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President Donald Trump’s deployment of troops to crack down on protests against neighborhood raids in Los Angeles is going to cost over a hundred million dollars, the Pentagon has said — money that could have instead been spent on causes like wildfire relief, as California Gov. Gavin Newsom has pointed out.
In a hearing before the House Appropriations defense subcommittee on Tuesday, acting Department of Defense Comptroller said Trump’s deployment of thousands of National Guard soldiers and Marines just for the suppression of protests will cost $134 million.
This deployment is only going to expand, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in his testimony, threatening even wider use of the military to suppress protests across the U.S. He said that the Biden administration had overseen “underinvestment” in the military and border control — even though militarized spending increased dramatically under President Joe Biden, as it does under nearly every president.
“I think we’re entering another phase, especially under President Trump with his focus on the homeland, where the National Guard and Reserves become a critical component of how we secure that homeland,” said Hegseth.
The Trump administration has ordered about 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to Los Angeles amidst mass protests against immigration officials’ raid of the city. Hegseth said in the hearing that the deployment is necessary to “protect our agents” — even as immigration agents are often the ones spurring violence against Americans exercising their rights.
Newsom has been outspoken against the Trump administration’s attacks on the state, and slammed the cost of the raid.
“$134 million that should be going to LA’s fire recovery. Shameful,” he said on Tuesday.
Indeed, the Trump administration has cancelled and threatened to revoke numerous disaster recovery funds, including funds set aside for wildfire recovery and resilience. Trump has also threatened to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) altogether, calling it “very expensive,” even as the lifesaving agency costs just a small fraction of, for instance, the military’s budget.
On the other hand, Trump has said that he’s “not cutting 10 cents” from the military as he has pushed an annual military budget of over $1 trillion. And, as Republicans are claiming to target waste and fraud within crucial, life-supporting welfare programs, Trump is also preparing a massive military parade that’s estimated to cost $45 million in order to celebrate his birthday. He has also pledged to use “very big force” against anyone who may come out to protest that parade.
The budget priorities and rhetoric clearly show Trump’s priorities of inflicting vast, extralegal cruelty on the American public and mowing down anyone who so much as writes an op-ed in protest of that agenda. On Monday, Trump even said that he would arrest Newsom for opposing Trump’s raid of his state.
“[T]his is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism,” Newsom said in response.
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