Trump Says He’s Not Pulling Back on Military Presence in Los Angeles Anytime Soon

BALLASY: “Mr. President, will you be pulling back on the military? Will you be pulling back on the military presence in Los Angeles and in California soon? What’s the barometer you’re using?”
Trump: “We’re going to be there. Absolutely. If we weren’t there, if we didn’t bring in the National Guard and the Marines, you would probably have a city that was burning to the ground, just like it was a number of months ago with the housing. You would have had a big problem there. If we weren’t — in fact, the police chief said so much. If you look at what his statements were, he said, ‘We’re very lucky to have had them.’ If we weren’t there, that city would have been burning to the ground. We’d be burning right now.”
TURNER: “Mr. President, if this turns into another summer of unrest, what are you prepared to do, sir?”
Trump: “About what?”
TURNER: “If this turns — well, the protests have spread now to 16 cities across the U.S. If this turns — “
Trump: “Well, that’s what you’re saying. Do I believe you? I don’t think so.”
TURNER: “Well, I got that from the Fox News brain room.”
Trump: “I can tell you what we have. What we have a situation in Los Angeles that was caused by gross incompetence. They didn’t have the police to handle it. The police were asking us to come in. They were very late. We had to go in to save a lot of ICE officers, as you know, that were held up — they were holed up in a building, and they were being attacked. And the military went in, the National Guard went in and got ‘em. The police weren’t able, unfortunately, to move fast enough. We moved fast enough. And while we were there, we stayed there and we stopped tremendous destruction and death. We stopped death. We stopped a lot. And if you look at them cutting up and breaking up the sidewalk and getting it and using it as a weapon — did you see that? — with the curb, where they’re breaking up the curb, nice curb, and they break it up with a hammer because they couldn’t get the bricks in. You know, they got caught with the bricks, we have them under arrest. They were bringing bricks in to throw at our police.”