Oop, Gavin Newsom just caught Trump in another lie about his imaginary heroism in crisis

President Donald Trump has once again been caught rewriting reality to suit his narrative.

Trump took to Truth Social late on June 7 to commend the National Guard for their “great job” restoring order in the city, while lambasting California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as incompetent leaders. The only problem? The National Guard hadn’t even arrived yet, according to Newsom.

Governor Newsom, never shy about challenging Trump’s claims, quickly refuted the former president’s statement. On June 8, Newsom posted on X: “For those keeping track, Donald Trump’s National Guard had not been deployed on the ground when he posted this.” On Saturday, June 7, protests broke out in Los Angeles following immigration raids that saw over 40 people arrested. The demonstrations turned volatile near a Home Depot in Paramount, where federal agents deployed flash-bang grenades, tear gas, and pepper spray while protesters hurled rocks and cement at vehicles.

In response to the unrest, Trump signed a memorandum to deploy 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles. However, this move marked a rare and controversial step: Trump bypassed the state’s governor and activated the National Guard without Newsom’s consent. This was the first time since 1965—when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent federal troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators—that a president had unilaterally activated a state’s National Guard.

Trump’s decision to intervene unilaterally raises significant questions about the balance of power between states and the federal government. Typically, the National Guard operates under the control of state governors unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act, a law dating back to 1807 that allows federal troops to be deployed domestically in extreme cases of civil unrest.

Trump’s post on Truth Social fits a broader pattern of self-aggrandizement and misinformation. In his June 7 post, he credited the National Guard with calming two days of unrest, even though they had not yet arrived. He also blamed the violence on “Radical Left instigators” and “paid troublemakers,” a familiar trope in Trump’s rhetoric that often serves to delegitimize protests. 

Trump’s post went further, bizarrely banning masks at protests: “Masks will NOT BE ALLOWED to be worn at protests. What do these people have to hide, and why???” While the comment was likely intended to frame protesters as suspicious or criminal, it also reveals a lack of understanding about protest dynamics, where masks are often worn for safety reasons, particularly when tear gas is in play.