When will National Guard leave Los Angeles? Here's what Trump, Hegseth said as immigration protests continue

As the Trump administration sent thousands of National Guards to Los Angeles amid protests against immigration raids, he stressed that the military would be there until there was no danger.

While speaking in the Oval Office, the US president was asked about how long the National Guard will remain in California.

“It’s common sense … When there’s no danger, they’ll leave,” he said, adding that “you would’ve had a horrible situation had I not sent them in”.

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that he anticipates the military will remain in Los Angeles for 60 days.

Hegseth told the House committee that he’s anticipating military personnel to stay in Los Angeles for 60 days to “ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we’re not going anywhere”.

The US president further repeated his claim that anti-Ice demonstrators in Los Angeles are “paid insurrectionists, or agitators, or troublemakers, you can call it whatever you want”.

Trump targets California governor

The US president said that he last spoke to California Governor Gavin Newsom "a day ago".

“I called him up to tell him he’s gotta do a better job,” Trump said, claiming without evidence that the governor was “causing a lot of potential death”.

Trump might invoke Insurrection Act

When asked about whether he would invoke the Insurrection Act, Trump said, "If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see."

He then called the past two days in LA "terrible".

Trump said he would “take a look at what’s happening”, adding that he believed there were certain areas of LA that seemed to experience where “you could’ve called it an insurrection”.

Earlier in the day, Trump defended his decision to send thousands of troops to Los Angeles amid protests against immigration raids, claiming the city would have been destroyed without federal intervention.

“If I didn’t ‘SEND IN THE TROOPS’ to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now, much like 25,000 houses burned to the ground in L.A. due to an incompetent Governor and Mayor," he said in a post on Truth Social.

The federal government has now deployed 700 US Marines to the LA area. Additionally, the number of National Guard troops has doubled to 4,000 to help manage the demonstrations.