WASHINGTON — President Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to stop rioting could last 60 days and is estimated to cost at least $134 million, the Pentagon revealed Tuesday — as House Democrats slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over his role in the mission.
Trump took control of California’s National Guard Saturday to deploy 4,100 of its members to halt violent protests against immigration enforcement raids. He also ordered 700 Marines to the area Monday to help provide security for federal buildings and officials.
Looting and clashes with police continued for a fourth straight night Monday in downtown Los Angeles.
“We stated very publicly that it’s 60 days because we want to ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we’re not going anywhere,” Hegseth told Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) during a House budget hearing Tuesday.
“We’re here to maintain the peace on behalf of law enforcement officers in Los Angeles, which [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom won’t do,” Hegseth added.
Pentagon Comptroller Bryn MacDonnell, who also testified, told Aguilar that “the current estimated cost is $134 million,” largely comprising “travel, housing, food, etc.”
Aguilar pressed Hegseth: “Mr. Secretary, what’s the justification for using the military for civilian law enforcement purposes in LA? Why are you sending war fighters to cities to interact with civilians?”
“Every American citizen deserves to be live in a community that’s safe,” Hegseth said. “And ICE agents need to be able to do their job. They’re being attacked for doing their job, which is deporting illegal criminals.”
Trump administration officials have highlighted mug shots and violent rap sheets of 11 suspected illegal immigrants nabbed in raids that set off rioting on Friday, but Democrats are emphasizing four workplace raids the same day, including a sweep of a fast-fashion warehouse that netted 40 workers.
The president argued that the rare federalization of the National Guard and deployment of Marines was needed to prevent rioting from expanding and spreading — likening it to the 2020 anti-police rioting after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin.
Hegseth noted to Aguilar that he personally was a National Guardsman during rioting outside the White House following Floyd’s death.
“As a secretary of defense who’s been in a unit holding riot shields outside the White House during the chaos of the summer of 2020, I know what it’s like to be immediately deployed into a situation like that,” Hegseth said when asked about sleeping accommodations for troops photographed resting on floors Monday.
“That’s a disingenuous attack that misrepresents how much we care about our troops and what they’re doing to defend ICE agents,” the defense secretary responded to Aguilar.
California’s state government filed a lawsuit Monday accusing Trump of violating its 10th Amendment rights by federalizing the National Guard.
“Los Angeles was under siege until we got there,” Trump declared Tuesday during a discussion with reporters in the Oval Office.
“The police were unable to handle it. You could speak to the chief. He said it on television three nights ago. He said this is more than we can handle … If we didn’t send in the National Guard quickly, right now Los Angeles would be burning to the ground.”
The estimated $134 million cost of Trump’s operation is significantly less than the historical costs of wide-scale rioting. For example, the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, which resulted in 63 deaths, caused an estimated $800 million in damage ($1.84 billion when adjusted for inflation) — topped only by the 2020 rioting following Floyd’s death, which brought in a national tab of more than $2 billion.
Trump wrote Tuesday morning on Truth Social that “[i]f I didn’t ‘SEND IN THE TROOPS’ to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now, much like 25,000 houses burned to the ground in L.A. due to an incompetent Governor and Mayor [during wildfires in January].”
Hegseth’s first oversight hearing on Capitol Hill since his dramatic confirmation battle in January was relatively sedate.
In one of the few other contentious moments, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) lashed out at the Pentagon leader over a lack of details on the Navy’s progress on building submarines, to which Congress appropriated $5.7 million in December.
“The Navy advised members that these funds were required to be placed on contract by February of 2025 yet the department did not put funding for the two additional (submarines) on contract until April 30,” she said. “Do you have a plan for making the investments necessary to ramp up submarine production to the necessary elections?”
Hegseth said he “fully acknowledged the investment this committee has made in shipbuilding,” but said the Biden administration “squandered a lot of that.”
“I want your plan!” DeLauro yelled in response.
“I’ve had difficulties with the prior administration, and I don’t mind calling them out. What is your plan for the future?” she said. “Can we get that in writing and on paper so that we know where you’re going? Because we don’t have anything today. We have zip, nada.”
