From PBS NewsHour.

President Donald Trump again defended his controversial decision to send National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles, saying he did so to protect police from a ‘vicious and violent mob.’
Trump made his remarks in a speech on Tuesday to soldiers and their families at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

"Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third world lawlessness here at home, like is happening in California," Trump said, to audience cheers.

Trump has sent more than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles, where protesters are demonstrating against immigration enforcement. California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and LA Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell have repudiated the deployment, saying local law enforcement can handle the protests. California has sued Trump, arguing he’s violated the state’s sovereignty.

Despite some acts of violence, the protests have been largely peaceful, and are contained to a few blocks in the city’s downtown, the AP reports. But Trump has been portraying the protests as violent, and claimed the city would be "burning" without his involvement.

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