US President Donald Trump called the protesters in Los Angeles "animals" and "foreign enemies" in a speech at the military base "Fort Bragg", the Associated Press reported, quoted by BTA.
He defended the deployment of military forces against demonstrators who oppose the actions of immigration services against illegal immigrants. "We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean and safe again," Trump added.
Trump, in his most aggressive statement yet regarding the protests in Los Angeles, used a speech, which was supposed to be dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the US military, to condemn the protesters, repeating his claims that the 2020 election was rigged and attacking the previous commander-in-chief, former President Joe Biden.
The Republican president, who sees the military as a critical tool for achieving domestic goals, used the recent protests in Los Angeles as an excuse to deploy the National Guard and the US Marine Corps over the objections of California's Democratic governor to quell the unrest that began as protests against immigration enforcement, the AP noted. Protesters blocked a major highway and set cars on fire over the weekend in Los Angeles, and demonstrations in the city of 4 million people were concentrated mainly in the city center.
“We will not allow an American city to be invaded and taken over by a foreign enemy. That's who they are,“ he said Trump.
He left open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a president. The law gives him the right to deploy military forces in the United States to quell riots or domestic violence.