United States: President Donald Trump ordered hundreds of Marines to the Los Angeles area on Tuesday since he has also activated 4,000 members of the National Guard to bat down the protests there despite California Governor Gavin Newsom saying he believes the deployments are influenced by politics.
Since the beginning of Friday’s raids by the Trump administration, there have been many days of protests in the city.
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Officials in the state called Trump’s response an extreme exaggeration for the mostly calm protests going on.
An official revealed that as many as 700 Marines were waiting for orders to go to locations revealed by senior administration officials.
The Marines cannot arrest people, and their role is to safeguard federal buildings and staff, leaders of the military say, Reuters reported.
On Tuesday, around 2,100 Guard members were there, and more are still being sent, according to the official.
This senior Pentagon official stated on Tuesday that the expected cost of troop deployment is USD 134 million.
Bryn MacDonnell, in charge of the Pentagon’s comptroller duties, said lawmakers that travel, housing, and food were elements in the cost.
“Think of how much veteran nutrition assistance and housing (the Trump administration) could be providing instead of dishonoring these troops using them as pawns,” as per Newsom’s post on X, referring to the deployments’ cost, as Reuters reported.
She repeated at the press conference that only a few downtown blocks have been the scene of protests.