“Paid insurrectionists” are behind the rioting in Los Angeles, Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday as another day of violence prompted officials to make it illegal to enter the city centre at night.
The US president alleged that well-equipped “agitators” had been paid to cause chaos in the country’s second-biggest city, although he did not specify who was funding them or why.
He added that the 2,000 National Guard members and 700 US marines he had deployed to Los Angeles would remain in place until he decided it was safe.
Mr Trump’s intervention came on the fourth day of protests sparked by immigration raids, during which cars have been set alight and properties vandalised in downtown LA. Demonstrators – and journalists lawfully covering the protests – have been tear-gassed and shot by police with rubber bullets.
Violence and looting has has become such a concern that on Tuesday night Karen Bass, the mayor, announced that people would be banned from the city centre from 8pm until 6am local time.
Ms Bass said that an emergency had been declared and that a curfew was necessary to protect locals and businesses.
“Last night, there were 23 businesses that were looted and I think if you drive through down-town LA, the graffiti is everywhere and has caused significant damages to businesses and a number of properties,” she said.
“Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew and you will be prosecuted.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Trump described protesters as “insurrectionists”. Use of that term opens the door to the president invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act, which would give deployed troops the power to arrest protesters.
Currently, their role is limited to supporting police rather than directly participating in law enforcement.
“These are paid insurrectionists. These are paid troublemakers. They’re agitators. They’re paid,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“Do you think somebody walks up to a kerb and starts hammering pieces out, has all the equipment necessary and starts handing it out to people to use as a weapon? These are paid insurrectionists or agitators or troublemakers.”
Mr Trump added that the National Guard would remain in Los Angeles “until there’s no danger”.
“It’s common sense… when there’s no danger they’ll leave. You would have had a horrible situation unless I sent them,” he said. “You’d be reporting on a lot of death and a lot of destruction.”
Mr Trump’s decision to bypass Gavin Newsom by unilaterally deploying the National Guard has prompted a power struggle with the California governor.
On Tuesday, Mr Newsom said he had filed an emergency motion to block the president’s “illegal deployment” of troops in Los Angeles.
“Trump is turning the US military against American citizens. The courts must immediately block these illegal actions,” he said on social media.
Mr Trump had claimed to have spoken with Mr Newsom to tell him to “do a better job” – but that was swiftly denied by the governor.
“There was no call. Not even a voicemail,” he said. “Americans should be alarmed that a president deploying marines on to our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”
Mr Trump subsequently accused Mr Newsom of lying and provided Fox News with “evidence” in the form of a call log. However, it showed the pair spoke for 16 minutes in the early hours of June 7, rather than June 9 as the president claimed.
Meanwhile, John Fetterman, the Democrat senator for Pennsylvania, has criticised his party for failing to call out “anarchy and true chaos”, which have seen cars torches and shops looted.
“My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement,” he said.
White House sources have said they view the riots as a political opportunity that would put the Democrats on the side of protesters and against the views of the majority of Americans.
“We couldn’t script this any better… Democrats are again on the ‘20’ side of an 80-20 issue,” a person close to the administration told Politico.
“We’re happy to have this fight,” a White House official quoted by NBC News said.
‘You need to pass my beautiful Bill’
A Trump adviser said the government’s response was “what America voted for” in last year’s election, adding: “This is the America First focus that got the president elected and is driven by nothing else than what he promised American voters.”
Tensions have flared elsewhere in the US, with protesters clashing with law enforcement and being arrested in Dallas and Austin at rallies against immigration and customs enforcement (ICE).
Mr Trump is also using the opportunity to push his “one big, beautiful” tax-and-spend Bill through the Senate, Axios reported.
Republican senators are apparently being told by the president they need to pass the legislation, which is facing an uncertain passage through Congress, to release federal funds for immigration enforcement.
“It’s the best BBB [big beautiful bill] marketing ever. It has brought the critical nature of increased border funding and immigration enforcement to the fore,” said Andrew Kolvet, a spokesman for conservative group Turning Point USA.
He added: “Everyone we’re talking to in the Senate says this put it over the top.”
Stephen Miller, the deputy White House chief of staff and the architect of Mr Trump’s immigration policy, reportedly greenlit the raids on workplaces that sparked the Los Angeles riots.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Mr Miller instructed ICE officers to shift the focus from foreign criminals and “go out there and arrest illegal aliens”, to fulfil the president’s campaign pledge for mass deportations.
He reportedly directed agents to target Home Depot and 7-Eleven convenience stores, asking for a show of hands and asking: “Who here thinks they can do it?”
Officers subsequently raided a Home Depot on Friday in the Westlake neighbourhood of Los Angeles, helping set off days of protests.
Jason Carroll, a CNN reporter reporting on the unrest on the streets of LA, was led away by officers on Monday night with his hands held behind his back, even though he apparently identified himself as a journalist.
“I’m being detained… I’m not being arrested, correct officers?” he could be heard saying, as he was taken outside a security perimeter.
Mr Carroll, who appears to have been detained for under 30 seconds, said the incident was unusual because police normally “realise that the press is there doing a job”.
“You take a lot of risks as press – this is low on that sort of scale of risks. But it is something that I wasn‘t expecting, simply because we’ve been out here all day,” he said.
CNN said two of its security personnel were also briefly detained by the police before being released without charge.
Several journalists were shot by officers using non-lethal rounds as they covered the protests in the last few days, including Nick Stern, a British photographer, The New York Post’s Toby Canham, Lauren Tomasi, an Australian TV reporter, and The Telegraph’s Jon Putman.
Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, described Ms Tomasi’s experience as “horrific” and said he had raised the issue with the US government.
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