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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Sunday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegses’ proposal to send Marines to suppress anti-immigration and customs enforcement assaults in Los Angeles was not a pushy approach.
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” Johnson was asked by President Donald Trump to respond to the deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles.
Trump said the mayors of Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles and mayors of Los Angeles will pursue a federal government that controls the California State Guard “will not do their job” to protect Los Angeles from riots and looting.
“I’m not worried about that at all,” Johnson told ABC host Jonathan Carl. “I think the president made exactly what he did. These are federal laws and we have to maintain the rule of law. That’s not what’s going on. Gavin Newsom has shown that he can’t do what’s needed there.
President Trump sends National Guard to make violent anti-ice riots erupt in Los Angeles
Officers are working to put out the fire during a protest in Compton, California on Saturday, June 7, 2025, after federal immigration officials conducted the operation. (AP Photo/Ethan Swarp)
Carl also asked about the message X-Hegs posted. He mobilized the National Guard on Saturday by the Department of Defense “quickly to support federal law enforcement at the Loss angle,” and “if violence continues, the active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized.
“One of our core principles is to maintain peace through strength,” Johnson said Sunday. “We do that with diplomacy and domestic issues as well. I don’t think that’s pushy. I think that’s an important signal…”
“Don’t you think it’s strong to send Marines onto the streets of American cities?” Carl intervened.
“We have to be prepared to do what is necessary, and I think the notification that it could happen has a deterrent effect,” Johnson said.
In response to Hegseth’s threat to X, Newsom said, “The Secretary of Defense is currently threatening to deploy active Marines to his citizens to their country’s citizens on American soil. This is crazy behaviour.”
“Mad = make sure your city burns and law enforcement is attacked,” Heggs fought back Sunday morning. “There’s plenty of room for peaceful protest, but there’s zero tolerance for attacking federal agents doing their jobs.”
“The National Guard and, if necessary, the Marines are standing like ice,” the Secretary of Defense added.
On Saturday, June 7, 2025, demonstrators waving US and Mexico flags during a protest in Compton, California.
In his first message on Saturday, Hegses said, “Rich mob attacks on the ice and federal law enforcement are designed to prevent the removal of criminally illegal aliens from our soil.
Generally, the US military is not permitted to carry out civil law enforcement obligations to US citizens except in emergencies.
Social media Trump administrators erupt over the LA mayor’s response to the ice attack: “You’re a criminal too.”
The 18th century wartime law, known as the Rebellion Act, is the main legal mechanism that presidents can use to activate the military or national guard during times of rebellion and unrest. But Trump did not invoke the Rebellion Act on Saturday.
Instead, the President’s memorandum is referred to as “To temporarily protect federal service members and National Guard forces under USC 12406, other U.S. government officials who are carrying out federal functions, including ice and federal law enforcement, protect other U.S. government officials who are either experiencing protests against these functions or are likely to occur based on current threat assessments and planning operations.”
The federal law cited in the memo allows the president to federate National Guard troops under three circumstances. If there is a risk of rebellion or rebellion against the authority of the US government, or if the president is unable to “enforce US laws” with ordinary forces. However, the law also states that orders for these purposes are “issued through the governor of the state.”
Los Angeles County Sheriff is standing guard during a protest in Compton, California on Saturday, June 7, 2025 (AP Photo/Ethan Swarp)
The National Guard is a hybrid entity that serves both state and federal interests.
It is not immediately clear whether the president can activate the National Guard without the orders of the state governor.
It is also unclear whether military personnel can be deployed.
In the Posse Comitatus Act, federal orders cannot be used for domestic law enforcement agencies, but troops under state control can. Federal law enacted in the late 1800s during the reconstruction period following the Civil War “restricts the authority to deploy US troops on domestic law enforcement reasons, except as expressly approved by the Constitution or Congressional law.
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Trump threatened to use the Rebellion Act at the height of the 2020 riots after the death of George Floyd, but ultimately he did not. He deployed federal agents in several U.S. cities, including Portland, where mobs violate federal courts, clashed with law enforcement officials and tried to target buildings more than 100 times in a row with Molotov cocktails and other projectiles.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Daniel Wallace is a news and political reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and to X:@danimwallace.
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