President Trump railed against protesters in Los Angeles while taking questions from reporters at the White House on Tuesday, saying that some scenes could be described as an “insurrection,” when asked about potentially invoking the Insurrection Act.
“I could tell you, there were certain areas of Los Angeles last night you could have called it an insurrection. It was terrible. But these are paid insurrectionists. These are paid troublemakers,” Trump said.
Earlier in the day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth butted heads with Democrats on the House Appropriations subcommittee, declining to discuss the costs of President Trump’s use of troops in responding to Los Angeles protests against deportation sweeps.
Eventually, the LA deployment cost would be pegged at $134 million by a Hegseth aide.
Hegseth and Trump visited Fort Bragg, N.C., on Tuesday afternoon, a day after deploying hundreds of Marines and calling up 2,000 more National Guard members to Los Angeles, where protests have roiled parts of the city for days but were more muted Monday.
The Army post, home to the 82nd Airborne, put on a review for Trump and other guests that included hundreds of paratroopers. Trump then headed to a rally on the base.
Back in Washington, the House returns to start parsing the rescissions package sent last week by the White House, which would make DOGE cuts permanent.
Other stories of note today:
Democratic frustration reaches boiling point over David Hogg
Stephen Miller wages war on the GOP’s libertarians
Follow developments from these events and more right here all day.
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