Attorney General Pam Bondi said Los Angeles “looks like a Third World country” amid protests in the city over Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Bondi appeared on Fox News Monday to discuss the federal response, which state officials said had dramatically escalated tensions in the city. Trump has deployed 4,000 National Guard troops to L.A. over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said that in doing so, Trump has created the very conditions he claimed to be solving. Trump ignored pleas to dial down his rhetoric and has instead blasted what he calls a “migrant invasion” and “insurrectionist” protesters.
Bondi faithfully echoed Trump’s hardline messaging on Hannity.
“What we’re going to do is we are going to enforce the law, regardless of what they do,” she said. “Look at it out there, it looks like a Third World country, and it’s not. It’s the United States of America. We are not standing for it.”
She said the Justice Department would federally prosecute people who assault state law enforcement officers.
“If California won’t protect their law enforcement, we will protect the LAPD and the sheriff’s office out there,” she said.
The Los Angeles Police Department said it made 50 arrests over the weekend on charges including failure to disperse, attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail, and assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer.
Bondi said nine people are facing federal charges in connection to the protests, “and more to come,” for offences such as assaulting law enforcement and looting.
Then she repeated a threatening catchphrase Trump introduced over the weekend, though she framed it as a warning about prosecution, not violence.
“As President Trump said: ‘You spit, we hit.’ Get ready. If you spit on a federal law enforcement officer, we are going to charge you with a crime federally,” she said.
Trump’s stance on the protesters stands in stark contrast to his approach to the violent rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in 2021, attacking law enforcement and damaging federal property. Trump in January issued pardons for almost everyone who was convicted in connection with the attack.
California on Monday sued the Trump administration over its troop deployments, calling them unlawful and unwanted. Both Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass say the situation was in hand before the federal intervention.
The protests began last week over a series of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across Los Angeles. California is home to the nation’s largest immigrant population.
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