Kristi Noem Told Us She Asked for Soldiers to Arrest Protesters — Then She Backtracked

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to direct U.S. troops to arrest protesters in Los Angeles, before her department promptly reversed course.

Early Tuesday, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin sent an email to The Intercept in which she disclosed that Noem called for a dramatic shift in protest response by bringing active-duty military personnel into law enforcement roles.

“As rioters have escalated their assaults on our DHS law enforcement and activists’ behavior on the streets has become increasingly dangerous, Secretary Noem requested Secretary Hegseth direct the military on the ground in Los Angeles to arrest rioters to help restore law and order,” McLaughlin told The Intercept by email. 

DHS soon walked this back, asking The Intercept to disregard its earlier statement and stating that the “posture” of “troops has not changed.” 

“Please disregard the previously sent statement, and instead use this one,” wrote an unnamed official. “THANK YOU!”

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Over the past week, President Donald Trump ramped up deployments of federal troops — including Marines and members of the National Guard — to Los Angeles over the objections of local officials and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Those troops, however, have not been much involved in policing protests.

Experts say that active-duty troops should not be involved in law enforcement except in the most extreme and rare cases. These protests do not nearly reach that threshold, they say.

“Conjuring fantasies of a lawless city that requires military intervention over the objections of local officials is the oldest trick in the authoritarian playbook,” Sara Haghdoosti, the executive director of Win Without War, told The Intercept. “No one should fall for it.”

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On Saturday, Trump called up more than 2,000 National Guard troops to tamp down protests against his anti-immigrant campaign. In doing so, he exercised rarely used federal powers that bypassed Newsom’s authority. Days later, Trump called up an additional 2,000 National Guard troops.

On Monday, the Trump administration went further, as U.S. Northern Command activated 700 Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, assigned to Twentynine Palms, California.

Hegseth told the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee on Monday that he expected troops 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 military response is expected to cost $134 million.

Newsom is suing Trump and the Department of Defense for what he called the “illegal takeover” of the National Guard unit. “Donald Trump is creating fear and terror by failing to adhere to the U.S. Constitution and overstepping his authority,” said Newsom. “This is beyond incompetence — this is him intentionally causing chaos, terrorizing communities, and endangering the principles of our great democracy. It is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.”

Newsom also sent more than 800 additional state and local law enforcement officers into Los Angeles. “Chaos is exactly what Trump wanted, now we are sending in hundreds more law enforcement to pick up the pieces,” he said.

The introduction of the Marines risks violation of the Posse Comitatus Act: a 19th-century law barring federal troops from participating in civilian law enforcement. It is seen as fundamental to the democratic tradition in America.

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The Trump administration’s rhetoric regarding the largely peaceful protests in Los Angeles seems increasingly divorced from reality. “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,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday morning.

Though scattered protests have occurred across Los Angeles, national attention has largely focused on just a few blocks in Downtown LA surrounding a federal building. Even a couple of blocks away, you would never even know there was a protest and massive police and military presence if it weren’t for the helicopters overhead.

McLaughlin, however, echoed this apocalyptic vision in her initial statement to The Intercept. “President Trump and Secretary Noem will not allow American cities to burn to the ground and our law enforcement to be violently targeted,” she said.

In the initial statement, McLaughlin also offered up a litany of crimes as a justification for Noem’s request that troops arrest civilians participating in demonstrations in California. Many were property crimes, acts of vandalism, and even a form of protected free speech. “Rioters are throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at law enforcement, defacing public property, setting cars on fire, defacing buildings, assaulting law enforcement, and burning American flags,” she said in the first statement.

The updated statement, attributed to McLaughlin, referred to a letter sent on Sunday from Noem to Hegseth requesting that the Pentagon give “Direction to DoD forces to either detain, just as they would at any federal facility guarded by military, lawbreakers under Title 18 until they can be arrested and processed by federal law enforcement, or arrest them.”

McLaughlin’s revised statement said the “letter was sent days ago, prior to the Secretary of Homeland Security and Secretary of Defense meeting with the President. The posture of our brave troops has not changed.” She added: “This is a whole-of-government approach to restore law and order.”

The Pentagon had no comment on Noem’s request to Hegseth.