As the Trump administration continues its mass deportation operation, residents of Los Angeles are protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) sweeps of their neighbourhoods, including in restaurants and retail shops. In response, far-right extremists and organizations across the country, including Trump’s political allies and white supremacists like the Proud Boys, are calling for violence against protesters, migrants, and journalists. They’ve demanded “kill these fuckers” and for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would authorize the military to use force against American citizens.
The protests, which began on June 6, prompted Trump to label protesters as “violent, insurrectionist mobs,” and claimed Los Angeles had been “invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals.” Trump quickly, and without the request of California authorities, deployed 2,000 National Guard members to the city after the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) declared downtown LA an “unlawful assembly area” on June 8.
As of June 9, the LAPD had arrested around 60 people. Law enforcement was documented hitting and pushing protesters when making arrests, firing rubber bullets and bean bag rounds, and even shooting one Australian reporter with a rubber bullet. In a truly unprecedented and dangerous move, Trump additionally activated around 700 Marines to protect federal personnel and property in the Los Angeles area.
Trump claims Los Angeles “has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals” who are acting as an “insurrectionist mob” (Source: Truth Social).
Trump is facing fierce resistance from Californian politicians, including Governor Gavin Newsom, who on June 9 announced a lawsuit against Trump, claiming he “illegally acted to federalize the National Guard.” The same day, Trump said he’d arrest Newsom if he were border czar Tom Homan, referencing previous comments by Homan criticizing Newsom. The city manager of Glendale, California, announced the city is terminating a contract with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to house immigration detainees at the Glendale Police Department’s facilities, citing that the contract “has become divisive.” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement decrying Trump’s deployment of the National Guard as “a chaotic escalation,” while “urg[ing] protesters to remain peaceful.”
White Supremacists Call for Violence
All of this has animated the anti-immigrant far right. Several chapters of the white supremacist Proud Boys, whose leadership were heavily involved in the January 6, 2021, insurrection, fantasized about violence against protesters. In one Proud Boys chat room, members questioned “where the Los Angeles PBs [were] at to counter the ICE protests” and “let Palintier (sic) use their tech to kill these fuckers,” referencing calls from far-right influencers such as Laura Loomer to “deploy [Palantir] to Los Angeles to deal with the illegals.” Palantir is a data-mining firm co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel that was recently tapped by the Trump administration to build a “master database” of people in the United States, including a $30 million contract with ICE to track the movements of immigrants across the country.
A Proud Boys chat group member says “let [Palantir] use their tech to kill these fuckers,” referencing protesters in Los Angeles (Source: Telegram).
One of the most vocal chapters has been the Proud Boys of Columbus, who on June 6 claimed that the protests amounted to an “insurrection” and called for “cops to get serious and start with the non-lethals at close range.” These incendiary messages escalated throughout the weekend, including multiple instances where they questioned when “lethal force [is] authorized” and asking if “feds (federal agents) will be hunting these people down for the next 4 years.” In one video shared featuring law enforcement firing non-lethal rounds at a protester, the Proud Boys of Columbus commented “Get rekt, f****t!” The same video was shared by other Proud Boys group chats, captioned “target practice” and “FAFO,” the latter short for “fuck around and find out,” a slogan used by the Proud Boys to call for violence.
Other chapters, such as the Legend Valley Proud Boys, based in Ohio, called protesters “low IQ parasites” and “knuckle dragging parasites” who should “fuck off and get the fuck out of my country.” In another message, they said “It’s time to activate the Rooftop Koreans to stop the looting and quell this LA chimpout,” referencing the Los Angeles riots in 1992 when local Korean-American business owners armed themselves and took positions on the rooftops of their businesses. “Chimpout” is a racist term used against Black and brown people, comparing them to monkeys.
Similarly, Proud Boys Ohio posted photos of “Rooftop Koreans” alongside Mark and Patricia McCloskey, who infamously pointed guns at Black Lives Matter demonstrators in St. Louis in 2020, captioned “Get the entire team together.” On June 10, Proud Boys Ohio posted a photo of a soldier in a gas mask carrying a bayonet, captioned “deportation is the moderate option.” The Hell Valley Proud Boys, in an ominous implication of violence, said “Come try that shit in our small towns” alongside the hashtags “#SmashACommie” and “#SmashACommieSummerOf2025.” Responding to a $50,000 reward posted by the FBI for information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of a protester, the Hell Valley Proud Boys said “50k to round up rioters who break the laws? Be careful what you ask for, liberals. 50k is a lot of Fun for Us 😂😈”
Proud Boys New Jersey and Fort Wayne Proud Boys posted an image of Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot three people during a racial justice protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020, captioned “I think I have a solution for Los Angeles.” The Republic of Texas Proud Boys shared a comic fantasizing about the Marines, who are being activated by Trump to quell the protests in Los Angeles, lethally shooting protestors.
