Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) put the blame for the unrest in her city firmly on the Trump administration during an interview with CNN on Monday.
"If you dial back time and go to Friday, if immigration raids had not happened here, we would not have the disorder that went on last night," Bass said. "I will tell you that it is peaceful now, but we do not know where and when the next raids will be. That is the concern because people in this city have a rapid response network; if they see ICE, they go out and they protest. And so it's just a recipe for pandemonium that is completely unnecessary."
Bass said that Trump violated California's "state power and state sovereignty" by defying Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and sending in the National Guard without his consent.
Newsom posted to social media Monday, "This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted. He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard. The order he signed doesn’t just apply to CA. It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing. We’re suing him."
Bass said that President Trump federalized the national guard over an unruly protest that involved about 100 people.
"There wasn't a reason for this — that is the concern," Bass said. "And if there was, the way it happens traditionally is, is that requests are made on the local level of the governor to send National Guard troops. No request came from the city of Los Angeles. What has happened now is an entirely different situation."
Bass argued that the escalation "didn't have to happen."
"You know, we had been told that he was going to go after violent criminals. It wasn't a drug den; it was a Home Depot," Bass said of the ICE raids of day laborers. "It was places where people are working. So what was the point of doing this?"