Daijiworld Media Network - Los Angeles

Los Angeles, Jun 10: In a dramatic escalation of tensions, US President Donald Trump has deployed thousands of troops to Los Angeles as protests over immigration raids rocked major American cities for the fourth consecutive day.

About 700 US Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops have been mobilised, marking one of the largest domestic troop deployments in years. The protests, which began in Los Angeles, have now spread to New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Austin and San Francisco.

The move has triggered outrage from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who slammed Trump’s decision as “a deranged fantasy of a dictatorial president,” and announced legal action against the deployment. “This is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism,” Newsom declared, accusing the president of acting without state consent.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman also criticised the deployment, saying only a “small fraction” of the population was protesting and few had broken the law. “This level of force is unnecessary,” he told BBC.

But Trump defended the decision, claiming that without the military, Los Angeles would have been destroyed. “If I didn’t SEND IN THE TROOPS... that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now,” he wrote on Truth Social. He further added from the White House, “We stopped it. I feel we had no choice.”

This marks the first time since 1965 that a president has deployed National Guard troops without a governor’s consent.

Meanwhile, Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, issued a stern warning to local leaders, threatening arrests if they interfered with immigration enforcement. “Every day in L.A., we're going to enforce immigration law. I don’t care if they like it or not,” he said.

As the legal and political standoff intensifies, the country remains on edge, with questions mounting over the use of federal power and the future of immigration enforcement in the US.