Trump tells soldiers 'we will liberate Los Angeles'

President Donald Trump used a speech honouring soldiers on Tuesday to defend his decision to deploy troops to Los Angeles in a confrontation over his immigration policy, a move critics have decried as a politically motivated over-reaction.

"Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness," Trump told soldiers at the Army base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

"What you're witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty, carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags," Trump said, adding his administration would "liberate Los Angeles."

Trump's visit to Fort Bragg, home to some 50,000 active-duty soldiers, followed his move to deploy 700 Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles in an escalating response to street protests over his immigration policies.

The Republican president said the military deployment was needed to protect federal property and personnel. California's Democratic-led government has sued to block Trump's move, calling it an abuse of power and an unnecessary provocation.

Street demonstrations have been underway since Friday, when activists clashed with sheriff's deputies. Los Angeles officials have said the unrest has been limited to a few downtown blocks and that the majority of demonstrators are protesting peacefully in support of immigrants.

In North Carolina, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took part in long-scheduled commemorations of the US Army's 250th anniversary, watching soldiers demonstrate a special forces assault and use a long-range missile launcher.

It was the first in a series of celebrations of the Army anniversary involving Trump, ahead of a major parade in Washington on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters earlier on Tuesday in the Oval Office, Trump warned against demonstrators at that parade, saying "they're going to be met with very big force." He made no distinction between peaceful and violent protesters. The FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department have said there are no credible threats to the event.

POMP AND POLITICS

The week's Army commemorations combine Trump's penchant for patriotic pomp and his political positioning as a law-and-order president. Saturday's celebrations in Washington include thousands of troops, dozens of military aircraft and coincide with Trump's 79th birthday.

The Army was established on June 14, 1775, more than a year before the Declaration of Independence.

During his speech at Fort Bragg, Trump led a crowd filled with traditionally non-partisan service members through punchlines he repeats at political rallies. He drew jeers directed at the press corps and cheers for attacks on efforts to embrace transgender service members.

He also announced that the military would rename a number of bases which were changed after racial justice protests in 2023, including reverting to Fort Lee, which was originally named after Civil War-era Confederate commander Robert E. Lee.

Earlier this year, Trump restored the name Fort Bragg to the base, one of the largest in the world, despite a federal law that prohibits honoring generals who fought for the South during the Civil War. His administration says the name now honors a different Bragg - Private First Class Roland Bragg, who served during World War Two. In 2023, the base had been renamed Fort Liberty.

Since launching his second term in office in January, Trump has made the military a focus of his efforts. The president's cost-cutting government reforms have largely spared the Defense Department's nearly $1 trillion annual budget. He has pledged to avoid international conflict while launching new weaponsprograms and increasing the use of the military domestically, including in immigration enforcement.

Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people who are in the country illegally and to lock down the US-Mexico border, setting the ICE border enforcement agency a daily goal of arresting at least 3,000 migrants.

Demonstrators in Los Angeles have assembled, among other places, at a government facility where immigrants are detained.

Though military forces have been deployed domestically for major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the attacks of September 11, 2001, it is rare for troops to be used domestically during civil disturbances.

Even without declaring an insurrection, however, Trump can deploy Marines under certain conditions of law or under his authority as commander in chief.

The last time the military was used for direct police action under the Insurrection Act was in 1992, when the California governor at the time asked President George H.W. Bush to help respond to Los Angeles riots over the acquittal of police officers who beat Black motorist Rodney King.