, you don’t end up in those kinds of situations that provoke this kind of reaction.”
Homan is the former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the first Trump administration and the current border czar.
Hilton said that instead of working with federal immigration officials, California Democrats refuse to cooperate as a way to please progressive supporters.
“They’re virtue signaling constantly to their far-left activist base — ‘don’t cooperate.’ You end up with this,” he said. “And then the minute that the trouble starts, instead of clamping down on it and making sure we enforce the rule of law, they just let it happen, and then it explodes.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has called the military deployment “intentional chaos,” saying the presence of federal troops is “a provocation and something that was not needed in our city,” according to CalMatters.
Hilton dismissed those complaints, saying Democrats are trying to blame shift.
“They need an excuse,” he said. “And, of course, the all-purpose excuse is to blame Trump. But we all know who’s to blame — Newsom and the Democrats who’ve run this state into the ground.”
Hilton, who rose to prominence as a political commentator and adviser to former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, has criticized California’s sanctuary state laws and liberal governance as a central focus of his campaign.
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