S President Donald Trump endorsed arresting California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom amid the fallout from violent riots in Los Angeles, as the immigration-related protests entered their fourth day and spread to other US cities including San Francisco and Washington.
Newsom had earlier dared Trump’s “border tsar” Tom Homan to arrest him after Homan said nobody was above the law and anybody who obstructed immigration police from doing their job was liable for arrest, including Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
“Come after me, arrest me, let’s just get it over with, tough guy. I don’t give a damn,” Newsom said in a televised interview on Sunday night, California time.
Arriving at the White House from the presidential retreat at Camp David on Monday morning (Tuesday AEST), Trump endorsed the idea of arresting the Democratic governor.
“I would do it if I were Tom [Homan], I think it’s great,” he said. “Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing.”
Trump went on to say he liked Newsom, but that he was grossly incompetent, citing California’s beleaguered high-speed rail project.
He claimed the protesters in America’s second-largest city were “professional agitators, they’re insurrectionists, they’re bad people, they should be in jail”.
He took no further questions, including about Nine News journalist Lauren Tomasi, who was shot with a rubber bullet by police while covering the protests.
The White House declined to comment on the incident and referred questions to the Los Angeles Police Department, which said it would issue a statement later. Nine owns this masthead.
Later, when asked what crime Newsom had committed to warrant his arrest, Trump said the governor had the “wrong philosophy”.
“I think his primary crime is running for governor because he’s done such a bad job,” Trump said. “What he’s done to that state is like what Biden did to this country.”
As protesters clashed with police and set fire to driverless Waymo cars in downtown Los Angeles, the political firestorm raged over Trump’s decision to usurp Newsom’s authority and deploy the California National Guard.
Newsom and Democratic allies argued the decision inflamed tensions and turned what was a relatively small, controllable protest into violent riots in which dozens were arrested over the weekend. He also said Trump’s deployment of the National Guard was illegal, and vowed to file a federal lawsuit.
Responding to Trump’s call for him to be arrested, Newsom said it crossed a line that he hoped would never be crossed in the US.
“This is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism,” he said.
Trump, meanwhile, continued to defend his decision to deploy the guard, whose duties were largely limited to protecting federal government buildings.
In a social media post, he claimed Los Angeles would otherwise have been “completely obliterated” and that Bass and Newsom – whom he again called “Newscum” – should be thanking him.
Protests also spread north to San Francisco, where about 60 people were arrested on Sunday night, local time, including some children. The San Antonio Police Department said buildings and a police car were vandalised, while two officers suffered non-life threatening injuries.
In Los Angeles and other cities on Tuesday (AEST), union members marched to demand the release of David Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union in California.
Huerta was arrested on Friday as part of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation that prompted the protests. He was hurt in the arrest and taken briefly to a local hospital.
In Washington, a group of about 300 marched past the Department of Justice and FBI headquarters, chanting: “Free David now.” People carried banners that said:
“Tyranny or revolution” or “Is the Constitution dead yet?” and “They blame immigrations so you won’t blame billionaires”.
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Lisa Blyth, a 47-year-old from Fairfax in the neighbouring state of Virginia, held a sign saying: “We are all LA.”
“I’m afraid for my country,” she said. “Not so much because of the violence – because I feel like that kind of was inevitable – but I’m afraid of it not taking a turn for the better.”
“My hope is that if enough people can take a stand and not be afraid – be willing to face things like the tear gas and police – that hopefully we can make a change for the better and defeat this administration.”
Blyth said she was upset after seeing the video of Tomasi being shot with a rubber bullet by police. “It’s unconscionable that they’re doing it at all, but certainly against the press is an even greater escalation.”
