Trump Says He Saved LA With National Guard and City ‘Wouldn’t Have the Olympics’ Without Him | Video

Donald Trump stood by his decision to deploy National Guard troops to Los Angeles last summer, noting his action helped the city keep their position as the host for the 2028 Olympics.

The president addressed the controversial decision during his sit down with Tom Llamas on “NBC Nightly News” Wednesday evening, where he praised the work of ICE and the National Guard under his administration: “We’ve done a great job everywhere.”

However, Llamas fact-checked this point, reminding Trump of his clash with L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom after deploying troops to the city amid anti-ICE protests.

“I saved Los Angeles,” Trump responded. “If I didn’t go in there with the National Guard, with troops, you wouldn’t have the Olympics — which I got, I got the Olympics — in Los Angeles.”

He continued: “We will do it again if we have to. And, by the way, we’re going to have a very safe Olympics and a very safe World Cup.”

Later on in the interview, Trump teased that there were five cities his administration was “looking at” to have a presence in. Though, he refused to specify which cities in particular.

“We have five cities that we’re looking at very strongly,” he noted. “But we want to be invited. We will sometimes call the governors.”

He added: “We’ll be announcing them very quickly.” Watch his full interview below.

Trump’s comments come eight months after he responded to protests over Los Angeles immigration raids by deploying thousands of National Guard troops, as well as hundreds of Marines, to the Southern California city. At the time, Bass blasted the move as an “inappropriate deployment” and a “misuse of our troops.”

Newsom expressed a similar sentiment, noting in a July statement, “The women and men of the California National Guard deserve more than to continue serving as puppets in Trump and Stephen Miller’s performative political theater.”

The governor added: “There was never a need for the military to deploy against civilians in Los Angeles. The damage is done, however. We, again, call upon them to do the right thing and end the militarization once and for all.”

“NBC Nightly News” airs weeknights at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

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