Last year, the LAPD put out an end-of-year report stating that homicides had dropped by 14% and shootings by 19% in Los Angeles. But these impressive stats didn't stop Donald Trump from deploying 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 U.S. Marines to the city — against the Governor's will — and today Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed the soldiers will be stationed in L.A. for months.
"It's 60 days, because we want to ensure that those rioters, looters, and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we're not going anywhere," Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Capitol Hill this morning. (See video below, posted by Aaron Rupar.)
To be clear, the "rioting, looting, and thuggish" behavior the former Fox entertainer is referring to since Trump began his immigration raids did not begin until the president unleashed the feds last weekend. Before that, the LAPD had actually praised the protests in a statement, calling them "peaceful" and "responsible."
And according to Trump himself, his military takeover is just getting started. "We're gonna have troops everywhere," he boasted, via Fortune. "We're not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden." And you can bet his devoted cult followers suddenly remember the last four years as a war-torn past that never was.
Previously: Deep state somehow forces Hegseth to fire his own allies, share war plans with family
