It is the fight President Donald Trump had been waiting for, a showdown with a top political rival in a deep blue state over an issue core to his political agenda.

In bypassing the authority of governor Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, to call in the National Guard to quell protests in the Los Angeles area over his administration’s efforts to deport more migrants, Trump is now pushing the boundaries of presidential authority and stoking criticism that he is inflaming the situation for political gain.

Local and state authorities had not sought help in dealing with the scattered protests that erupted after an immigration raid on Friday in the garment district. But Trump and his top aides leaned into the confrontation with California leaders on Sunday, portraying the demonstrations as an existential threat to the country — setting in motion an aggressive federal response that in turn sparked new protests across the city.

As more demonstrators took to the streets, the President wrote on social media that Los Angeles was being “invaded and occupied” by “violent, insurrectionist mobs”, and directed three of his top cabinet officials to take any actions necessary to “liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion”.

“Nobody’s going to spit on our police officers. Nobody’s going to spit on our military,” Trump told reporters as he headed to Camp David on Sunday, although it was unclear whether any such incidents had occurred. “That happens, they get hit very hard.”

The President declined to say whether he planned to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act, which allows for the use of federal troops on domestic soil to quell a rebellion. But either way, he added, “we’re going to have troops everywhere”.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said “this is a fight to save civilisation”.

Trump’s decision to deploy at least 2,000 members of the California National Guard is the latest example of his willingness and, at times, an eagerness to shatter norms to pursue his political goals and bypass limits on presidential power. The last President to send in the National Guard for a domestic operation without a request from the state’s governor, Lyndon B. Johnson, did so in 1965, to protect civil rights demonstrators in Alabama.

But aides and allies of the President say the events unfolding in Los Angeles provide an almost perfect distillation of why Trump was elected in November.

“It could not be clearer,” said Newt Gingrich, an ally of the President who noted that Trump had been focused on immigration enforcement since 2015. “One side is for enforcing the law and protecting Americans, and the other side is for defending illegals and being on the side of the people who break the law.”

New York Times News Service