Newsom says ‘democracy is under assault’
California governor Gavin Newsom has delivered a blistering address against the Trump administration, warning democracy is “under assault before our eyes”.
Newsom said president Donald Trump was taking a “wrecking ball to our founding fathers’ historic project” .
This is a president who has declared a law on history, culture, science and knowledge itself.
Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists, they thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.
Newsom warned the situation unfolding in California was just the beginning.
This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived.
Newsom urged the public to become the “antidote” to the fear and division being sowed by the administration.
Key events
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Newsom says ‘democracy is under assault’
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Governor Newsom says Trump administration inflamed situation in LA
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LA mayor declares local emergency and issues curfew for downtown
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Images of anti-Ice protesters in New York
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In White House video, Trump rewrites history of 2020 protests with false claim Minnesota governor did not deploy National Guard
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Trump denies that he accused Newsom and Bass of paying protesters, hours after doing so in speech
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Protesters briefly shut down 101 freeway in Los Angeles
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In Newsom v Trump, federal judge declines California’s request for emergency order to limit Marines and National Guard
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In partisan speech at Fort Bragg, Trump invites troops to use his crude nickname for California’s governor
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Trump spreads conspiracy theory that Newsom and Bass ‘paid troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists’ in LA
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Trump narrates story of US army’s role in war of 1812, leaving out previous claim that ‘airports’ were seized
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Trump repeats baseless conspiracy theory that bricks were staged for protesters in Los Angeles
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Trump claims LA protesters bearing foreign flags as part of a ‘foreign invasion’
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Trump announces more military bases will have names changed back to original names of confederates
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Trump boasts of restoring the name of Fort Bragg to military base
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California asks for emergency order blocking Trump administration from using military to enforce laws in the state
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Local law enforcement agencies ‘saved the day’ not the national guard, LA mayor says
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LA mayor says a curfew is an option being discussed
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Those involved in violence and vandalism will be prosecuted, says LA mayor
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Trump says anyone who protests at Saturday’s military parade ‘will be met with very heavy force’
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Newsom says Trump did not call him after president says they spoke ‘a day ago’
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Kristi Noem attacks Tim Walz’s handling of 2020 protests after police murder of George Floyd
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‘When there’s no danger, they’ll leave,’ says Trump on how long National Guard will remain in California
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Trump on Insurrection Act: ‘If there’s an insurrection I would certainly invoke it’
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Marines arrive in LA area on Trump’s orders after quieter night of protest – NYT
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Trump administration to cut all USAID overseas roles and axe thousands of staff
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Trump’s deployment of troops to Los Angeles to cost an estimated $134 million, Pentagon says
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Hegseth says he anticipates military will remain in LA for 60 days
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Kristi Noem sought military arrests in LA but request was not granted – San Francisco Chronicle
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House speaker says Newsom should be ‘tarred and feathered’ over handling of LA protests
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Hegseth on decision to deploy troops in LA: ‘Ice ought to be able to do its job’
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Hegseth faces grilling on Capitol Hill for first time since Signal scandal and troops sent to LA
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‘The language of authoritarianism’: how Trump and allies cast LA as a lawless city
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Trump again defends decision to ‘send in the troops’
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The day so far
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Trump to address soldiers in North Carolina in visit with Hegseth
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Opinion: Trump is deliberately ratcheting up violence in Los Angeles
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Dozens arrested in California as other US cities protest overnight
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LAPD says marines arrival a ‘significant logistical and operational challenge’ without coordination
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Australian PM: ‘horrific’ to see Australian television reporter shot by rubber bullet in LA
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California governor says marines ‘not political pawns’
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Doechii criticizes Trump’s use of military in California in BET awards speech
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Trump deploys more National Guard troops and marines to LA protests
President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard in LA was “a brazen abuse of power”, that has “inflamed a combustible situation”, California governor Gavin Newsom said in a searing rebuke of the administration.
The Democratic governor’s remarks come after Trump ordered the deployment of nearly 5,000 troops, including National Guard and Marines, to the nation’s second-largest city.
In a 10 minute speech on Tuesday evening, Newsom said the situation had been winding down until the president got involved.
He again chose escalation. He chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety.
Newsom said he did not want LA streets militarised by armed forces.
We’re seeing unmarked cars … in school parking lots, kids afraid of attending their own graduation.
Trump is pulling a military dragnet all across Los Angeles, well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals.
His agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses. That’s just weakness, weakness masquerading as strength.
Newsom said Trump’s government was not protecting the community, but traumatising it “and that seems to be the entire point”.
If some of us could be snatched off the streets without a warrant based only on suspicion or skin colour, then none of us are safe.
Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists, they thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.
Trump’s decision to deploy the California national guard without his support should be a warning to other states that “democracy is under assault before our eyes” and they could be next.
