Trump Says He Took Swift Action in L.A. Based on Lessons Learned from 2020 Riots: ‘I’ve Been Here Before’
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, California, because of the inaction of Democrat governors during the George Floyd riots in 2020, which led to massive destruction in cities like Minneapolis.
Trump’s remarks came during an Oval Office press conference on wildfires and forest management.
“You have to remember, I’ve been here before, and I went right by every rule, and I waited for governors to say, ‘Send in the National Guard.’ They wouldn’t do it, and they just wouldn’t do it. It kept going on and on. Got worse and worse,” Trump said, referring to the 2020 riots.
“And in Minneapolis, that city was burning down for seven days,” he added, bashing failed 2024 Democrat vice presidential nominee, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), for his inaction during the riots.
Trump recalled that he had sent the National Guard in after the seven days and decided that if such a situation arose in the future, he would act much more quickly.
“But [Walz] wouldn’t call the National Guard, and we ultimately just sent in the National Guard. We stopped it, but that was after seven days, and I said to myself, ‘If that stuff happens again, we’ve got to make faster decisions because they don’t want to do it,’” Trump said.
“It’s usually radical left, and it’s usually governors that are Democrat, and they don’t want to call them in. They don’t want to save lives, they don’t want to save property, they don’t want to call them in,” he said. “I don’t know what it is.”
Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard to Los Angeles on Saturday, and on Monday night, he sent 2,000 more, as well as some 700 Marines, despite a rejection from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
“We sent them in, not early, we sent them in late as far as I’m concerned. But big problems, as you know, three nights ago, big problems were ensuing,” Trump said Tuesday. “If we didn’t send in the National Guard quickly, right now, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground.”
