UPDATED with more details: The streets of Los Angeles are calmer today after a weekend of ICE raids, protests, police actions and Donald Trump‘s federalization of the California National Guard over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom. However, as Newsom sues Trump over his “illegal order,” the White House has escalated the stakes with U.S. Marines now set to arrive in the City of Angels.

Originating out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, the number of Marines seemed to be somewhere between 500 and 700, according to multiple reports. The nearly unprecedented, and perhaps legally unclear, move by the Defense Department will see the Marines join the 2,000 National Guard troops Trump deployed to L.A. on June 7. Though the Marines were put on notice on the weekend by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, CNN were the first to report the news of the shift in tactics.

Later Monday, the Defense Department announced that “U.S. Northern Command has activated the Marine infantry battalion that was placed in an alert status over the weekend.” They added: “Approximately 700 Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division will seamlessly integrate with the Title 10 forces under Task Force 51 who are protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area.”

The Marines and the Guard will be under the direct command of  Maj. Gen. Scott M. Sherman.

Scheduled to be in Los Angeles for up to 60 days, already 300 National Guard troops are in the city, mainly surrounding shuttered federal buildings downtown. Those 300 troops are from the California Army National Guard’s 79^th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, also according to U.S. Northern Command.

When it comes to Trump, the former Celebrity Apprentice host Monday insisted that he doesn’t “want a civil war.” For Trump, still smarting from his very public bust-up with top donor Elon Musk and his domestic legislation One Big Beautiful Bill Act at risk in the Senate, it’s all Newsom’s fault. “Civil War would happen if you left it, if you left it to people like him,” Trump said at a public event at the White House Monday. “And I like him, you know, I always got along with him. Never had a problem with him, but he’s grossly incompetent.”

From the LAPD chief to Mayor Karen Bass, Sheriff Robert Luna, local Congressional representatives and Newsom himself, no significant L.A. official believes the Guard, and by inference the Marines, are required to maintain order in America’s second largest city. Rallies to free ICE injured and incarcerated labor leader David Huerta, who is now facing federal charges, and new protests are picking up Monday with hundreds turning up in DTLA to make their voices heard.

One of the loudest outrages is that the administration seem to have abandoned their pledge to only pick up undocumented individuals with criminal records or who actively ignored deportation orders. As children have been held in the dark basement of the now graffiti-tagged Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, it is close Trump aide Stephen Miller’s demand that more arrests be made by ICE nationwide in the likes of Home Depots and 7-Elevens that seems to have been the impetus for these raids in L.A. and other Democratic-led cities.

As the National Guard troops protect primarily closed federal buildings in DTLA, the LAPD, the Sheriff’s department and other law enforcement have taken over the job of keeping protests peaceful, to varying degrees of success. As threats of more ICE raids and imprisonment in cells and basements circulated, it is unclear exactly what the Marines will do in L.A., except prove as a show of strength and intimidation by the MAGA White House, well-placed sources tell Deadline.

Even before the Marines officially entered the picture, Newsom promised he would take Donald Trump to court over POTUS’ federalizing of the California National Guard to quell protests against ICE raids in L.A. Monday, despite Trump calling the move to deploy a “great decision,” the governor has gone to the courts to regain control of the troops and the situation in the City of Angels.

“Donald Trump’s violation of the U.S. Constitution is an overstep of his authority,” Gov. Newsom said Monday. On Sunday, the two-term Democrat and longtime Trump foil called the Guard deployment “an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act.” In an interview on MSNBC on June 8 from a police meeting, the governor added that none of the protocols for activating the Guard were followed by Trump or Hegseth. “They had to coordinate with the governor of the state,” Newsom stated. “They never coordinated with the governor of the state,” he added.

In a statement from the California Attorney General office late on Monday morning, the actual lawsuit was outlined as being based on three main points:

As well as the lawsuit and a plea that protests remain peaceful as cars have been torched and rocks thrown in some instances, Newsom today took a swing at Trump for the treatment the troops already in L.A. were receiving from the federal government they’re serving.

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Donald Trump responded to California Governor Gavin Newsom‘s dare to administration officials to arrest him, with the president suggesting that he would support such a move by his border czar, Tom Homan.

“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. “Gavin likes the publicity … but he’s done a terrible job. I like Gavin Newsom. He’s a nice guy, but he’s grossly incompetent. Everybody knows.”

On Saturday, Homan threatened the arrest of even public officials who tried to obstruct immigration enforcement raids in Los Angeles. With protests unfolding over the weekend, Trump ordered the National Guard to the city, in what Newsom and others said was an overreaction that would inflame the situation.

As protests continued on Sunday, with scenes of some burning vehicles playing on cable TV and law enforcement trying to quell the demonstration. Disbursement non-lethal shots, flash bangs, and gas canisters were heard being fired over the crowd by the cops. 

Newsom was asked by NBC News and MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff about Homan’s comments, and told him, “Come after me. Arrest me.”

“Why doesn’t he do that? He’s a tough guy. He knows where to find me.” 

Trump claimed in a Truth Social post this morning that had they not called in the National Guard, “Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”

But a number of media commentators have noted the relative calm in the sprawling region throughout the weekend, which included the LA Pride parade and festivities.

Newsom has expressed alarm by Trump’s move to federalize the guard. The president’s order was not specific to Los Angeles, and it has generated warnings that it could open the door to future efforts by the administration to curb protests.

“They are trying to incite violence,” Newsom said. “They are trying to impose the kind of rhetoric that only makes conditions worse.”

“This is about authoritarian tendencies. This is about command and control. This is about ego,” Newsom said.

Newsom also said that the state is planning to sue the administration, as he was not consulted on the National Guard decision.

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