Can Trump have Newsom arrested for fiddling while LA burns?

A great American city is descending into chaos, and the leader most capable and concerned enough to save it is 2,500 miles away, sitting in the Oval Office. Meanwhile as they can see the smoke rise from their houses, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom are so desperate to see President Donald J. Trump fail, they would sacrifice their own constituents on the altar of political expediency rather than intervene to protect life and liberty.

For his part, the President has suggested that border czar Tom Homan was right to threaten to arrest Newsom. “You cross that line, it’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It’s a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.” But unlike Wisconsin state judge Hannah Dugan, currently under federal indictment for obstructing ICE, it does not appear that Newsom has actively enabled the escape of an alien or personally obstructed any law enforcement agent in the course of his duties.

President Trump is keeping his campaign promise to end the invasion of America’s southern border by illegal aliens, including human traffickers, narcotics cartels and criminal gangs, among others. Nearly 11 million people entered the United States illegally during the Biden administration.

Since the President’s return to office, in cities from Miami to St. Paul to New York City, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been rounding up illegal aliens in large-scale raids. On June 6, protests erupted in Los Angeles in response to the arrests of aliens with significant criminal histories including murder, rape, and child abuse. On June 7, President Trump activated 2000 National Guardsman to begin to restore order. Rioters in Los Angeles, some waving Mexican flags and wearing keffiyehs, hurled rocks, projectiles and concrete at officers; smashed windows; and torched vehicles to impede law enforcement.

On June 8, Newsom demanded that Trump rescind his deployment of the National Guard and claimed, bizarrely, that “We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved.” Meanwhile, masked protesters spat on and burned American flags, blocked major freeways, and chanted obscenities about the President. The violence, now into day four, shows no sign of abating. Local and state officials show no intention of moving to protect the citizenry. Indeed, Newsom has threatened to drag the President into court over the deployment of troops.

Nevertheless, and contrary to the claims of his political adversaries, the President can and should act in the face of immediate and ongoing danger to persons and property. The situation in Los Angeles also threatens the work of law enforcement agents and may poison illegal entry enforcement efforts underway across the country. President Trump and his Cabinet have at least three federal statutory tools at their disposal to quell the riots.

The Insurrection Act of 1807 has been used by chief executives from Thomas Jefferson to George H.W. Bush to quell internal rebellion. The statute permits the President to call up the militia (i) upon the request of the state governor; (ii) at the behest of the state legislature; (iii) as necessary to enforce the laws of the United States or to suppress rebellion against the authority of the United States.

Under Title 10 the President possess the authority to press the National Guard into federal service to repel a foreign invasion, suppress rebellion, or faithfully execute the laws of the United States. Section 10 authority does not require the active cooperation of a sitting governor. Indeed, President Lyndon B. Johnson utilized Title 10 authority in 1965 to protect civil rights demonstrators marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, unsheltered by avowed segregationist and Alabama Governor, George Wallace.

The Department of Homeland Security has power under Title 40 to protect federal property and persons on such property. While more limited in its application, this provision would protect the federal buildings and officers that have come under attack in recent days.

The President’s musings about sending in the marines would be more unusual, but again, not unprecedented, and again, not unfamiliar to the golden state. In 1992, Governor Pete Wilson pleaded with President George H.W. Bush to send in the military after the Rodney King riots upended all sense of order in Los Angeles. Under the Insurrection Act, President Bush deployed thousands of army and marine servicemen to join the National Guard in what was essentially a military occupation of a city spiraling out of control. Let us pray Los Angeles in 2025 does not come to that.