Good morning. It’s Monday, June 9.
- Third day of immigration protests rocks Los Angeles.
- Governor vows lawsuit over troop deployment.
- And another private plane goes down off San Diego.
Los Angeles protests
1.
A third straight day of unrest in Los Angeles turned menacing on Sunday as the city’s downtown was overrun by hundreds of protesters, some of whom set Waymo taxis on fire, lobbed chunks of concrete from a highway overpass, and taunted law enforcement clad in riot gear. Officers responded with rubber bullets and flash bangs that echoed every few seconds into the night.
The trouble began Friday, when boisterous locals confronted federal agents carrying out a series of immigration sweeps across the city. On Saturday, the Trump administration called in the National Guard to quell ongoing standoffs, despite objections from California leaders. It was the first time since 1965 that a president has taken such an action without a governor’s consent. When the chaos only deepened on Sunday, an enraged Gov. Gavin Newsom blamed the president. “We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved,” he said. Yet Trump vowed to go even further. “We’re going to have troops everywhere,” he said. “We’re not going to let this happen to our country.” L.A. Times | KTLA | A.P.
- Follow the latest updates from the L.A. Times.
2.
Stephen Miller, one of President Trump’s closest advisers, called the protests an “insurrection.”
Vice President JD Vance suggested they were an “invasion.”
Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, said he was prepared to send in active-duty Marines.
And Trump wrote on Truth Social: “BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!”
Trump and his top aides jumped at the chance to confront California, the New York Times wrote: “It is the fight President Trump had been waiting for, a showdown with a top political rival in a deep blue state over an issue core to his political agenda.”
3.
In a memo justifying his action, President Trump said any demonstration that got in the way of immigration officials would amount to “a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States.” Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, called the move “completely unprecedented.” “The use of the military to quell civil unrest is supposed to be an absolute last resort,” she said. Washington Post
4.
Other developments:
- Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the federal government to rescind the National Guard deployment, calling it “unlawful” and “a serious breach of state sovereignty.” His next step will be a lawsuit challenging the order, he said on Sunday. The Hill | S.F. Chronicle
- A pair of reporters spent much of Saturday in the area of the Paramount Home Depot, where video of clashes between protesters and federal agents provided the trigger for Trump’s National Guard order. There were rocks and bottles thrown. But the unrest, they said, “was far from widespread.” L.A. Times
- A man seen throwing rocks at passing law enforcement vehicles was added to the FBI’s most-wanted list. The agency offered a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture. KTLA | L.A. Times
- Australian lawmakers called on the country’s prime minister to demand an explanation from President Trump after an Australian reporter was shot with a rubber bullet while covering the protests. The Guardian
- The incident was captured on video.
- California’s Democratic leaders are suddenly tearing into Trump on immigration again after being chastened by his election win in November. “We were wrong on the border,” said Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat from San Diego. “But it is not hard to explain to average Americans why what’s happening here is unproductive. It’s so un-American, and it’s so cruel.” Politico
5.
A sampling of commentary on the unrest:
- When California asked for federal help after the January wildfires, Trump grumbled, wrote The Atlantic’s David Frum: “Trump is now forcing help that the city and state do not need and do not want, not to restore law but to assert his personal dominance over the normal procedures to enforce the law.”
- The New York Times’ David French said it’s too early to declare a constitutional crisis: “But each new day brings us fresh evidence of a deeply troubling trend: America is no longer a stable country, and it is growing less stable by the day.”
- The Economist: The deployment signals to other Democratic-run cities that “retribution awaits those who would stand between immigrants and the administration’s deportation machine.”
- The Wall Street Journal editorial board suggested Trump was itching to deploy the military: “It’s fanciful to think that raiding restaurants to snatch busboys, or Home Depot to grab stock clerks, won’t inspire a backlash.”
6.
A roundup of standout imagery from Los Angeles:
- A young protester with a skateboard dancing on border patrol munitions by Capital & Main’s Jeremy Lindenfeld.
- Scenes of the chaos on Saturday by the photographer Jesse Rodriguez.
- Powerful images by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David Swanson.
- An emblematic shot by Reuters’ Barbara Davidson.
- See photo collections by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and the Associated Press.
Statewide
7.
Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to withhold tens of billions of dollars in annual federal tax dollars in response to plans by President Trump to pull a broad swath of federal funding from California. “Californians pay the bills for the federal government,” Newsom wrote on X on Friday. “We pay over $80 BILLION more in taxes than we get back. Maybe it’s time to cut that off.” Scott Bessent, the U.S. treasury secretary, responded on Sunday, warning Newsom that he would be guilty of “criminal tax evasion” if he follows through. The Guardian
8.
Jobs at the Port of Los Angeles are down by half as President Trump’s tariffs choke the nation’s leading gateway for goods from China, executive Gene Seroka said in a new interview. Over the last week, an average of five ships have entered the port. The typical volume is between 10 and 12 ships. “They haven’t been laid off,” Seroka said of hundreds of idled longshoremen, “but they’re not working nearly as much as they did previously.” L.A. Times
9.
A small plane carrying six people crashed in the ocean a few miles off the coast of San Diego on Sunday. None of the people believed to be on board had been found by early evening, Coast Guard officials said. According to tracking data, the plane crashed shortly after taking off from San Diego International Airport en route to Phoenix. A surfer said he saw the aircraft come out of the clouds and descend “straight into the water. Full throttle.” It was the second private plane to crash in the San Diego area in the past month. S.D. Union-Tribune | NBC San Diego
10.
Since the fastest 400-meter female runner at California’s high school track and field championships had her title stripped away last month, she has collected a growing roster of supporters. Clara Adams, 16, was disqualified for spraying her cleats with a fire extinguisher in a playful celebration ritual. Among those demanding the reinstatement of her victory are Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, the Monterey County Republican Party, and the former Olympians Edose Ibadin and Maurice Greene. On Friday, civil rights lawyer Adante Pointer urged the high school sports authorities to “right this wrong.” If not, he warned, “Maybe you’ll have to listen to a judge.” KSBW | KTVU
11.
When ecological disaster hit Bombay Beach, the tourist mecca on the Salton Sea transformed into something out of a zombie movie, with crumbling homes and a shoreline covered in fish carcasses. But a ragtag group of philosophers and artists is now bringing new life to the town. They call themselves the Bombay Beach Institute for Industrial Espionage & Post-Apocalyptic Studies. Tao Ruspoli, the founder, wrote about their vision in the magazine Counterpunch: “In an America increasingly dominated by sameness—where homeowners’ associations dictate acceptable shades of beige and corporate interests flatten cultural differences—the Institute fights to preserve spaces where weird, wonderful things can happen.”
- See photos and video from the group’s “decadent” Memorial Day weekend party.
12.
A yurt resort near Joshua Tree that could double as a luxury Bedouin camp in Morocco; an Airstream resort with a 3,350-square-foot clubhouse near Sequoia National Park; and a new luxury camp with two swimming pools in redwood country along the Russian River.
Travel + Leisure updated its list of California’s best glamping destinations in time for summer.
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