Democratic rep hits Trump over LA protests: He ‘wanted this fight’

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) on Tuesday slammed President Trump over the recent immigration protests in Los Angeles, saying the president “wanted this fight.”

“He wanted to focus on immigration and crime enforcement to distract attention away from the problems that his reconciliation bill is [having],” Smith told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead.” 

“You know, the bill that’s going to knock like 12 million people off of health care and balloon the deficit by $2.5 trillion,” he added. “I think President Trump wanted this fight, and I think he picked it.”

Both California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have clashed with the president over his recent intervention amid immigration protests in the Los Angeles area.

Bass slammed Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in her city as a “chaotic escalation” in a Sunday message to Los Angeles residents.

“What we’re seeing in our city is chaos provoked by the Trump Administration,” Bass said in her message.

“When you raid Home Depots and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans through our streets, you cause fear and panic,” she added. “And deployment of federalized troops on the heels of raids is a chaotic escalation.”

Newsom has been firing off posts on the social platform X, taking swings against Trump and his administration in recent days.

“The violent riots in support of criminal illegal aliens in Los Angeles just highlight why we need President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill. It will ensure law enforcement officers have the resources necessary to keep the President’s promise to remove illegal aliens from the country,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an email to The Hill.

Updated at 4:02 p.m. EDT