After President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles amid protests against immigration raids, Vice President JD Vance was called out for hypocrisy after calling protesters "insurrectionists."
California National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday morning, just hours after Trump signed an order deploying 2,000 service members in response to escalating immigration protests in the city. The order came after multiple confrontations between demonstrators and federal agents carrying out immigration enforcement operations—clashes that have resulted in over 100 arrests.
Protesters have condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents for raiding multiple locations since Friday, with crowds trying to stop agents from driving away after arresting people at a clothing warehouse. Another protest began after demonstrators discovered detainees were allegedly being held in the basement of a federal building. Other raids in the cities of Compton and Paramount sparked demonstrations.
Vance, with no sense of irony, responded to these events by writing the following in a post on X:
"Insurrectionists carrying foreign flags are attacking immigration enforcement officers, while one half of America's political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil. Time to pass President Trump's beautiful bill and further secure the border."
You can see his post below.
Vance's words show he and the larger Trump administration are once again trying to rewrite the script surrounding the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021—the day a mob of Trump's supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on the false premise that the 2020 election had been stolen.
The attack left at least five people dead and resulted in over 100 injuries to law enforcement as well as millions of dollars in damages after insurrectionists stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to stop the certification of then-President-elect Joe Biden's decisive electoral victory.
Upon taking office in January of this year, Trump granted clemency to all 1,500+ individuals charged in the insurrection, upending what had been the largest prosecution in Justice Department history, freeing individuals captured on camera brutally assaulting police officers as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of plotting violent efforts—including hanging Vice President Mike Pence—to halt the peaceful transfer of power.
Despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the administration and its surrogates have attempted to paint the attack as a peaceful gathering of law-abiding citizens—and people are not having it.
Vance was swiftly called out.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said California will sue the Trump administration for federalizing the California National Guard without the state's consent.
Newsom said Trump is "putting fuel on this fire, ever since he announced he was taking over the National Guard—an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act." He pointed out that Trump's executive order says the Trump administration "had to coordinate with the governor of the state"—only they never actually did.
Newsom criticized the move, pointing to a Truth Social post from Trump earlier Sunday in which the president claimed the National Guard had already done a "great job." Newsom countered that the troops "hadn't even been deployed yet," saying Trump's words are "Orwellian—simply lying to people, unconstitutional, illegal act, his mess."
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the decision to deploy federalized troops "is a chaotic escalation." In a statement, she said "the fear people are feeling in our city right now is very real—it's felt in our communities and within our families and it puts our neighborhoods at risk."
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