Fort Bragg: US President Donald Trump called protesters in Los Angeles “animals” and “a foreign enemy” in a speech at Fort Bragg on Tuesday as he defended deploying the military on demonstrators opposed to his immigration enforcement raids and as he vowed to “liberate” the West Coast city.
Trump, in his most aggressive language yet regarding the protests, used a speech ostensibly supposed to be used to recognise the 250th anniversary of the US Army to denounce the protesters while repeating his false statements about the 2020 election being rigged and attacking the previous commander in chief, former President Joe Biden.
The Republican president, who sees the military as a critical tool for domestic goals, has used the recent protests in Los Angeles as an opportunity to deploy the National Guard and US Marines over the objections of California’s Democratic governor.
Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire over the weekend in Los Angeles, but the demonstrations in the city of 4 million people have largely been centred in several blocks of downtown.
“We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy. That’s what they are,” Trump said Tuesday.
Trump’s heated rhetoric came as he has left open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, one of the most extreme emergency powers available to the president. It authorises him to deploy military forces inside the US to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations.
Trump received plenty of cheers from the crowd, which laughed at the president’s jokes and delighted in his dancing to his campaign anthem of “YMCA.” However, some members of the audience were uneasy with certain aspects of his remarks.
Robin Boothe, who voted for Trump and works on the base as an audiology assistant, said the speech was “classic Trump.” However, she also found it to be too partisan, especially his comments on Los Angeles.
“I thought that was better left for a news conference than what we were celebrating today,” the 50-year-old said.
The president called Los Angeles “a trash heap” with “entire neighbourhoods under control” of criminals and said the federal government would “use every asset at our disposal to quell the violence and restore law and order.” “We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again,” Trump said.
Trump authorised the deployment of 4,000 National Guard soldiers to the city against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
About 700 Marines were deployed to the Los Angeles area but had not yet been sent to respond to the protests. Jacob Vasquez began working at a clothing warehouse in Los Angeles soon after arriving from Mexico less than three years ago.
He is among dozens of workers detained by federal immigration authorities in a series of raids in LA’s fashion district and at Home Depot parking lots in Southern California.
Vasquez has a three-month-old baby, according to his family who spoke to reporters outside the Ambiance Apparel warehouse, a clothing company founded in 1999, and where the young father worked.
“Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,” said his brother Gabriel, speaking in Spanish during a news conference Monday. He doesn’t know if he’s OK, he later said in an interview. “We don’t know where he is.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass denounced the raids and the deployment of troops, saying Tuesday that the actions were aimed at intimidating the area’s vast immigrant population, one of the country’s largest.
An estimated 9,50,000 people in Los Angeles County do not have legal immigration status, according to the Migration Policy Institute.