The Legend Valley Proud Boys calls to “activate the Rooftop Koreans to stop the looting and quell this LA chimpout” (Source: Telegram).
Trump Allies Demand Violence Against Protesters
Trump’s allies have been rallying behind the president to escalate the violence against protesters in Los Angeles even further. On June 8, Donald Trump, Jr., made a post on Twitter saying “Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again!,” invoking the same violent imagery as the previously-mentioned Legend Valley Proud Boys’ post.
In a post on Twitter garnering almost five million views, Donald Trump, Jr., references the “rooftop Koreans,” insinuating violence against protesters as a solution (Source: Twitter).
Turning Point USA (TPUSA) founder and Christian nationalist Charlie Kirk advocated for Trump to use his “enormous power at his disposal to stop this madness” by invoking the Insurrection Act, which would grant the president power to deploy the military against its own citizens to “suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.” Trump has already labeled protesters as an “insurrectionist mob” and has frequently referred to immigration as an “invasion.” So, too, have several of his allies including Vice President JD Vance and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller.
Kirk continued posting throughout the weekend, making comments encouraging Trump to “bring in the troops” against the protests, which he called an “open rebellion to American authority and sovereignty” and “a show of force by an army of invaders.” During Kirk’s broadcast on June 9 discussing the protests, in which he called for troops to be deployed, Kirk used a chart depicting a racial breakdown of the population sourced from the white supremacist organization American Renaissance, saying “This is the great replacement theory,” and “You can see the white population collapse in L.A. That’s intentional. They’ve wanted it that way.”
The white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, often associated with antisemitism, purports to be a plan by “elites” to “replace” the white population in western countries with non-white immigrants. To be clear, American Renaissance is associated with neo-Nazis and white supremacists globally, including extremist groups in the United States such as Patriot Front and the Active Club network. At the AmRen conference in 2024, Austrian Identitarian Martin Sellner, a former neo-Nazi who masterminded the “remigration” policy proposal now being closely followed by the Trump administration through their mass deportation strategy, and violent Italian neo-Nazi Guido Taietti, were both speakers.
Charlie Kirk labels the protests, referring to the frequent imagery of Mexican flags, as a “show of force by an army of invaders” (Source: Twitter).
Anti-LGBTQ+ activist Chaya Raichik, better known online as Libs of TikTok, who has influenced DEI-related policy by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the military, relentlessly posted inflammatory rhetoric about the protests this weekend. In one post on June 9, she said “BIDEN IMPORTED A FOREIGN ARMY TO INVADE US AND TAKE OVER OUR COUNTRY. IT’S TREASON.” Labelling dissent or actions which defy the Trump administration as treason is commonplace for far-right extremists, most recently in their tirade against judges who have ruled against the Trump administration. In this case, Raichik appears to be accusing Joe Biden of treason. In the United States, the punishment for treason includes death.
Chaya Raichik says Joe Biden “imported a foreign army to invade us” and accuses him of “treason” (Source: Twitter).
Transnationally, Austrian Identitarian Martin Sellner, whose ethnic cleansing plan, better known as “remigration,” is being mirrored by the Trump administration, used the protests to further his agenda. In a video posted on Telegram, Sellner claimed Trump can “never win the city…in the foreseeable future” without “mass remigration.” As a result, Sellner says Trump “can be hardcore in his response and his cracking down of these migrant insurrections that are taking place,” and mentions that there are Americans who support remigration in the armed forces who can act against protesters. Sellner’s policy suggestion to the Trump administration, consistent with his remigration proposal, is to “[take] away the citizenship of people and then deporting (sic) them.”
João Antunes compares the Los Angeles protests to the Weimar Republic, which he claims “require[s] Weimar solutions,” with “solutions” being a euphemism for Nazism (Source: Twitter).
João Antunes, a far-right influencer based in Portugal involved with the far-right Chega (Enough) party, made a post on Twitter calling for the military to intervene in the protests, saying “THE U.S. MILITARY IS THE STRONGEST IN THE WORLD, BUT THEY CAN’T STOP A BUNCH OF ILLITERATE MIGRANTS???” This was accompanied by posts calling to “deport all 3rd world foreigners,” “America is a failed society,” and, most egregiously, “Weimar conditions require Weimar solutions.” The latter example refers to the Weimar Republic, the name given to the German government from 1918 until the beginning of Nazi Germany in 1933, as the country experienced political turmoil and violence along with economic hardship. The phrase “Weimar problems require Weimar solutions” is now commonly used by neo-Nazis to suggest we are currently in another “Weimar period” which putting Nazis in charge as a “solution.”