Newsom says ‘democracy is under assault’
California governor Gavin Newsom has delivered a blistering address against the Trump administration, warning democracy is “under assault before our eyes”.
Newsom said president Donald Trump was taking a “wrecking ball to our founding fathers’ historic project” .
This is a president who has declared a law on history, culture, science and knowledge itself.
Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists, they thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.
Newsom warned the situation unfolding in California was just the beginning.
This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes, this moment we have feared has arrived.
Newsom urged the public to become the “antidote” to the fear and division being sowed by the administration.
Governor Newsom says Trump administration inflamed situation in LA
In an address, governor of California, Gavin Newsom, says Angelenos have been exercising their right to free speech and assembly in the wake of the immigration raids.
He says LA police have been deployed to keep the peace.
Newsom said Trump illegally deployed National Guard troops, inflaming a combustible situation and putting people at risk, which has started a downward spiral.
He said Trump is not protecting the community, but traumatising them.
Trump is not opposed to lawlessness and violence as long as it serves him.
To bring you up to speed:
On Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a curfew for the city’s downtown area following several days of intense protests against Ice raids that saw clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement, widespread vandalism and some looting, particularly during the late night and early morning hours.
The curfew will begin at 8 pm local time on Tuesday and last until 6am local time on Wednesday and apply to a one-square-mile area in downtown.
Bass told reporters that while vandalism had caused significant damage downtown, it was not a citywide issue, hence the curfew applying to a contained area. She warned people who do not live or work in the affected area to stay away or face arrest, should they break the curfew.
Los Angeles police department chief Jim McDonnell said blocking freeways and not adhering to dispersal orders was dangerous and would not be tolerated.
If you are in the curfew zone during the restricted hours, without that legal exemption, you will be arrested, if you assault an officer in any fashion, you will be arrested.
Bass again called on the Trump administration to end the raids, saying if LA was to be “peaceful again” the raids needed to stop.
LA mayor Karen Bass said immigrant families are afraid to go to work or school amid the threat of raids, which has broader implications for the community.
When you frighten immigrants, and they don’t want to come to work, you are hitting at the heart of our local economy.
LA mayor Karen Bass again called on the Trump administration to end the raids.
We don’t know how long these raids are going to go on, if they’re going to go on for thirty days – that’s what the rumour is. If we want to see our city peaceful again, I will call upon the administration one more time to end the raids.
LA mayor Karen Bass said widespread vandalism had caused significant damage to businesses in the downtown LA area.
So my message to you is, if you do not live or work in downtown LA, avoid the area. Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted.
Bass said it was important to note this was not a citywide crisis, hence the curfew affecting a limited one square mile area.
A police spokesperson said the curfew was necessary to protect lives and property.
LA mayor declares local emergency and issues curfew for downtown
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass has declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles “to stop the vandalism and stop the looting”.
The curfew will be in place form 8pm-6am and will be one square mile. Bass called on non-residents to avoid the area.
Bass will consult with law enforcement about the continuation of the curfew but expects it to go for several days.
Images of anti-Ice protesters in New York
Julius Constantine Motal
Marina Dunbar
Xavier is a 56-year-old French immigrant who has been living in the US for 25 years also attended the protest in New York on Tuesday. He is protesting because he believes Trump’s actions are pushing the country backwards in time.
“I’m here because I do not like what Trump is doing to this country. I do not like his immigration policy. I do not like his racism. I do not like he’s taking right away one by one, basically, he’s bringing America back to the 60s even further.”
Xavier is highly critical of Trump’s deployment of the military in LA. “Once he sent the military, he was provoking people deliberately. That’s what he wants, but it’s not gonna work in his favor. He’s making a strategic mistake. Sure he has the military, he has the police. But at some point, you will push people to their limits. People are gonna react.”
Marina Dunbar
Charlie, 36, protested against what he calls the “dehumanizing” treatment of immigrants by Ice agents in New York on Tuesday. Like many protestors, he declined to give his last name because he works for a company that he fears might not approve of his protesting.
“The people that are coming here for a better life are being treated like animals,” he said, wearing a Mexican flag. “Something needs to be done about it.”
Julia, 25, came in from Westchester county to attend the protest. “I’m out here using my extreme privilege being white in America, being born to white parents, and I want to use that to protect my community members, my friends, and just be here for people that can’t be here.”
Marina Dunbar
Councilmember Shahana Hanif of Brooklyn spoke before the gigantic crowd at New York City’s Foley Square, where a protest against Ice is underway. She criticized both the Trump administration and NYC mayor Eric Adams for the actions of Ice.
“Mayor Adams has made it clear that he doesn’t care about working class people,” she said. “He does not care about any one of us. He is collaborating with Trump to use tactics. He’s complicit.”
She also expressed her desire to keep New York a sanctuary city, speaking about plans to introduce legislation to strengthen NYC’s sanctuary city status. Hanif also called for more protections for international students.
“Stop the attacks and assaults on our students!” she yelled enthusiastically, and was met with thousands of equally enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.
Marina Dunbar
At the protest against Ice in New York City’s Foley Square, the turnout is easily in the thousands.
Shirley, a 29-year-old protestor, condemned the Trump administration for targeting workers, which she says is detrimental to the country’s foundation.
“I come from immigrant parents,” she said, with a large flag of Mexico draped across her back. “It’s very infuriating to see that this particular government is going into labor fields, taking people from construction sites, into industry, plants, into farms, and taking away what is the backbone of this country. So, I’m here today to remind everybody that the United States started as an immigrant country, and it’s a nation of immigrants, and I just want to make sure that I’m here for those who can’t be here today.
Shirley is not surprised by the large turnout at the march. “Once New York City is angry, everybody’s angry, and this just shows how we can all come together.”
In White House video, Trump rewrites history of 2020 protests with false claim Minnesota governor did not deploy National Guard
Twice on Tuesday, first in the Oval office, and then in his speech at Fort Bragg, Donald Trump repeated his false claim that Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, refused to call in the National Guard during the unrest in Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in 2020.
The White House posted video of Trump’s Oval office remarks, apparently unaware that Minnesota’s governor, himself a guardsman, had signed an executive order three days after Floyd’s murder, activating the Minnesota National Guard “to help protect Minnesotans’ safety and maintain peace in the wake of George Floyd’s death”.
In those comments, Trump falsely claimed both that the governor had waited seven days, and then that Trump himself had sent in the guard.
Trump repeated the false claim about Walz in a riff at Fort Bragg, in which he suggested that Democratic governors resisted using the National Guard to maintain order during protests.
Trump denies that he accused Newsom and Bass of paying protesters, hours after doing so in speech
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening, Donald Trump just denied that he had accused California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, of paying agitators to turn the protests in the city violent.
Asked about the accusation, Trump denied that he had made it. “No, I don’t say the governor and the mayor; I said, somebody’s paying them, I think” the president said.
But Trump clearly did make that accusation in his speech at Fort Bragg a few hours earlier. Here is video of him doing so:
Trump: In LA the governor of California, the mayor—they’re incompetent and they paid troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists, they’re engaged in this willful attempt to nullify federal law and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders pic.twitter.com/oxMjbNgKiX
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 10, 2025
Trump’s earlier rhetoric was also amplified on Tuesday by the department of homeland security in a social media video with the caption: “California politicians must call off their rioting mob.”
WATCH: DHS drone footage of LA rioters.
This is not calm. This is not peaceful.
California politicians must call off their rioting mob. pic.twitter.com/WHNPlzEJG8
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) June 10, 2025
Protesters briefly shut down 101 freeway in Los Angeles
Just before 4pm local time in Los Angeles on Tuesday, protesters spilled on to the 101 freeway in downtown, video from an ABC7 news helicopter showed.
About 100 protesters, several of whom were live-streaming video on TikTik, including a man in a Mexican wrestler style mask who calls himself Pink P, blocked both sides of the freeway before being quickly cleared from the major artery by the California Highways Patrol within minutes.
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A Los Angeles Times reporter, James Queally, captured video of the scene from the ground.
CHP has pushed the protesters back to the edge of the on ramp near Commerical. They took one person to the ground and have them in handcuffs, leading them away on the northern side of the 101 pic.twitter.com/nRwygNokVG
— James Queally (@JamesQueallyLAT) June 10, 2025
Lois Beckett
Back on the quieter side of the federal building block, a young man from South Central Los Angeles was selling a selection of flags to demonstrators, including a large printed mashup of the US and Mexican flags.
Mexican flags have long been a part of pro-immigrant protests in Los Angeles and elsewhere, and have also long sparked rightwing criticism, even though some Mexican-Americans say they are a symbol of pride in their heritage families and no different from Irish Americans carrying flags on Saint Patrick’s Day.
Trump has taken the criticism of flags a step further, saying earlier today that LA had seen “rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion”.
The Mexican/American fusion flags cost $20, and he had already sold two, the young man said, declining to give his name. He said he wasn’t sure who had made the flags, but thought they were probably made in China.
Lois Beckett
While most Angelenos are going about their normal days today, a few have shown up at the one protest block downtown to express their frustration at Trump’s actions.
Among them was Nora, 45, from Los Angeles, who came to demonstrate with her young niece.
Lois Beckett
Earlier this afternoon, only a tiny number of protesters stood in front of the Federal Building at 300 North Los Angeles, watched by California national guard members sent in by Donald Trump over the objections of California’s governor, a move California officials are arguing was illegal.
A woman carrying an upside down American flag strode up and down in front of the guard members, warning them that they were going to have to make a choice. “Make the right choice!” she called.
